All is transient
 Vaya dhamma samkhara, appamadena sampadetha – ‘Impermanent are all
compounded things. Work out your deliverance with mindfulness’.
The Pali stanza quoted is the last pronouncement of the Buddha as he
lay dying between two sal trees in Kusinara. (It may be worded different
in other texts; I quote Ven Piyadassi Thera in Spectrum of Buddhism).
With the profound truth that everything is impermanent, the Buddha’s
very last thought was the benefit of his followers.
Homage to Ven Sobhitha Thera
Menika has just returned from paying her respects to the Most Ven
Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera in his temple in Kotte, this Wednesday
morning. She hardly cries at funerals except if it is of a very near and
dear relative or friend. But paying respect on bended knee to this
Mighty Monk, Menika had tears filling her eyes. Tears not so much of
sorrow and regret, but of deep gratitude and appreciation that such a
human lived to be a monk and a leader of the country along a better
path. Sorrow, yes, because the monk was really not old enough to die and
not at all diminished in mind and spirit. Regret, because he could have
lived much longer. Gratitude, because here was an excellent preacher and
leader of people towards the Buddha’s prescribed Path and thus concerned
about the individual person’s spiritual well-being. Appreciation,
because here was a monk who stepped out onto dangerous ground for the
sake of all our people; so concerned about this country of ours that was
deteriorating fast morally.
Controversies
There are those who say that Buddhist monks should stay in their
temples or kutis in meditation seeking their own deliverance and
secondarily, to help their dayakas and dayakis on the Path to
deliverance. This feline scorns such nonsense. From the time of our
kings, the Sangha has played an important role of adviser and even
critic. The Sangha were best for this as monks had no vested interest in
temporal power, and were wise and far thinking with the four qualities
of universal kindness, sympathy, joy in another’s well-being and
equanimity strong in them. There are monks who renounce lay life
completely, even contact with other humans. They then go to the forest
or to monasteries that cut them away from humanity and give them the
peace, quiet and bare necessities of food, shelter, medicines so they
concentrate undistracted on attaining the Higher States.
But those monks who see things as they are, are unbiased, have the
welfare of the people of the land as their concern, should be seen and
heard and given the opportunity to advice, even play the role of leader.
Such a monk was Ven Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera, who came forward to
save the country, yes, save the country from corruption, nepotism, the
menace of freely available drugs, crudity, lies and moving far from
religion, whatever the religion.
So he led the change that we saw on January 8 and later in August.
People who were not sure whether to vote for the man who said he saved
the country by winning the war or the suddenly emergent politician who
promised a corruption-free government and the curtailing of the powers
of the presidency before abolishing the too powerful executive
presidency, were definitely helped to vote for the latter by the
conviction and power of persuasion of Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera’s crusade
for cleaning out politics.
Those who had decided to vote in Maithripala Sirisena were convinced
they were doing right by listening to the monk’s impassioned cry for
clean politics and honest politicians. Here we come to a terrible
obstacle that people said disheartened Ven Sobitha.Things were not going
as he envisaged. He did not broadcast his disapproval but we are sure he
was appalled by the bringing into Parliament and into the Cabinet itself
of persons who were defeated at the polls.
Change
A grandniece of this cat came visiting and said she saw disgraceful
comments made on Facebook where an idiot (cannot be anything less than a
crass bigot) said he was shedding not a single tear. The monk was
criticized too. Some whisperingly wondered whether he was sent to his
death. The monk was supposed to have delayed medical treatment since he
was busy with meetings and such like.
This feline remembers the monk in his younger days preaching bana
with such earnestness in his particular diction of stressing certain
sounds. She was so glad he moved into the political field and spoke with
equal fervour for cleaning up politics and thus Sri Lankan society.
The sense of peace we enjoy today and the feeling of security we are
comfortable in, is due in the largest measure to what Ven Sobitha did,
starting around the middle of 2014. The present President and Prime
Minister owe the positions they hold to Ven Sobitha in large measure
since he guided us to vote for change.
Change we got, but who thought the change would include his premature
departure from this life. But that too we have been taught by him and
other shining beacons in the Sangha that life is, like all else,
impermanent; change is inevitable; and death comes to all according to
one’s past karma.
Menika went to Naga Vihare to pay her respects with an old domestic
of hers. She saw a long queue waiting silently to enter the temple. She
thought she would appeal to enter without waiting in the queue, which
her domestic could not have borne.
The police and army personnel who were on duty were so very
considerate and kind. They guided the two women to enter with no long
wait. Their compassion and loosening a strand in crowd control to allow
a woman in who otherwise would have had to go away disappointed was
greatly appreciated. Ven Sobitha’s compassion and goodness was evident
in their generosity of spirit. Menika noticed the diverse people who
with sadness written on their faces, many shedding tears, paid respect
to the monk: little children from a kindergarten; a group of Muslim
youth in long white shervanis and white skull caps; fashionable ladies
and the old; rich and poor. Christians whom Menika knows, shed tears
when they heard Ven Maduluwawe Sobhitha had died in spite of his being
rushed for medical treatment to Singapore.
We don’t need to say ‘May he attain Nibbana’. That’s for sure. What
we pray is that his samsaric journey be very short. And we pray that
what he stood for, what he fought for verbally, will be respected by the
present government and re-instituted. They know what he strove for:
mainly honesty, discipline, the restoration of the rule of law and a
better Sri Lanka. - Menika |
