A life spent in meditation

Clad in deep brown robes the monastic Bhikkhus walk in single file, composed, silent, and sedate. There is beauty in this simple task, a kind of tranquility and harmony that is in sync with the forest surroundings. With alms bowl in hand, the monks make their way towards the ‘Dana Salawa’ (alms hall) where the devotees wait in postures of piety, head bowed, hands clasped.

The scene is near surreal. Some of the male devotees wash the feet of the Bhikkhus while the others serve the ‘dana’ all the while chanting “Sadu, Sadu.”

In silent procession, the Bhikkhus retire to another alms hall a little distance away, sit down and prepare to partake of the food they just received. A sole brown robed figure stays behind in the ‘Dana Salawa’ to confer merit on the devotees who served alms.

Daily routine

This is a moment in the daily routine of the Bhikkhus of the Bodhinagala forest hermitage.

Nestling on the bank of the Kalu Ganga, near the Dobagaskanda hill in the outskirts of Ingiriya, the Bodhinagala hermitage lies beneath the leafy canopy of a rain forest reservation extending over 347 hectares. The natural rain forest shields the hermitage from the outside world, providing picture perfect serenity for the meditating Bhikkhus.

When I was a school boy in Botalegama, an adjoining village of Dombagaskanda, I used to hear the reverberation of Hevissi sound from the Bodhinagala forest hermitage in the early hours of the morning and evening. In those days, I had a fixed lens small camera and used to visit the hermitage to shoot the daily life in the hermitage. Each time I visited the hermitage I used to see one Bhikkhu, slender in build and fair in complexion, always walking in front of the group of Bhikkhus when they moved towards the alms hall. That was in the 1980s. However, during my recent visit to the hermitage, I decided to talk to this lone Bhikkhu and find out more about his life.

Up a stone pathway is his kuti (hut), furnished with a narrow bed, table and a low stool. The walls are adorned with pictures of the Buddha. The Kuti is surrounded by huge trees, which provide both ample shade and a sense of absolute calm. The silence of this serene scene is occasionally broken by the sound of a hornbill or monkey.

The Bhikkhu, 67-year-old Ven. Thibbotugoda Rahula, who has been living in the Bodhinagala forest hermitage since 1966, is the most senior resident of the hermitage. Welcoming me to his humble abode, he recounts the extraordinary story of journey to the hermitage and a life spent in meditation.

History

The history of the Bodhinagala forest hermitage goes back to the early 1950s. Ven. Olaboduwe Sri Revatha Dammakirthi Thera, a pious Buddhist monk and the principal of the Dharmadeepa Vippassana Piriwena in Kaluwamodara in Aluthgama was the founder of the hermitage. He came to Ingiriya to observe Vas on the invitation of devotees in the Raigam Korale. After the Vas season was over, the Bhikkhu prepared to go back, but the devotees persuaded him to stay permanently. The Bhikkhu with the help of a few villagers visited the thick forest of Dombagaskanda and at first sight, realized it was ideal for a forest hermitage.

The villagers and devotees in the Raigam Korale constructed the Kutis and other buildings in the Dobagaskanda forest and on June 4, 1955, the complete hermitage of Bodhinagala was offered to the Sanga. Initially, five Bhikkhus lived in the small Kuti (hut) in five acres of forest and later, it was expanded to 50 acres. Today, this hermitage has numerous constructions including Kutis, meditative walkways and medical halls, linked together and developed as a reputed forest hermitage in the country with around 15 resident Bhikkhus.

Born to a Buddhist farming family in Thibbotugoda in Horana in 1948, Somawardena Kaluarachchi, as he was then known, had his primary education at the Welikala Primary School in Pokunuwita. From there he joined Sri Palee Collage, Horana, and continued till ordinary level education. When Somawardena Kaluarachchi was a small boy, he used to frequently visit his grandmother’s house next door, because of the plethora of books available there. Among the books he most liked to read were Buddhist Jathaka stories.

Ven. Thibbotugoda Rahula washes his bowl after the midday meal (Dana)

Ven. Thibbotugoda Rahula feeds dogs at the hermitage.

Ven. Thibbotugoda Rahula in a pensive mood at his Kuti.

Being the only son in a family eight, his father gave everything for him. They had large acres of paddy lands, so they were fairly well to do. He went to school by bullock-cart owned by his father.

He studied up to the ordinary level, and dropped out, opting to study the Buddhist doctrine and enter the Bhikkhuhood. He had always associated with the village temple where he had learnt a lot about Buddhism.

“Soon I began to read more Buddhist books and I found myself being interested in the forest hermitage in Ingiriya. One day, I visited the hermitage with my father and met the Chief Monk. I told him I would like to enter the Bhikkhuhood. My parent gave permission for me to be a Bhikkhu,” once called Somawardena recalls while sitting on a stone slab in front of his humble Kuti.

His dreams were realized in 1966, when at the age of 19 he was ordained as Thibbotugoda Rahula under the guidance of Ven. Olaboduwe Dammakirthi Thera, the Chief Incumbent of the Bodhinagala hermitage. He lived in the hermitage as a samanera for several years, studying meditation practices with five Bhikkhus, before he attained Upasampadha in 1971 at the Asgiriya Temple in Kandy.

“Soon I became a Bhikkhu of the hermitage. I was provided everything I wanted as a Bhikkhu. Devotees gifted robes. My family members and relatives come to see me time to time. Even today, my sisters who are old now, visit me regularly,” he says.

Organized timetable

Since becoming a monastic Bhikkhu, Ven. Rahula has an organized timetable for daily routine in for meditation, study and worship, which usually lasts until 10 p.m. insight meditation, usually sitting still last for one and a half to two hours, twice a day. The daily program also includes a few domestic duties, with priority being given to personal cleanliness. So the hermitage timetable includes a daily bath, which is a must unless otherwise indisposed.

In the past forty years, Ven. Rahula has spent his monastic life practicing insight meditation, which is one of the most widely use Anapanasathi, the concentration on rhythmic inhalation and exhalation of breath.

How to get there

To reach the Bodhinagala forest hermitage, one has to travel on the Panadura-Ratnapura (A-8) highway, turn left at the Aduragala junction and travel a further 2 kilometers along the minor road, which leads to the Kalu Ganga. Before coming to the river, the road branches off to the left and continues for another 1.5 kilometers and comes to an area where it reaches the foot of Dombagaskanda. Although the road up to the hill is motorable, it’s better to get off one’s vehicle at this point and walk through the forest.

“My day starts at 4.a.m. At 6.00 a.m. I walk (Pindapatha) for breakfast and around 9.30 a.m. have a bath and get ready for the midday meal Pindapatha, which is at 10.a.m at the alms hall. All the Bhikkhus in the hermitage gather in the upper alms hall from where we go pindapatha to the lower alms hall, which is a little distance away, where devotees offer alms to our begging bowls. We return to the upper alms hall and partake in our midday meal with all the Bhikkhus. After Dana, we rest for a little while and read the Dhamma books, which are gifts of the devotees,” he says, elaborating on the daily schedule, which rarely varies.

Ven. Rahula has been in charge of the Dhamma Chetiya in the hermitage for several years and he is responsible for holding the daily Buddha Puja. “At around 7.00 p.m. the devotees, who come to offer alms the following day, take part in this special Buddha Puja called ‘Buddha Watha’, which takes about one hour. After finishing the day’s work I go to sleep at around 10.00 p.m.,” he explains.

So do the monastic monks ever venture into the outside world? Being Vipassanadhura monks, Ven. Rahula says he and his fellow Bhikkhus are mainly in contemplation, and that with Vippassana Bhavana, insight meditation, being the dominant and central theme, they live mostly in secluded forest hermitage complexes call Aranya.

They do not take part to any religious activities in outside of the hermitage but if someone invites them to preach a sermon they will accept it.