By Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan –
Steven Kemper, Rescued From The Nation: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World, Chicago, 2015.
“Whatever good thing I have done since my youth is due to the benefits I have received from my knowledge of English” (Dharmapala, cited on p.312)
This book is outside my specialisation; beyond my knowledge and competence, so what follows is not a review. I merely draw attention to the work, and to points which I found interesting. Kemper, a Professor of Anthropology, has carried out painstaking and thorough research, and quotes from the Anagarika’s own words and writings in substantiation of what he (Kemper) says.
The Anagarika (the homeless one) spent much of his life outside Lanka, mostly in India and in England. His main goal was to gain control of “Bodh Gaya” for Buddhism. He neither wished to die in Lanka nor to have his ashes returned to the Island (p. 37). His last will expressed the desire to be “born again in India in some noble Brahman family” (p. 421); become a Bhikku and preach the Dhamma to India’s millions. Vegetarianism seems to have meant abstaining from beef because he occasionally ate chicken, eggs, fish and mutton (footnote 127, p. 102). Some of the above about Dharmapala (1864-1933) may surprise – perhaps, disappoint – some readers.
He was for long a protégé of Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907) who, together with Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), founded the Theosophical Society which built several Buddhist schools in Lanka, among them Ananda College, Colombo; Mahinda College, Galle; Dharmaraja in Kandy and Maliyadeva in Kurunegala. The Buddhist flag, designed with the assistance of Olcott, was adopted as a universal Buddhist symbol. In 1884, Colonel Olcott succeeded in persuading the (British) government of Ceylon to declare the Buddha’s birthday a holiday. Several streets in Sri Lanka are named after Olcott and there are statues of him. Buddhists light candles to his memory on the anniversary of his death, and monks offer flowers to his statue. His image has appeared on Sri Lankan postage-stamps. Olcott’s A Buddhist Catechism, still in print and consulted, sees a link between the Buddha and science in that the Buddha thought about cause and effect. One could say the Buddha worked back from result to cause, that is, from the effect of suffering to its causes: false thought and values; false desires and conduct.
But Henry Olcott was not a Buddhist in the popular, Sri Lankan, sense of the term. As he wrote in his Catechism (the edition I read is dated 1886), “The word ‘religion’ is most inappropriate to apply to Buddhism; which is not a religion but a moral philosophy”. The Buddha was not a god, and Buddhist teaching is against idolatry, astrology and the consulting of omens: the monk Hikkaduve reacted strongly to Olcott describing most Buddhists as being “bigoted and ignorant” (p. 82). Olcott describes himself as “a philosophical Buddhist” – not as a religious Buddhist. There are several reasons why the alliance between Olcott and Dharmapala, two champions of Buddhism; between erstwhile “guru” and protégé, separated by about thirty years in age, broke up. Among the reasons is their very different attitude to relics. Dharmapala believed in, and venerated, relics while Olcott didn’t. The latter “dismissed the notion that the relic of the Buddha’s tooth, venerated at the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy” was the tooth of a human being: to Olcott, it looked more like an animal’s incisor. However, Helena Blavatsky explained it was, of course, the Buddha’s tooth because in one of his previous lives the Buddha was incarnated as a tiger: see footnote 70, p. 82.
What surprised me in the above was that the tooth was actually exposed for Olcott to view but, then, we must remember this was in the 1800s when white people were granted now-unthinkable privileges. I took up the point with the author and Professor Kemper (personal message, dated 20 April 2017) wrote, inter alia:
“An exception was not made for Olcott to view the relic. A steady stream of British officials, including the Prince of Wales, had a chance to view the relic — both before and after Olcott’s visit. One’s religion was not a disqualification, and Western viewings were in fact a source of bad feeling on the part of Kandyan Buddhists. The relic was once shown to a visiting Australian cricket team, I believe. The Kandyan’s animus was not so much the presumed Christianity of these foreign visitors to the Dalada Maligawa, but the treatment of the relic as a curiosity, as opposed to an object of veneration.”
Yet another reason for the split between the Colonel and the Anagarika was that the latter feared theosophy would assimilate Buddhism in its universal truth. In Dharmapala’s opinion, all religions are not equal. The Dhamma, second gem of the Three Jewels of Buddhism, is supreme.
The Anagarika was a complex figure, and complexity includes contradiction. While the Buddhism he carried to India, other parts of Asia and the West was a world religion, a lofty and noble Buddhism which was not sectarian but broad and inclusive, within Lanka, Dharmapala’s Buddhism was ‘racist’, narrow and political. The following is indebted to Patrick Grant’s Buddhism and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka. Dharmapala lauded Buddhist tolerance and inclusion but believed in Sinhalese hegemony. Unlike Buddhism, monotheistic religions maintain that God favours a particular group, the believers, yet contradictorily the Anagarika believed that the Soul of Highest Compassion had specially and specifically chosen Lanka and the Sinhalese. He preached that Buddhism was universal, breaking down boundaries and hierarchies of race, colour, caste, kinship but promoted a racist Sinhalese-Buddhist fundamentalism, one which even excluded Sinhalese Christians. The true Sinhalese was a Buddhist. He urged young Sinhalese, following the Western example, to be scientific but credited the myth of the Mahavamsa with literal truth. Evidently, the Anagarika was not troubled by cognitive dissonance.
“When he spoke to Sinhala audiences, he was usually contemptuous of the British, but his official letters were courteous and expressed loyalty to the empire” (Kemper, p. 19). He had strong links to Britain and the British Empire, and records a dream where the King of England and he were walking and talking together: “I showed incomparable affection” (p. 304). British rule, Dharmapala claimed, is the best form of foreign domination since the British were “the most enlightened, the most philanthropic, the most cultured of European races” (p. 320). When he built a place of rest in Gaya for pilgrims, he named it the Victoria Memorial Dharmasala (p. 323). So, Kemper argues, to describe Dharmapala as “an anti-imperialist freedom fighter” as the Island newspaper of 1992 did (quoted on p. 306) is incorrect. Imperialism offered Dharmapala membership in a larger community, with the potential of brotherhood (ibid). I repeat the Anagarika’s words: “Whatever good thing I have done since my youth is due to the benefits I have received from my knowledge of English”. (I wonder why it wasn’t, “from my knowledge of Sinhalese and English”.) Bringing the Dhamma to Britain would mean bringing it to the entire Empire. Perhaps, the Anagarika was thinking of the effect on Christianity when the Roman Empire officially converted to Christianity in 380 CE: imperial territories followed suit. One could argue that it was the West which set Dharmapala on the path of radical reform. For example, Professor H. L. Seneviratne states that Dharmapala’s model for the Buddhist monk was based on his observation of the Christian missionary: The Work of Kings: The New Buddhism in Sri Lanka, p. 27. The Anagarika read Shelley’s ‘Queen Mab’ as a youth and the work remained a favourite all his life. Among other things, the poem declares that wealth is the curse of human beings, making “Virtue and wisdom, truth and liberty” to flee.
It seems that what the Anagarika excoriated was the economic and the cultural damage of imperialism, not imperialism per se. Contrasting the wealth of the metropole and the destitution in the imperial territories, he asserted that the “selfish policy of British exploitation must be stopped to avoid the destruction of weaker races” (p. 322). Noting that the nature of their imperialism was hard for the British themselves to realize but very painful for the peoples ruled over, the Anagarika gave the analogy of a person flaying (peeling the skin off) eels while they were still alive. When asked whether it wasn’t painful for the creatures, the reply was, “Oh, they are used to it” (p. 319). With economic exploitation went a general, cultural, degradation. Dharmapala believed that a reinvigoration of Buddhism would revitalise the Sinhalese “race”, and vice versa. (Ironically, the last chapter of Seneviratne’s book, already cited, is titled ‘From Regeneration to Degeneration’.) Touring villages on his preaching-mission and seeing poverty and squalor were both shock and shame to him. Lanka, he felt, having lost the ancient and traditional, had not gained the new and modern. Not even Buddhist monks observe the Noble Eightfold Path, let alone the laity (‘Return to Righteousness, A Collection of Speeches, Essays and Letters of the Anagarika Dharmapala’, edited by Ananda Guruge, p. 495.) The urban centres had taken to corrupt Western ways while the rural areas were left with neither the old nor the new. The people had come to accept and internalise their inferiority: hence his urging fathers to make effigies of white men and get their children to beat them.
Among other elements, his mother losing an infant daughter when Dharmapala was seventeen was a factor which led to his celibacy: “I shall not be the cause of giving pain to a woman” (p. 102). But cleanliness is an adjunct of spirituality – and celibacy is the highest form of cleanliness. Therefore, to be celibate is to be highly spiritual. (I am wryly reminded of the Wife of Bath’s regretful exclamation in ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Chaucer, 1343-1400. I paraphrase the words: Alas, alas, that ever sex was thought to be sinful.)
Not immune to the Zeitgeist (very few of us are) Dharmapala believed in the existence of different, biological, “races”. He had a particular animus against Lanka’s Muslims whom he saw as rapacious, derogatively referring to them as “Hambayas” – whatever that word means. His sense of racial superiority was based on the belief that the Sinhalese were Aryans. “Aryanism functioned as a racialized discourse in places as diverse as Argentina, Ireland, Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand. That discourse functioned to give colonized people pride of place among the very people who had colonized them” (Kemper, p. 325). Science has now totally discredited the notion of “race”, and the word ‘Aryan’ is recognised as having a linguistic and not a racial significance. (I discuss these aspects in the essay, ‘Reign of Anomy’, included in my Public Writings On Sri Lanka, Volume 11.)
The Anagarika was an irredentist, an irredentist who wanted to recover a paradise that had never existed, except in his ardent dreams. Lanka during the time of Dutugemmunu was a place of
“temples, tanks, parks, gardens, public baths, resting houses for man and beast, hospitals – also for man and beast – free almonries, schools, colleges for Bhikkhus and nuns, gymnasiums, public baths. The Sinhalese people lived a joyously cheerful life in those bygone times…the streets were crowded day and night by throngs of pilgrims…The atmosphere was saturated with the fragrance of sweet-smelling flowers and delicate perfumes (Dharmapala, cited on p. 324). There were “no slaughter houses, no pawnshops, no brothels, no prisons and law Courts and no arrack taverns and opium dens” (Dharmapala, quoted on p. 325).
Without adducing evidence, he makes claims which the people love to hear and (equally uncritical) accept. There exists no race on this earth that has a more glorious and triumphant record than the Sinhalese (Dharmapala cited by Guruge.) It is no surprise that, turning from this paradisiacal vision to the reality that he actually encountered and experienced in Lanka, Dharmapala was driven to impatience and hate, a hatred that made scapegoats of various non-Sinhalese Buddhist groups. As I have written elsewhere, the “dreams” of fanatics can result in tragedy and “nightmare” for others. Over the years, humanity has progressed in science, technology and medicine but has changed little in its moral nature. That being a fact, “Dharmapala’s ancestors were very likely no more free of envy and pride than anyone else’s” (Patrick Grant, p. 75).
The founder of ‘Modern Buddhism’, Anagarika Dharmapal is a complex, contradictory, figure. Though not dealt with by Kemper, he has had, and still exerts an unfortunate influence on Sinhalese Buddhist beliefs and attitudes vis-a-vis minority groups – at very painful cost to the latter. In the words of The Cage by Gordon Weiss, Dharmapala “exerted an overtly racist and exclusivist muscle that has become reflexive in much of the ordinary political and social discourse” of the Sinhalese. Rebelling, the Anagarika championed; embracing, he rejected. It seems to me his love was for abstractions (religion, race and an imagined idyllic Lanka of centuries past), and that his capacity to hate was greater than his ability to love.
No doubt, serious Sri Lankans will take the trouble to read and engage with Kemper’s book before quarrelling with it: as Milton says in his Areopagitica (1644), disagreement and resulting discussion can have positive effects.
jimsofty / May 11, 2017
The effect on Christianity when the Roman Empire officially converted to Christianity in 380 CE: imperial territories followed suit
THE ABOVE STATEMENT IS THE BEST. christianity was established by the Roman Kingodm and the colonies followed. If It not because of the romans, JEsus did not establish any religion he just wanted, Just like th eMosus saved some JEWs, to save Poverty Stricken Romans. Jesus did not have sermons like those Pali canon. Instead there is a bible which was written by others, wshich we now call Saints, after the death of Jesus.
There is lot of biases in the article. What can we expect from a Tamil and a Catholic ?
IF Tamils respect their Tribe and the culture or the civilization if they have one, they would respect Sinhala – buddhist civilization and why People want to protect that.
You say, anagarika dharmapala was racist. but, you don’t give evidence.
I can not understand how Sinhalays, Demala, Humbaya,Marakkalaya become racist or derogetory ?
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2017
jimsofty dimwit
“You say, anagarika dharmapala was racist. but, you don’t give evidence.”
Isn’t it obvious he was a public racist number 1 like you in this forum?
Was he a Sinhala/Buddhist Aryan?
Read:
Personal Identity and Cultural Crisis The Case of Anagarika Dharmapala of Sri Lanka
by Prof Gananath Obeysekere
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jimsofty / May 11, 2017
NAtive Vedda:
Not only Anagariaka Dharmapala, even the foreigners who had naturlized in Sinhale had appreciated Sinhala buddhist culture/civilization.
Read about Tibeten buddhist monk naturalized in Sinhala His name was S. Mahinda.
He wrote the poem — Es gedi walata hena gahalada sihalun ge.
Gananath OBesekara, H.L Senevirathne like people are products of failed Post independance colonials set up education. they see onely one side of the reality.
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yusuf / May 11, 2017
Dumb Jimmy,
you say:”Read about Tibeten buddhist monk naturalized in Sinhala His name was S. Mahinda.”
Why is that Tibetan buddhist Dalai lama cant visit Sri Lanka? Any idea?
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jimsofty / May 12, 2017
Go and read yoor Koran to see in how many places it says kill non-believers. It is 109 or 119 places, .
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2017
jimsofty the dimwit
“Not only Anagariaka Dharmapala, even the foreigners who had naturlized in Sinhale had appreciated Sinhala buddhist culture/civilization.”
What are Sinhale and Sinhala Buddhist culture and/civilisation?
“Gananath OBesekara, H.L Senevirathne like people are products of failed Post independance colonials set up education. they see onely one side of the reality.”
Are you a product of pre-independent colonial education? What is it? What is the difference between pre and post independent colonial education?
Please ignore my comments if you have no idea about your own typing.
Have you ever made an effort to read any of Prof Obeysekere’s research publication? If so please let me have the details of all such papers.
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max / May 12, 2017
Mister Native Vedda,
Gananatha O, H. L. Sene etc., were writing against Sinhala Buddhists. Hence they are the darlings of your clan. Its not rocket science. Your a member of anti-Sinhala Buddhist clan which deny S/B mark on this soil. If I were to streamline your agenda, Number one goes to hammer Mahavamsa. No. 2 goes to bash Mahavamsa. No. 3 slot goes to attack Mahavamsa. Why? Thats the tumbling block to deny the Sinhala Buddhist mark of all four corners of SL.
You guys will have a peaceful sleep once that happen. NV, dont work hard to reach the goal. With the on going pattern of things, S/Bs’ themselves will dug their own hole and assist you to touch the target. Pretty soon. :-)
By the way, Native, do you think is there a thing call “pre-independent or post-independent education”? Do you think we have the freedom of education? Even now?
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2017
Max
“Gananatha O, H. L. Sene etc., were writing against Sinhala Buddhists”
Rightly so, based on evidence they have unearthed/gathered over their lifetime. Please refer me to one publication where they have written against Sinhalese or Buddhism, or denigrated Buddhism or Sinhalese.
Give us the details of their publication you are familiar with.
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Amarasiri / May 11, 2017
Prof. Charles Sarvan
RE: Anagarika Dharmapala Revisited
“Whatever good thing I have done since my youth is due to the benefits I have received from my knowledge of English” (Dharmapala, cited on p.312).
At least he has been honest here.
He recognized the utility of English. Of course there are other languages that have different degrees of utility, based on what one wants to do.
Did he know that he was a Para in the Land of Native Veddah Aethho like the other Paras in the Land? Did he know that Mahawamsa had many errors? Did he know that it the Earth that was going around the Sun?Or did he only know Sinhala “Buddhism”?
Mitochondrial DNA history of Sri Lankan ethnic people: their relations within the island and with the Indian subcontinental populations
Through a comparison with the mtDNA HVS-1 and part of HVS-2 of Indian database, both Tamils and Sinhalese clusters were affiliated with Indian subcontinent populations than Vedda people who are believed to be the native population of the island of Sri Lanka.
https://www.nature.com/jhg/journal/v59/n1/full/jhg2013112a.html
Did he know that Mahawamsa is an Insult to the Buddha?
Wonder if ours might have been a wiser, and a more ‘humane’ society, had our ‘ancient’ history, been based on Aesop’s Fables, instead of the Mahavamsa. For if not for the Mahavamsa, the Sinhalese may not have been endowed, with the reputation, of “Sinhalaya Modaya (The Sinhalese are Fools)”!
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/mahavamsa-an-insult-to-the-buddha/
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ranjith(sprrw) / May 11, 2017
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2017
ranjith(sprrw)
Brilliant
Thanks
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Eagle Eye / May 11, 2017
Amarasiri,
“For if not for the Mahavamsa, the Sinhalese may not have been endowed, with the reputation, of “Sinhalaya Modaya (The Sinhalese are Fools)”!”
You got it wrong. It should read:
“Sinhalaya Sooraya
Demalunge Maaraya”
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Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera / May 12, 2017
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Native Vedda / May 13, 2017
Rtd. Lt. Reginald Shamal Perera
Brilliant
Thanks
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Mallaiyuran / May 11, 2017
Dalada Maligawa in Kandy” was the tooth of a human being: to Olcott, it looked more like an animal’s incisor. However, Helena Blavatsky explained it was, of course,
Mr. Ponnuthurai didn’t do the reach completely in this essay; sorry guys, wait for his next most interesting essay. M/S Helena is not correct. Its Wijaya’s tooth, not Buddha’s.
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Uthungan / May 11, 2017
“Dalada Maligawa in Kandy was the tooth off human being to Olcott”.I looked like an animal’s incisor.
I have a book written about Jiddu Krishnamurthy by Mr. Susnaga Weeraperuma in which he says that the late philosopher had also made a similar observation linking that relic to a crocodile.
Mr. Weeraperuma incidently played an important role when Jiddu Krishnamurthy visited SL in organising his lecture tour during the time when the late Mr. JRJ was PM.
I believe Mr. Weeraperuma is now living somewhere in South France having retired from his post as Chief Librarian in the University of Sydney.
Anagarika Dharmapala had also attended in his capacity a General Secretary of the Mahabodhi Society as a Lankan delegate the Parliament of Religions which opened in Chicago on 11Sept. 1893. Swami Vivekananda from India was also present in the Art Institute hall packed with about 7000 people.
After hearing the truthful words spoken with utmost sincerity by the Swami about the 10,000years India’s spiritual history the vast audience rose clapping to their feet in unison as a tribute.
Anagarika Dharmapala in one of his talks that followed Swami Vivekananda’s was reported to have said that ‘he would unhesitatingly say that there was no one that attracted more attention than that great Hindu monk from Calcutta Swami Vivekananda and that he had done a great service not only in bringing forward the pure doctrines of Hindu philosophy but has also succeed in convincing the intelligent and enlightened portion of of the American public that India is the mother and seat of all true philosophy and metaphysics.
Anagarika Dharmapala was not an anti Hindu or anti Indian like some of those who would like to distort and falsify actual facts as they are. He died in India and there is even now a road in his name in Culcutta aka Kolkatta now.
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Nimal / May 11, 2017
Hope they open the road by Maligawa.It is chocking the people of Kandy.
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Viktor / May 11, 2017
Up to the late sixties the Maligawa used to conduct a regular three day exposition of the tooth which could be seen by anyone willing to spend some time on a rather long queue. I saw a bare brown tooth suspended on something that looked like a like a string during the 1966 exposition. Since then the tooth has been covered by several layers of glass, gold etc and most people do not get to see the tooth. I too feel there is some truth in Olcott’s assessment of the tooth. The Portuguese claimed that they captured the tooth and burnt it in Goa, although there is a view that they were fooled into taking a copy. However, a king claimed to have got the tooth back from India. This may go some way in explaining the appearance of the tooth. Unfortunately the details regarding the capture and return of the tooth has not been studied by modern Sri Lankan historians. KM de Silva’s University History of Ceylon Vol II makes no mention of it at all.
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2017
Viktor
“KM de Silva’s University History of Ceylon Vol II makes no mention of it at all.”
However he mentions the Aryan origin of the Sinhalese people.
Anagarika Dharmapala the public racist believed not only in the Aryan origin of Sinhalese but also their superiority.
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jimsofty / May 11, 2017
Only a person who really knows and understands his own culture and civilization would value Anagariaka Dharmapala.
For some time, I was thinking Why SL Army Top officials fighting in the battle field had remorse over the fallen top soldiers, during April 2009, of LTTE. It is like King Dutugemunu developing remorsee over King Elara his opponent.
Other wise, one who speaks a foreign language and not his supposed to be mother tongue, one whose religion had so many crusades and do not feel anything about the wrong doing… criticizes one who loved his civilization, culture, religion (one which di dnot kill in the name of the religion), the language etc., etc.,
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yusuf / May 11, 2017
Jimmy.
Read again this quote about Dutugemunu from your mahavamsa:
“And thereon the king said again to them: `How shall there be any comfort for me, O venerable sirs, since by me was caused the slaughter of a great host numbering millions?’
`From this deed arises no hindrance in thy way to heaven. Only one and a half human beings have been slain here by thee, O lord of men. The one had come unto the (three) refuges, the other had taken on himself the five precepts.[30] Unbelievers and men of evil life were the rest, not more to be esteemed than beasts. But as for thee, thou wilt bring glory to the doctrine of the Buddha in manifold ways; therefore cast away care from thy heart, O ruler of men!’”
So Buddhists are allowed to kill millions of non-buddhist?
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Pandaranayagam / May 11, 2017
Yusuf,
The Tamil monk Mahawansa has copied his material from the Bhagvad Gita and has succeeded in fooling the Sinhala Buddhists for a long time.
Pandaranayagam
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Lankan one / May 12, 2017
So only you can appreciate hate monger like Anagariaka ..
He implanted hatred in SL…1915, 1953, 1958 and 1983 all are due his initial stages of hatred he implanted in minds of Sinhalese people ..but 95% are good so they did not listen to them ..
Why do you donot condemn him at all..
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S.Modaya / May 11, 2017
Thanks CS!
SInhalas are a nation Ruled by Greed and Corruption – check out the Politicians and Mahanayakas who only travel in super luxury vehicles.
Buddhism in Sri Lanka is JOKE, politicized ritual. Kemper is correct to suggest that Buddhism and needs to be rescued from the Sinhalayas who somehow in their massive ignorance and delusion think tha the Sri lanka state has a monopoly on Buddhism
Buddhism is a JOKE – a gigantic political ritual devoid of Upeka, metta, karuna and muditha.
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Dilhara / May 11, 2017
Sad to say that there is an excess of ritual, pomp and pagentry, noise pollution and lights, absence of real peace and justice, and no real Buddhism in Sri Lanka today.
The roads of Kandy and Colombo are full of crowds, car fumes, pollution and noise, no peace, quiet or meditation.
Buddhism has from fled Lanka, which is corrupt and polluted today.
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ramona therese fernando / May 11, 2017
Well…..Ponnuthurai Sarvan certainly gives a good critique on Anagarika Dharmapala. A.D. looks quite the ahinsaka person in the pic. But as P.S says, A.D. was too full of complexities and therefore contradictions.
Yes, he probably did not mean the word Aryan in the Nazi way. Yet, over the decades, our Sinhala Buddhists became seduced by the racial superiority connotation that the European Nazis postulated it to be, however absurd it was towards the Sinhala race (Nazi Aryanism was meant for the White race). Desire for reincarnation into a Brahmin family probably meant access to the highest education and position for greater glory. The height of ambition – hardly the stuff of a true Buddhist. Hardly the stuff which guides rebirth.
But the guy did have a good take on taking the Dharma to a higher level and spreading it worldwide. Unlike Olcott, he also had an innate awareness of the quantum side of existence, which gives that religious depth to Buddhism.
Sri Lanka would have probably been very much like the time of Dutugemmunu as A.D specified it to be. When one has a good King to rule, good climate, profusion of flora and fauna, and a highly evolved religion, an idyllic society is quite possible.
Colonization certainly screwed up Lankan society things quite a bit. Muslims, that group of people whose business for thousands of years provided the flowers for the temples, stalls for the pilgrims to eat at, garments to wear, delicate perfumes, resting houses, hospitals etc., unfortunately became unnaturally commercialized for British interests during Colonial reign. However, the money generated by Muslims, made it possible for the Theosophical Society to build those schools in the first place.
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Kapila / May 11, 2017
Buddhism needs to be first rescued from the Sinhala Sangha – various saffron robed thugs like BBS and Ravaya Balaya and their patrons who are running a Buddhist circus in Sri Lanka, selling Sinhala Buddhist nationalism to make money and live luxurious lives – just like corrupt politicians!
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Pandaranayagam / May 11, 2017
Kapila,
How I wish many more Sri Lankan Buddhists see the real picture of what has happened to Buddhism in this country – hijacked as it is by rogues and the vilest men in saffron robes. The fact the powerful Mahanayakas
ignore this makes them collusionist – and no less culpable.
You used the right phraseology viz:- “Buddhism needs to be first rescued from the Sinhala Sangha” I suspect it is unlikely – certainly not in the foreseeable future.
Pandaranayagam
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Plato. / May 11, 2017
…..There are several reasons why the alliance between Olcott and Dharmapala,two champions of Buddhism; Between erstwhile guru and protege,separated by about 30 years in age,broke up….says Prof:Sarwan.
Don David Hewawitarne,later Anagarika Dharmapala,was just 16 years old when he met Olcott.
One of the reasons would have been that Olcott saw Buddhism as a worldly and Scientific Philosophy for all people and all ages. Whereas Dharmapala came to regard Buddhist practice in the country as a vehicle for Sinhala Hegemony and an inheritance for the Sinhala alone.Two opposing stands! Naturally,the alliance in the latter stages became an unholy alliance;Eventually Olcott left the country an unhappy man.
By the time of his death in 1933,Dharmapalas intoxicating Political Buddhism had engulfed the country.
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old codger / May 11, 2017
Such are our national heroes. Will we ever have a Mandela/ Nightingale/ Lincoln/ Shakespeare/ Tolstoy/ Gates/Deng ? (Indian names left out deliberately in order to forestall debate about oil tanks).
Even the Dalai Lama is denied a visa to see the purported tooth relic.
Can this Dhammadeepa fall further?
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Mallaiyuran / May 11, 2017
Somersault Queen Chandrika made a new somersault again. We all had read, during the Aanduwa’s UNHRC 34th sitting preparation, she said there is no need to international inquiry. But that that was the recommendation STF of RM. New King refused to accept that report so a white washing process staged by Chandrika, who has no part in government, accepting it. Chandrika did not simply condemn that report, but, she lambasted STF team to have behaved ultra vires to their mandate. As the constitutions change through their secret solution was about go, nobody needed the investigation, as per Somersault Queen. These people are not ready to respect Tamils even as the master’s house dog. They’re not ready to conduct a referendum to see what the Tamils have got to say. These political crooks just declare something that comes in their mind to the Media.
Following Chandrika, the Avant Garde Fame Wijeyadasa has told that he cannot have an investigation just to satisfy the diaspora. As per him, Tamils do not want it but, there is another Lankawe race called diaspora only wants it. Is that the diaspora wording that his colleague Mangala co-signed at UNHRC to have “Foreign and Commonwealth Lawyers and Judges”? Diaspora Prepared the STF Report? Did TNA have declared that they don’t want International Inquiry?
After New King refusing to accept the constitutional draft on the May Days things has taken many unexpected turns. Ranil is leaving to China to have his deal put through. They seem to be having managed fooling EU one more time for GSP+. It is apparent the secret solution would never see the lights of the parliament. So, the new fray is going within them on the International Investigation, without Tamils in that.
32 Countries helped the war will soon get their lesson too.
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Spring Koha / May 11, 2017
Having personally inspected both the footprint at the top of Adams Peak, and the tooth at the Maligawa, I cannot but reach the conclusion that the Buddha was a cross between a yeti and a Bengal Tiger. But, I am not religious at all. I have much admiration for the philosophy of the Buddha, but not for the abomination that has come from its twisted form as a ‘religion’. All religions in my opinion have done has much bad as good. Presently, 95% of adherents come from being born/shackled into a religion.
From all I can make out, Dharmapala was an expedient opportunist, happy to play to the gallery. Whenever my morning walk takes me past his statue at the Town Hall end of Vihara Maha Devi Park I utter an unprintable oath for the seeds of division that he sowed and set one Sri Lankan against another for generations to come. On the other hand, I always blow a kiss to Olcott whenever I pass him on the way to catch a train at Fort station.
Nevertheless, I thank Dr Sarvan for his article. I will dip into this book when time permits.
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Raj / May 11, 2017
In my opinion, Anagarika Dharmapala was a racist. I remember as children, we were told that Dharmapala was a great national hero for bravely pulling down the British flag &, probably in a much hyped manner, that he was a founder leader of the Buddhist movement during the British rule, which wanted Buddhism wiped off & replaced with Christianity. Although, as children, we cheered at such courage & actions, I have now realized that we were taught a load of ‘alternate facts’, to coin a current phrase, of our history & national heroes.
Obviously, thugs in the form of Buddhist clergy, such as BBS, were inspired by Dharmapala, justifying their promotion of racism & hatred, further motivated by political patronage. Dharmapal’s fiery speech & actions were unbecoming of a devout Buddhist but we have seen leadership, courage & conviction true to Buddhist philosophy from a Hindu leader, Gandhi.
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Lankan No 03 / May 11, 2017
He created hatred among Singhalese people.that causes lives of more 100 thousand Tamil and Singhalese and Muslim…
Do you need to see this ..He is not a sinhasles leader no true Buddhist will never do this ..
NOW SOME MONKS FOLLOW HIM TO SEE BLOOD BATH …
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ranjith(sprrw) / May 11, 2017
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
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Eagle Eye / May 11, 2017
Yusuf,
“So Buddhists are allowed to kill millions of non-buddhist?”
In Buddhism there is no commandment like in Christianity ‘Thou shall not kill’. Buddha said ‘Refrain from Killing’. In real life there are instances where it is not possible to stick to religious teachings. Imagine what would have happened to Sinhala Buddhists if they kept on saying ‘panathipatha weramani sikkapadan samadiyami’ when the South Indian Tamils invaded Sri Lanka and went on massacring Sinhalese who lived in the North Central part of the country, burnt their villages and destroyed temples. Sinhala Buddhists had no choice but to fight back, chase the Tamils back to Tamil Nadu and save the country from aggressors.
Before 2009, Sinhala Buddhists faced a similar kind of situation when LTTE terrorists killed mostly Sinhala Buddhist civilians indiscriminately by blowing bombs; used suicide bombers to kill civilians; bombed sacred places of Buddhists like Dalada Maligawa and Sri Maha Bodhi; wiped out Sinhala villages killing men, women and children in brutal way using machetes, killed Buddhist monks; tortured and killed Sinhala soldiers, police officers taken as prisoners. Sri Lankan Government gave several chances to Prabhakaran to settle the matter peacefully but he discarded all of them. So President Rajapakse eventually decided ‘I will play fire with fire’ and decide to eliminate LTTE terrorists. Wars are fought to eliminate the enemy. There are no ‘Good Wars’. It is a pity that some civilians got killed. Prabhakaran should be held responsible for those deaths. In the history of Sri Lanka, it was Tamils who dragged Sinhala Buddhists to wars.
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romani / May 11, 2017
Eagle eye,
To some so-called Buddhists, a cow’s life is more valuable than a human one. Why call yourself a Buddhist if you don’t practice it? How can Buddhism be superior to any other religion then?
If you kill, you are NOT a Buddhist. Hypocrisy is not a part of real Buddhism.
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jimsofty / May 12, 2017
Romani+:
Why don’t you talk about you christians’s numerous CRUSADES in order to establish your religion.
Why don’t you talk about you Tamils’ past as thuggies and LTTE terrorists
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romani / May 12, 2017
Dumb Jimmy,
You mean, if Christians can kill, Buddhists can? So, why not become a Christian? They would probably pay you some money too. Becoming a Muslim is painful, because you have to lose some body parts (if you have one).
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yusuf / May 11, 2017
Eagle eye,
“So Buddhists are allowed to kill millions of non-buddhist?”
So you are saying this is true? Then why you are talking about Tamils killing Sinhalese? What kind of religion is this!
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jimsofty / May 12, 2017
Yusuf:
Go and read Koran. How they are asked to kill infidela.
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Eagle Eye / May 12, 2017
Buddhists in Sri Lanka never killed millions of non-Buddhists. Hindus, Muslims and Christians in the world have killed millions belong to other faiths. So what kind of religions are Hinduism, Islam and Christianity?
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yusuf / May 12, 2017
The mahavamsa says so. You are a sinhala Buddhist not believing the Mahavamsa?
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yusuf / May 12, 2017
Eagle eye,
It is not me but the Mahavamsa saying it. You are a sinhala Buddhist but not believe the Mahavamsa?
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Edwin Rodrgo / May 12, 2017
You say Mahavamsa, Mahavamsa. But where does it say that millions were killed. At least, which era, which King?
Allah has given you mouth to speak. Not to gab.
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yusuf / May 13, 2017
Mr Edwin Rodrigo,
open your eyes and read:
““And thereon the king Dutthagamini said again to them: `How shall there be any comfort for me, O venerable sirs, since by me was caused the slaughter of a great host numbering millions?’ `From this deed arises no hindrance in thy way to heaven. Only one and a half human beings have been slain here by thee, O lord of men. The one had come unto the (three) refuges, the other had taken on himself the five precepts.[30] Unbelievers and men of evil life were the rest, not more to be esteemed than beasts. But as for thee, thou wilt bring glory to the doctrine of the Buddha in manifold ways; therefore cast away care from thy heart, O ruler of men!’”
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Edwin Rodrgo / May 13, 2017
I agree with you Yusuf. I have been blind all this time. But now our new Buddha Mallaiyuran has destroyed all the frills like Mahavamsa, Temple of the Tooth etc. andall we have is 100% pre Dhamma. I am dreaming but I feel at peace with all of you.
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yusuf / May 13, 2017
Mr.Edwin,
You are a great man to admit a mistake. I hope other writers in CT were like you.But they are not educated like you.
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2017
Eagle Eye/Dr Clean/SL citizen/…./…./….
” In real life there are instances where it is not possible to stick to religious teachings.”
Please remove CHAPTER II of the constitution if in real life if the country cannot observe Buddhist teaching.
CHAPTER II
BUDDHISM
9. The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the
foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State
to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all
religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1)(e).
“Imagine what would have happened to Sinhala Buddhists if they kept on saying ‘panathipatha weramani sikkapadan samadiyami’ when the South Indian Tamils invaded Sri Lanka and went on massacring Sinhalese who lived in the North Central part of the country, burnt their villages and destroyed temples.”
What do you think the minorities should have done when racists like you killed, children hacked to death, robbed, raped, burnt down houses and businesses, libraries, … because the victims were minorities. You would have forgotten the years 1915, 1958, 1961, 1977, 1981, 1983, and over 30 years?
You suffer from selective amnesia, selective history, …..
Not sure there is cure.
A few years ago two regular visitors to this forum one was Engineer and the other was Ram had the same problem like you.
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jimsofty / May 12, 2017
NAtive Vedda:
Not sure there is cure.
Go back to your mother land.
check all the Tamils writinghere. they are from Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Tamilnadu, Malabar, Trinidad, fiji, Indonesia and from all the world. they need a homeland in sinhale in which every body can say that is there country.
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K.Pillai / May 11, 2017
Many comments here show the extent of language/religious divide.
Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan presented some of his vieews on the book by Steven Kemper titled “Rescued From The Nation: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World”
Clearly he has annoyed a few readers.
Mahatma Gandhi was accorded near divine status but recently some have questioned his integrity. Martin Luther King’s private life seems to on par with that of JF Kennedy. Evidently Steven Kemper has pointed out Anagarika’s deficiencies.
History is basically a graveyard for “Truth”. No harm in discussing very recent history before “Truth” rots.
Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan brought to our attention:
Henry Olcott wrote in his Catechism (the edition dated 1886), “The word ‘religion’ is most inappropriate to apply to Buddhism; which is not a religion but a moral philosophy”.
Dharmapala(Kemp’s book p. 325):”……… There were “no slaughter houses, no pawnshops, no brothels, no prisons and law Courts and no arrack taverns and opium dens”
We are about to create a Colombo Megapolis of Casinos, booze joints and ….
Was Dharmapala a racist? At that time DNA was not known! Was he a castist? Yes but so was Gandhi.
Thanks Sarvan for re-igniting a debate.
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Mallaiyuran / May 12, 2017
Buddha was Hindu until his last day. The Hindus didn’t have the culture of preserving body parts like this. It is “Thudakku” for them touching a dead man’s body parts. Buddha is only one avatar for Hindus. There are many Avatar’s sighted. There, it looks like many have lived with the name of Shiva in the Indus Valley period. None of their parts are preserved. Buddhism started about 150 years after of Buddha bereavement.
If you tell a Saivite that Shiva’s remains are found, he just would reply “Oh Ya. Good for you” and would walk away instead of attempting to find out the truth of that talk. That is not exciting for Hindus. But if you tell a Christian that Jesus’ Tomb is located, that will big deal for him. There are many rituals in Hinduism these days. But, still the basic preaching is more important to them to look at the message instead of preacher.
So, the likelihood of Buddha’s tooth preserved is very small.
The interest of saving tooth might have been passed to Buddhist when they adopted the Greek culture. There might, at least another human being’s, tooth have been preserved and now it is transposed in the history. But the serious issue is not simply carrying a displaced tooth. But, it is beyond that.
If you look at Arumuga Navalar, Anagarika Dharmapala, and Siddhi Lebbe, you may notice some similarity in their preaching tilted toward racism. It is more of the period they lived rather than their personal trait. But Anagarika Dharmapala’s racism only count when the Sinhala Government wants to give the Sinhala Buddhism, which he preached, the foremost place in the constitution, and try to imposing it in the daily life the average person.
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Mallaiyuran / May 12, 2017
Would you accept Sharia as your law of the country? But for Muslims it is sacred and imposed by the god. Same Way if you want to dig out Manu’s law and implement, though Manu is a great sage for some Hindus, the world would not tolerate it. The duty of the Sinhala government is to implement a balanced law after equally powered ruling and opposition had chance to fiercely debate it.
But, the Sinhala Government is using 150,000 strong Sinhala Rapist army to suppress the small North-East. Then it is legislating New Socialistic Republic Constitution, PTA,CTA, 6th A….without allowing opposition having a share in that and if they put in the foremost place the Sinhala/Buddhism, preached by Anagarika Dharmapala, then the Sinhala Government is influenced somebody’s faulty preaching. Then Dharmapala had a responsivity to foresee how his preaching is going to be used in the feature. Before somebody who wants to assume a superior position in the community and attempts to influence the crowd, he has a responsibly to evaluate the pro and cons of his message. There, every word Dharmapala uttered against the societal harmony will hold him guilty.
Carrying the wrong tooth is not a problem; telling Mahanama’s hateful stories not a problem; Deviating Buddha preaching and be bungled in the rituals is not a problem. But Anagarika Dharmapala’s hypocrisy is problem. Listening to that hate speeches and fine tuning the country’s laws is problem.
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Edwin Rodrgo / May 12, 2017
Who was Buddha
Mallaiyuran, you say “Buddha was Hindu until his last day”.
A Model Society Buddha was never a Hindu. His campaign was against Brahmins, their religious rites of sacrificing thousands and thousands of animals to Brahman and the caste concept. As an example to others he formed a Sangha Sasasna, a model society, which did not practice meaningless or harmful religious rites, was 100% casteless. A Vasala gothrika and a Sakya Vanshika had the same status once they were admitted to the Sangha Sasasna.
You can say that anyone is anyone’s avatar but the truth is that Buddha was a normal human being who attained the status of the most noble being ever in the word. Even the Devas and Maha Brahma himself is said to have come and worshipped him and sought his advice on many occasions.
Dhamma: A Perfect Doctrine For 45 years, he walked the length and breadth of India, covering thousands of miles preaching his Dhamma to those who can benefit from it. No contradictions, discrepancies or modifications have been found in this ocean of knowledge that Is called Dhamma.
BBC Religions , says, (Buddhism is a spiritual tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development and the attainment of a deep insight into the true nature of life. Buddhists seek to reach a state of nirvana, following the path of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who went on a quest for Enlightenment around the sixth century BC.
There is no belief in a personal god. Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or permanent and that change is always occurring. The path to Enlightenment is through the practice and development of morality, meditation and wisdom.)
Does all that describe something even remotely like Hinduism? I leave the answer to the reader.?
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Edwin Rodrgo / May 12, 2017
Buddhism and belief in God
Unlike other major religions of the world, Buddhism believes in the existence of neither God nor soul in a theistic sense. It is said that the Buddha either maintained silence or discouraged questions when he was asked to confirm the existence of a Supreme Being.
Buddha’s views on God
Once in a while, he expressed his opinions about creation and the role of God.
1. If God is the creator of all things, then all things here should submit to His power unquestioningly. Like the pots made by a potter, they would all be uniform. Hence, there cannot be an opportunity for anyone to do things voluntarily.
2. If this world is indeed created by God, then it should be perfect, which is not the case.
3. Then there must be some other cause other than God which created Him and He would not be self-existent.
4. That which is absolute cannot be a cause. All things here arise from different causes. Then can we can say that the Absolute is the cause of all things alike? If the Absolute is pervading them, then certainly It is not their creator.
5. If we consider God as the creator, why did it not make things pleasant? Why and how should it create so much sorrow and suffering for itself?
6. It is neither God nor the self nor some causeless chance which creates us. It is our deeds which produce both good and bad results according to the law of causation.
7. We should therefore abandon the heresy of worshipping God and of praying to him.
(Based on Hinduwebsite.com)
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old codger / May 13, 2017
Edwin,
Nice to see you actually talking to Mallaiyuran for a change.
Keep it up.
“3. Then there must be some other cause other than God which created Him and He would not be self-existent.”
If you check out the workings of DNA, it is uncannily like what we know now as a computer program. I am not religious, but that’s close enough to God for me. But I doubt that the designer of DNA requires unconditional worship and obedience.
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Edwin Rodrgo / May 13, 2017
I have to talk to Mallaiyuran. He has taken over from Gotama and become the next Buddha. Or am I still dreaming?
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jimsofty / May 13, 2017
old codger
But I doubt that the designer of DNA requires unconditional worship and obedience.
But, the western mateiral science will not explain it.
for example, there hundreds of humans genes that do not relate at all to animal DNA.
If that is the Case, how do you explain Evolution.
Then comes the Agganna Sutta. Life also had came from outer space.
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old codger / May 13, 2017
Jimmy,
Only our DNA is immortal.It is passed on to our descendants. It can change itself (learn). Maybe it is the so-called soul.
Evolution is not incompatible with this.
“for example, there hundreds of humans genes that do not relate at all to animal DNA.”
99% of our DNA is shared with Chimps.
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Edwin Rodrgo / May 12, 2017
Buddhism and belief in God -2
When one reads the above reasons given by Buddha 2,500 years ago, to prove that God is an illogical and vain concept of no value, one would be surprised by the similarities between them and the arguments given by modern scientists like Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan et al.
Carl Sagan in his epic TV series ‘Cosmos’ says that one of the frequent arguments brought to prove the existence of God is that, for something to be there, there has to be a cause. Arguing in this way the theist concludes, the ultimate cause is God.
Carl Sagan says, we can apply the same initial argument to God and ask who or what caused God? When the believer says, there need not be a cause for the initial cause, we can say, if that is the case, why go that far? If something (God) can exist without a cause then why not other things such as the universe and the beings in it?
An infinite regression: The problem here is that, when one asserts that nothing can exist without a cause (or maker) one is initiating what is mathematically known as an infinite regression.
An example of an infinite regression: We start with, a number (say 1). We know that when we divide 1 by 2 we get something smaller than 1. If we repeat this process many time we get the following series of numbers.
1, 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, 0.0625 and so on. The value gets smaller but never becomes zero.
Such a procedure is called an infinite regression. It goes on forever. The search for a God based on the logic that, if something exists because there has to be a cause, is a similar a useless and endless process.
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jimsofty / May 12, 2017
Both Kemper and Charles are christians and they expect AD to be a buddha and not talk about his civilization.
One Tamil – christian is using another white christian written book to Bash a Sinhala buddhist Hero.
If they want to talk about Chriatian – saints, there are Popes who instigated Crusades and even one pope during the Second wolrd war was accused supporting Nazis to kill Jews. Anglicans are notorious criminals if you read their histoy. Portuguese Catholics salughtered both Sinhala and Tamil villages.
These people come to criticize AD because he was ASSERTIVE.
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EnAG / May 12, 2017
The word “Anagarika” as the adjective of Dharmapala is wrongly cited as “homeless”, but in reality it should be “nivasa ahimi” or “gedhara nathuva”.
The word “nagarikam” in Tamil language means civilization or civilize according to the context; and “anagarikam” as the negative of the former and therfore as non-civilization/uncivilized. Thus Anagarika Dharmapala really means uncivilized Dharmapala.
Sinhala language has thousads of Tamil words in it’s vocabulary.
EnAG
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2017
EnAG
“The word “Anagarika” as the adjective of Dharmapala is wrongly cited as “homeless”, but in reality it should be “nivasa ahimi” or “gedhara nathuva”.
I will go along with Prof Gananath Obeysekere’s translation/interpretation which is “homeless one”.
He knows what he is talking about hence I have no other opinion other than to follow his translation/interpretation.
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Edwin Rodrigo / May 12, 2017
Kalaveddah,
Why do you start off by insulting the person you are addressing right at the introduction? Jim softy, Dim wit and so on. How would you like to be called Uruleganda Kalaveddah? Perhaps you like it. I suppose it is better than being addressed as Choo Shooting Kalaveddah.
Try to be civil. I know it is difficult for a Kalaveddah. But try OK. And in the meantime don’t go on insulting persons we Sinhala Buddhists hold in reverence such as Anagraika Dharmapala. Next you will start insulting Buddha too. And that of course will be your last insult and the beginning of the extinction of the Kalavedi species.
And do not call him homeless. You are homeless and living, eating, drinking, urinating and fornicating inside other peoples’ ceilings. Your ancestors may have been living inside ceilings of the many houses owned by the Dharmapala family for decades. So have some gratitude for them for providing your ancestors a place to live in and do other things in peace and without fear.
Learn not to urinate on the ceiling that you eat from.
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John / May 13, 2017
Native,
Anagarika Dharmapala was not homeless, he and/or his family had several homes in Kollupitya, Pettah, Maradana, Pannipitiya, etc, etc. But he lived a spiritual, celibate and ascetic life in the city and became a Buddhist monk in his last years.
Also Angagarika Dharmapala had a mobile home as well. Here is the picture of it:
http://www.hi.lk/dharmapala.html
Gananath is wrong, but his definition suits your agenda. You believe in any anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ‘Kalu Suddah’.
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John / May 13, 2017
EnAG,
‘Nagaraya’ = City, ‘Nagarika’= about City , Nagarikaya’ = City dweller,
So ‘Anagarika’ roughly means that some not living a life of a city dweller.
And definitely, great Anagarika Dharmapala was well civilized.
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Native Vedda / May 13, 2017
Johnny Baby
“‘Nagaraya’ = City, ‘Nagarika’= about City , Nagarikaya’ = City dweller,”
Please go away, don’t degrade yourself.
Anagarika means “Homeless One”.
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John / May 15, 2017
Native,
It’s you who’s degrading yourself.
You and your dumb professor are wrong, word “Anagarika” does not mean “Homeless one”, and Anagarika Dharmapala was never homeless, he was the son of Don Carolis, one of the wealthiest men in the country who owned several mansions.
By wrongly framing him for 1915 Muslim mayhem, Anagarika Dharmapala was placed under house arrest for several year in Calcutta by British colonialists.
So Native, why would you say that the great man Anagarika Dharmapala was “homeless one”?
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Mallaiyuran / May 13, 2017
John,
That is how it was twisted. The English spelling is contributing to the twist. Nagarikaya is not bringing out the meaning of City Dweller in Tamil or Sanskrit.
In Tamil, City Dweller may be written as Nagaraan, Nagaraththaan, Nagarvaasi, Nagarvaazhi…
Like the Sinhala Gamarala – Gramaththan is a village dweller.
Style of people living in city is Nagarigam. This has nothing to do with one man’s property. That is a abstract word. That is Civilization. Thought it was born from the cultured city life, it is not going back to city any more. It has nothing to with city anymore. It simple meaning, now, an advanced lifestyle.
What you trying to bring out is something similar to paradesi. Paradesi does not claim any country as his, but live in all countries. The ideal description is, he is a homeless, city or town or villageless or even countryless man. So with all forceful of explanations to Anagarikaya it is still not telling a man is not in town or he is homeless or paradesi.
Then certainly Anagarika is not describing his property of non owning a living quarters.
Anagarika came to Tamil from Sanskrit. In that case Sinhala cannot deviate a lot from Sanskrit. It is the Tamil or Sanskrit adjective “uncivilised”.
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EnAG / May 13, 2017
John,
The word “nagar/nagaram” is a Tamil word (and is found in the sangam litterature which dates back to two millenia or more) with the meaning you cited. Infact the words “nagar” and “nagarikam” are inter-related, the latter also meaning fashionable which I forgot to mention in the earlier post above. And the words you mentioned for “about city” should be “nagara pilibandha” or “nagara gana”; and ‘city-dweller’ should be colloquially as “nagarayek” (as in “meya Kolomba nagarayek”) and never as “nagarikaya”. It is always mentioned in English translations/versions “Anagarika” as “homeless” which is wrong. It is wrong as in Dalada-Maligawa which is written in English as “Temple of Tooth”, but should be in reality “Palace of Tooth” as “maligawa”(from the Tamil word “maligai”) means palace. The word Temple means that houses God/Deity and not object or image of human.
EnAG
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soma / May 12, 2017
Why did the Tamil political class decide to destroy the Tooth Relic (1989) is the real question Prof. Savan or any other intelectual of his calibre and inclication would address one day is my only hope. That certainly would make the most interesting and historically significant reading.
Soma
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2017
सोमस जी (somass ji)
नमस्ते जी(Namaste Ji)
“Why did the Tamil political class decide to destroy the Tooth Relic (1989)”
Perhaps for the same reason as to why the Sinhala/Buddhist terrorist wanted to attack Dalada Maligawa.
Please ask members of Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya, Adhikari, Sunanda, D.M. Ananda, the public racist and well known hypocrite Somawansa Amarasinghe, Wimal Sangili Karuppan Weerawansa,……
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Edwin Rodrgo / May 13, 2017
Soma, I am not an intellectual. But I think it is a good thing to get rid of all rituals. Suppose one day you visist Africa and come across a nice house where people go to worship.
You ask what is there? They say that is where the skull of Bambagabooba is kept. They go to worship that.
Who is Bambagabooba? you ask.
They say, he is our biggest witch doctor.
How will you feel? I don’t know about you, but I know that I will be thinking, what a bunch of idiots are these?
Dalada Maligawa, nice architecture. No one has been able to duplicate the Paththirippuwa with the same glory and pure architectural beauty. I prefer to leave it at that.
Soon the new Buddha Bhagavath Mallaiyuran will take a decision on it. May be he will remove the tooth and put a kalaveddah inside. Only one thing I know, he hates Gotama.
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old codger / May 13, 2017
Edwin,
There are also places where :
1.People worship other people who have been nailed to pieces of wood.
2. Places where people pour milk on God’s erectile organ.
3. Places where people are not allowed unless they have removed part of their erectile organ.
All these groups think the others are crazy, of course.
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Native Vedda / May 14, 2017
old codger
“Places where people pour milk on God’s erectile organ.”
I am told that in certain parts of the west Yoni Pooja is gaining popularity.
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Watcher / May 12, 2017
As a direct descendent of AD, let me put some notes here. AD’s strategy was to remove SL’s from british colonial straight jacket and specially he was targeting coconuts (brown outer, white centre) in SL who are a privileged anglicans hired and natured by the british. What AD did and said at that time should be taken from the time at play with british basically marauding all over the world creaming other countries wealth for the empire.
Those coconuts are tamils and also sinhalese and today same coconuts are trying the same but now their paymasters from west and india.
AD had a great admiration to Indian culture at that time (unfortunately and sadly that culture today is diminishing in india) his fight is for the people of SL and its heritage. Stooges that are here at CT will not understand what that is since they just write absolute filthy lies here and will distort anything because they don’t even know how to analyse Mahavamsa since it is a “Great Chronicle” and nothing more.
Organised religions like christianity and islam are basically political tool to subjugate the masses with freking god which by the way created by the man and we are children of cosmic dust but nothing more.
BTW, India was never part of SL and SL land mass broke away from Africa and Madagascar and drifted billions years ago from Africa and still drifting towards north east .
SL or Indo Aryans have nothing to do with the European Aryans and only a idiot and a moron will use this as one. In Asian context Aryan means knowledgable one and this is linked to high Veda civilisation that eminent from mid east. AD’s target was poor sinhalese buddhist that were marginalised by the colombo coconuts and now we see that issue at present.
We all need to do better with SL first and should not use religion as a political tool. I find that muslims that use to assimilate with sinhalese now gone to wahibi’s way and that will create a another back clash and tamils need to look after their poor and war widows rather than asking pound of flesh which they are not entitle to..
Every time I visit India I get great respect and head chef’s always ask what i want to eat since they will cook for me and I hope one day both countries will find a common factor to embrace each others values.
Yes we all came from Africa and its a fact, and issue is what we build along the path from africa as a civilisation in the past and Sinhalese have a great past which we are all proud and that does not diminish just because Colombo or Hambantota clans are crooks.
Read RigVeda to understand who we are…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Aryan_peoples
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2017
Watcher
“As a direct descendent of AD, let me put some notes here”
Could you give us the names of AD’s wife, children, grand children, great grand children,…. As far as I know he remained a bramachari until his death unless of course you are the ancestor, father, grandfather, great grandfather, … of AD.
He was a public racist and believed he and the Sinhalese people were descendant of Aryans, therefore superior to other people.
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yusuf / May 13, 2017
Mr Vedda,
Dont you know AD left his wife and child when he became an arahat?
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jimsofty / May 12, 2017
As Mother theresa or any other christian Missionary would destroy one’s culture and civilization by introducing them to foreign cultures, AD never went to convert people from other cultures. HE just talked about his own culture and civilization.
I heard the same thing is happening in Mongoliza, Vietname, Korea etc., In Mongolia, christians are asking natives to come to christianity in order to get into the modern culture. the result is they are culturally lost.
See how Tamils. They don’t have Tamilnames or have half tamil names and they don’t know who a Tamil is but come here and talk big about Tamils.
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romani / May 12, 2017
Mr. Jimmy,
Korea only started to progress after it became majority Christian. Why do you think this is?
“See how Tamils. They don’t have Tamilnames or have half tamil names and they don’t know who a Tamil is but come here and talk”
You are using an English name.
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jimsofty / May 13, 2017
Romani:
Progress in your eyes and in our eyes are two different thigs.
Just explain why in the west people are moving from your type of progress.
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romani / May 13, 2017
“Romani: Progress in your eyes and in our eyes are two different thigs.”
I will believe you when you stop using things not made by a Buddhist. like the computer you are using.
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jimsofty / May 13, 2017
RomanI
YOur Name ios Tamil or or Estern european.
Romanians are mostly gypsies as you would be.
Compare AD with a Christian like KAaippu Joseph who came from Tamilnadu and spread hatred against Sinhala people as well as his men transported Suicide belt under theor cloaks.
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kabaragoya / May 12, 2017
Sorry to disappoint jimnotsosoftly. Apart from a few fellows like Hoole, few Tamils have Christian names. Most Tamil Christians have Tamil names, even, ones like Hoole. It is unlike the Sinhala Buddhist who still has Portuguese names like de Silva, Fernando,etc.
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John / May 12, 2017
Charley,
What load of bullsh1t article with full of lies as usual by you. This Steven fellow must have been paid lots of money by Tamil diaspora to write this “Rescued From The Nation: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World” crappy book. Steven should write a book about the atrocities that were committed by barbaric Dutch and British colonialists.
Lets expose lies on the article as much as possible.
There was no animosity between Anagariaka Dharmapala and Olcott, they worked together as much as possible then went separate ways to their missions. Olcott was from a different part of the world, he knew next nothing of Sinhala cultural practices and his mission was not interested in it either.
The Great Mahawanshaya is a chronicle full of already proven facts.
— “When he spoke to Sinhala audiences, he was usually contemptuous of the British, but his official letters were courteous and expressed loyalty to the empire”– One may contemptuous in his speech but be courteous in writing,it’s a protocol. Even these days employees are advised to be courteous and formal in letters and on the phone as well.
During Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods Sinhalese were at their finest. Charley, go to Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, and see them for yourself, there are still plenty of evidence of Sinhalese’ goriest past. It’s because coolies and Kallathonies not having a goriest past is not Sinhalese problem.
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John / May 13, 2017
Correction alert:
typo:
During Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods Sinhalese were at their finest. Charley, go to Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, and see them for yourself, there are still plenty of evidence of Sinhalese’ “glorious” past. It’s because coolies and Kallathonies not having a “glorious” past is not Sinhalese problem.
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John / May 13, 2017
The whole point of Charley’s article and Kemper’s book of lies is to assassinate the great man Anagarika Dharmapala’s great character, definitely filthy rich Tamil diaspora are behind this. You are all in this plot together.
How much does foreigner Steven Kemper know about Dharmapala?
What made Kemper have interest in Dharmapala to write a book about him?
How long did Kemper live in Sri Lanka to do the research about Dharmapala?
Who did Kemper talk to about Dharmapala?
Where did Kemper get his research materiel from?
What motivated Kemper to write this crappy book about completely unknown personality in America, considering, Kemper as a professor, got better thing to do?
Are you one of these ‘show me the money, I will write anything’ writer?
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jimsofty / May 13, 2017
Charles Ponnuthurei is a Christian Racist as most of the Christains who write articles here are and those who bash Sinhala people, buddhist praces, monks. AD, BBS, virathu like people.
I wonder for what subject his professor post was ans where he was teaching.
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Researcher / May 13, 2017
Readers would be interested in the following quote by the Anagarika Dharmapala (from M. Vythilingam’s book on the Life of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan):
” The day that you (Ponnambalam Ramanatan)are taken away from Ceylon, from that day there will be none to defend the poor, neglected Singhalese. They are a doomed people with none to guide and protect them. Unhappy Singhalese”.
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Edwin Rodrigo / May 13, 2017
Mallaiyuran becomes the next Buddha
Last night I was thinking about Mallaiyuran’s proclamation that “Buddha was Hindu until his last day”. Then I had a dream. Mallaiyuran, had become the next Buddha and was giving his first discourse under a huge Maple tree in Canada, in a buffalo park near Toronto. There were only 5 humans (all Tamil refugees) in the audience but there were 1000’s of ET’s listening.
The discourse was in Yiddish and but I managed to get a translation. What he said was exactly as in Dam Sak Pevatum Sutta of Gotama Buddha. He talked about the 4 noble truths (1) Dukkha, (2) the cause of Dukkha, (3) the way out (4) 8 fold path. He also explained how he discovered it by himself.
We all know that Mallaiyuran is a Hindu and he will remain a Hindu until the last day no matter what. So what has changed by him taking over from Gotama? All the frills like Temple of the tooth, Sri Pada, Sri Maha Bodhi, Peraheras, Dana to Sangha, BBS, Gnanasara et. al. would be gone. Most of all, Mahavamsa, the thorn in the flesh of Tamils will be kaput.
So what? I think we now have pure Buddhism. It is rather like Yahapanaya taking over from Marapalanaya. All the frills like nepotism, corruption and bribes are gone. but the luxury vehicles, foreign trips, Port City, Hambantota harbour all remain.
The lesson: The Buddha may change – The Dhamma does not. Why? Because Dhamma is nature. Just as Newton’s Laws remain even if Mallaiyuran becomes Newton.
Sorry, I must stop there. Silvestra has prepared the first Dana of Kiri Pidu for the new Buddha and I must go and offer it to him.
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Atticus / May 13, 2017
Ha ha ha you should write a column for CT.
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Native Vedda / May 13, 2017
Edwin Rodrigo
“Mallaiyuran becomes the next Buddha”
However you still practice Zoophilia.
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Edwin Rodrgo / May 13, 2017
MARA remains MARA
Do not worry Brother Veddah, there will be a complete reshuffle of the administration with Mallaiyurin becoming the latest Buddha. Stereotyped names such as Gam Veddhas, Gal Veddahs, Native Veddahs, Kalaveddahs et. al. will no longer be used. Only Weddas (Weda Karays, those who can do) and Putujjanas (who are not Weddas) will remain.
For you, may I suggest the position of Aththen Aaththata Devadatta. (Branch to Branch Devadatta).
Blessed Mallai is also unhappy about things like the Temple of the Tooth, bones being revered etc. He feels that Gotama has leaned too much for personal glory rather than guiding his followers towards nirvana. As you know every Buddha is also specialized in something such as Gotama for Pragna (Wisdom). Blessed Mallai will be specialized in Dhamma discourse. Of course we have no idea how this may work out. All his discourses so far have been in Yiddish.
Only MARA will not change. The new Buddha in all his wisdom feels that MARA should remain as MARA as there is no one better than MARA for that post anywhere in the universe.
If you are a Mahavamsa fan, you are in for a big surpris. All hard copies will be shredded, and burnt as Dummala in Kohomba Kankariya ceremony to drive away Jathivadaya, agamvadaya and Kulavadaya. Soft copies will be deleted and written over by other files 64 times. (CIA can retrieve files from hard disks written over 8 times. Hence 8 X 8 = 64 time should ensure that not even CIA would be able to recover Mahavamsa.
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Edwin Rodrgo / May 13, 2017
Theistic Religions in Crisis
The enlightenment of Blessed Mallai as the 29th Buddha and his decision to get rid of all frills such as rituals, statues, trees, chronicles etc. has brought theistic religions in to a huge crisis. It was a huge PR victory for Buddhism as only the very essence of Buddhism only remains now. Buddhism has been purified. Thanks to Thathagatha Mallaiyuran.
But the other religions are facing a mass revolt of their devotees. They are demanding that their religion follow suit and get rid of frills, rituals etc. In short to be Masala to be thrown out.
So, what is the problem? The problem is that in these religions, in stark contrast to Buddhism, there is only Masala – nothing else. For example, take Hinduism. Once you takeout the 330 million Gods, their concubines, their vehicles, their extra limbs etc. what would remain? Only the Bhagavad Gita, which is just an ancient book of pornography suitable for adults only.
The situation is much worse for monotheistic religions. They have only one God and for people who got rid of 330 million Gods getting rid of just one more would be Cadju eating stuff. But once you sweep away that single piece of Masala then less than nothing remains. At least Hindiusm will have a zero score + the pornography. These guys would have less than nothing.
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Edwin Rodrgo / May 13, 2017
Dharma Bhandagarika (Official Record Keeper)
Putujjanas, I have been appointed as the Official Record Keeper of Mallaiyuran Buddha. This is a great responsibility.
Rev. Ananda used to commit everything that Gotama said to memory. Then after his death all was repeated back to other monks so that the Dhamma will not be lost. Actually, they used two or more independent groups, and the groups met during rainy season and compared notes. Any discrepancy was corrected then there by consensus.
The system is similar to what modern digital systems use for important information. Two transmission channels are used and then compared at the receiving end. Together With what is known as a parity check, data integrity is assured.
As all of you know I am over 60. I cannot sometimes remember my own name. Memorizing is out for me. Especially when discourses are going to be in Yiddish. So, I will use a digital voice recorder.
oly Quran: By the way, do you know that the Holy Quran uses a system based on 19 (a fairly large prime number) to protect the contents against deletions and modifications.
The number of letters, words, paras, suras, etc, are all multiples of 19. (e.g.) If someone adds a word, immediately you will know because the number of words as well as letters will not be multiples of 19. Of course one can add chunks of 19. but that would be very difficult.
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jehan / May 13, 2017
following idiots like angarika is like following gnansaraya these days.
both were castist/racist killers. dust bin of history.
1915 riots started by angarike
2014 riots started by gnansaraya
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John / May 16, 2017
Real idiot was Asroff, during his tenure he behaved like mad dog and bulldozed Buddhist archeological sites in Eastern province.
MUSLIMS stared 1915 riots by throwing stones at “Devala Perahera”.
MUSLIMS stared 2014 riots by assaulting a Buddhist monk.
Isn’t it strange how Sinhalese tolerate death cult Muslims for so long?
“The Muhammedans, an alien people, by shylockian methods become prosperous like Jews. The Sinhala sons of the soil, whose ancestors for 2358 years had shed rivers of blood to keep the country free of alien invaders … are in the eyes of the British only vagabonds. The Alien South Indian Muhammedan come to Ceylon, sees the neglected villager, without any experience in trade … and the result is that the Muhammedan thrives and the sons of the soil go to the wall.”
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Nimal / May 14, 2017
We Sinhalese are utterly stupid and ignorant. We have no real heroes to writ about and this guy was a failure in like and a recluse who had the best of education in collages like CMS Kotte and St Thomas’s.Was not happy with his Catholic upbringing and became a Buddhist and lived in India. I he was a patriot then he would have stayed in Sri Lanka and helped to achieve something for the country. Who sad that we could glorify fakes,tell much about our culture.
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John / May 16, 2017
Hahaha
Nimal, You are not a Sinhalese Buddhist, are you? Your parents should have taught your Sri Lanka’s history. It’s because you people are out of place, it’s not Sinhalese problem.
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