Aging Gracefully

 Tuesday, February 7, 2012
 Aging Gracefully

Reproduction with Beauty
This is a reproduction and it is a beautiful piece.
I agree with all except being FAT.
Practically everything else is what I say and practice.
It is related to  Moment Meditation (MM) and that is all what we all have in common and not taken care of.
If every one enjoys the present moment this world is going to be a wonderful place.
 

One does not need to be old to practice it.
Unfortunately Wisdom comes too late to enjoy.

I have some proviso's for the elderly, though.
I give the physiological reason afterword.

1. Don't have a big booze, especially one for the door.
 

2. Don't come out when it is freezing cold outside without adequate warm clothing. 

Drinking cold beverages is an equivalent scenario.
 

3. Staining at stools is one of the bad predicament for the elderly. 

Which is bit more complex than a cold drink.4. Don't walk against the breeze.

 
4. Don't walk up a hill with heavy luggage in both hands.
 

5. Enjoy your sleep especially the dreams.
 

6. Don't do vigorous exercise without slow and gradual warm up (this applies to young, too).
 

7. Alcohol causes vasodilatation (that include coronaries, too).
When one comes out after the one for the door one is exposed to cold weather which triggers intense vasoconstriction which shoots up the Blood Pressure.
This combination is bad for both heart and brain.
Trigger Heart Attacks and Strokes.
 

If one is predisposed it will also bring about heart failure and pulmonary oedema which compromise everything that one had enjoyed inside.
 Others also have similar mechanisms except that the exercise can bring about 

8. Asthma in the predisposed especially the cold air which start the episode with cough.
 

9. Bottom line is keep warm and avoid scenarios of excessive vasodilatation and constriction.
 

10. Enjoy what is left of life. No procrastination. I would do it tomorrow.

Sorry for the preamble but enjoy what is below which is very beautiful writing.

If you have time read my dreams and their interpretations in this blog and elsewhere.
I have already two volumes in Amazon (both print and digital).
Most of them are futuristic and when one retires, one can be happy that we are leaving this world at relative peace.
 

In future with global warming and food scarcity, would will have a very Big Impact to which America, India, China, Brazil and more importantly UNO is not ready.
They are putting everything under the carpet and think some of my environmental prediction will never will come.
It is like ostrich hiding his head under sand.
 

Reproduction
Reproduction with Beauty
As I've aged.
I've  become kinder to myself, and less critical of  myself.  
I've become my own friend.  

I  have seen too many dear friends leave this  world, too soon; before they understood the  great freedom that comes with aging.  

Whose business is it,  if I choose to read, or play, on the computer,  until 4 AM, or sleep until noon?   

I will  dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of  the 60 &70's, and if I, at the same time,  wish to weep over a lost love, I will. 

I  will walk the beach, in a swim suit that is  stretched over a bulging body, and will dive  into the waves, with abandon, if I choose to,  despite the pitying glances from the jet  set. 

They, too, will get old.  

I  know I am sometimes forgetful.
But there  again, some of life is just as well forgotten.
And, I eventually remember the important  things.
Sure, over the years, my heart  has been broken.  
How can your heart not  break, when you lose a loved one, or when a  child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved  pet gets hit by a car?  
But, broken hearts  are what give us strength, and understanding and compassion.  
A heart never broken, is  pristine, and sterile, and will never know the  joy of being imperfect. 

I am so blessed to  have lived long enough to have my hair turning  grey to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.
So  many have never laughed, and so many have died  before their hair could turn silver.  

As you  get older, it is easier to be positive.
You care  less about what other people think.
I don't  question myself anymore.
I've even earned the  right to be wrong.  

So, to  answer your question, I like being old.  
It  has set me free.  
I like the person I have  become.  
I am not going to live forever,  but while I am still here, I will not waste time  lamenting what could have been, or worrying  about what will be.  
And I shall eat  dessert every single day (if I feel like  it).
 
Posted by Asoka at 7:10 PM No comments:   

Sunday, February 5, 2012
 

Dream 25 and its interpretation

Dream 25
I was in an air port.
This airport was different and I had to purchase the ticket from the airport counter itself.
There were lot of other people queuing to by tickets.
Lot of them looked like refugees trying to enter a new country.
I had one heavy luggage and a light handbag.
Somehow I managed to get a ticket for the immediate flight.
I checked the heavy luggage in a hurry.
Then I entered an area which looked like the departure lounge but looked very primitive.
I went into a gate to inquire and they checked my ticket with the only computer they had and said I have to wait for another 9 hours, for the flight.
 

When I asked why?
I was told that the pilot had not reported for work.
I felt strange.
They then told me the real departure lounge is a walking distance away from where we were and there are no taxis to take you there.
It is a nice walkaway, by the side of the Hotel International, I was told.
Since I had a very light hand luggage, I decided to take a stroll.
I walked passed the hotel, thinking it was only a joyride.
Moment I passed the hotel, I went into a heavily buildup area and lost my way.
I asked a passerby to show me the way and he said go straight and down.
I went up straight and ended up on top of a steep wall and there was no way to climb down.
Then by stroke of luck I found a side walk which was dirty and rickety.
With difficulty I finally reached the bottom which led to what looked like a street market.
There were lot of people who were doing lot of road side buying and selling.
Quite like, London in medieval times.
I felt I had been laid the wrong garden path.
To begin with, I lost all my belongings with my heavy luggage at the entrance of what for all intents and purposes was a bogus airport.
I was frightened and woke up immediately.
 

Posted this to Maha Brahma after the dream 26 was posted, thinking this has no relevance to it.
Maha immediately responded and asked me why this was not posted with the other.
I said I did not see any connection.

 
Interpretation
He said this has a direct relationship.
You will know it better when I expand on the story.
In your dream 26 I said one has to follow 10 points.
YES.
If Sri-Lankan do not follow those instructions to the letter, what I am going to say now will happen in about 50 years, he said.
Things are not rosy in 50 years time.
Why?
Can you guess?
Global Warming.
No.
Global warming is already set in and it won't change.
I think so.
It was only yesterday my pet fishes were almost cooked to dinner from direct sunlight.
All of them were floating on top of the water and I rescued them in nick of time and put them in some buckets that contained cooler water.
Had I come half an hour late, all of them would have been dead.
What did you do afterward.
I changed the water with some cool water I had collected for an emergency.
Then I covered the top and side with black plastic sheeting.
Fixed a new filter.
Put the air compressor on full throttle.
Did your fish die?
Thank god, not this time!
I checked the indoor temperature later which was 90 Fahrenheit and outside was probably higher.
Fish die at 84 F and it was touch and go scenario.
Can you have a second guess.
 

No fossil fuel and no planes.
That's right my boy.
In fifty years from now there are no fossil fuel and no airbus industry.
The airports built now will be idling and the industry that were built around them will go bankrupt.
Soon the the jungle take over the periphery.
But there will be few animals and the entire elephant fleet in the jungle is not more than fifty.
They roam in 5 to 10 in a herd and go violent moment they see humans.
Since humans now do not have jeeps or vehicles and have to travel by foot elephants do not fear humans anymore.
They rule the little vegetation that is there.
Global warming has caused untold misery in this country and it is no different from Dubai where England now play cricket with Pakistan.
 

Why did you interrupt my dream?
If I left it for another five minutes you would have lost the hand luggage and, you thought of hiding in the jungle nearby.
Had you entered there for cover the elephants will trample you to death.
I had to intervene for your safety.
Can you tell me where this place was?
The name is something like Hambantota.

 
I got it.
See you soon.
OK.

Facts about Pigs

 Pigs are Our Cousins

These are little things that will be prohibited to teach in schools in Ceylon, soon.

Pigs are very similar to humans in genome study.
 

They are communal species ( not like in pig farms).
They look after their young in the wild.
There is hierarchy dominated by mum like in the elephant family.
They are not ferocious as depicted in the wild boar clan.

They keep clean if left to their own devises.
 

Pig’s diseases are similar to human diseases especially cardiovascular risks.
 

Pigs become chubby like our politicians.
They are an intelligent species to tolerate (not the pig eaters) humans and their survival in a increasingly hostile planet where elephants with big brain fail is a dilemma.

Their intelligence and brain size are similar to the comparison of dolphins to humans.
 

Pigs diverted from wild boar probably million years ago.

Why god created pigs and hate ham is open to question for some religions.

The miniature Wuzhishan pig is extensively inbred and individuals are genetically similar.

Its small size makes it easy to handle and useful for medical research. 

The team looked at genes and protein domains that pigs and humans share. 

These are important targets for drugs. 

The researchers found the physiology of the two is 84 per cent similar at the genetic level.
The studies identified 112 positions in the genome where pig protein has the same amino acid that is implicated in a human disease.
This supports the use of pig in studies on human diseases. Some of the protein aberrations that pigs share with humans are associated with obesity, diabetes, dyslexia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

This understanding of the genetic origins of modern pigs is important for their breeding and to find new ways to deal with old and emerging diseases.

Elephant Cry?

Elephant Cry?
This is something I have kept in storage for a very longtime due to its politically sensitive nature.
You may remember the story I posted about, how to make an Elephant Laugh?
 

A decade or so ago I posted that story when web posts were the unusual and unconventional and we did not have even 1% web presence in this country.
The routers were not known and dial up connection were the norm but were painfully slow.
Then, the politicians were ignorant that there was something called WWW in existence.

That web site is currently under political scrutiny and I do not use it anyway and I have migrated to bigger things like Google and www.wordpress.com.

The web site with British Heritage with local support is blocked for reasons unknown to me.

In any case, I have no connection with anything British except BBC Sports but that also I rarely visit since I do not watch Sri-Lankan cricket at all after political interference during the last world cup with a doctor without CMC registration with dubious record was managing the Sri-Lankan cricket.
 

Mind you, I even missed the trashing England suffered under South African command.

I only knew it when I visited the BBC sports to see the opening ceremony details.
BBC sports has done an excellent job and I suggest you visit it now before Sri-Lankan Government ban it for publishing a news event of a Sri-Lankan official who accompanied the team found shoplifting in a far remote corner of the British Isles.

 
I am pretty sure more officials than the athletes have arrived in London, well before the opening ceremony and they are involved in other dubious activities other than sports in London such as SOHO or Gambling Dens.
Mind you, the gambling is our National pastime when abroad to make some fast buck of foreign exchange.
I exchanged some Travelers cheques  kept for safe keeping in view of our industrial action but the bank has failed to realize it for the last three weeks or so.
One of our stupid union man (may be he is working for the government) has slipped his tongue in public and the government has taken mean advantage of the situation and stopped payment of our salary.
The usual procedure of stop payment is to set off leave, then half pay for 3 to 6 months once the leave is exhausted and finally the full pay is withheld.
We are not even into three weeks of union action and I have all my leave and more unauthorized leave because of the strike.
This stupid union man does not know the procedures or the etiquette of addressing. the public media and how he conducts his lectures is a pertinent question in academic circles.
Probably, he is not good enough to to give lectures and has taken up union activities to survive.
Coming back, to gambling one of the Papua New Guinea players was killed returning from a gambling den in Colombo, frequented by some our of ex-cricketers (not current) and the reason is not money but a girl we are told but we are still to hear the official version or the real version now into 10 years of inquiry.

All these diversions were to tone down the political nature of the story related to the elephant who died few years ago.
 

How to make an Elephant cry?
This is a true story coming from the aegis of Maha Brahma.
The elephant of course ended up in heaven but the second part which was withheld by me goes on like this.

Within minutes of his presence in high heaven, he started crying.
 

Maha asked him Why?
When this Elephant Guy of yesteryear was ascending to high heaven, the mahout who was drunk had been sleeping on his rear holding onto his tail thinking it is the Henduwa that is used to control the the gentle giant.
As he was bit up in the air he felt something skirmish and asked where am I?
 

The elephant had said ¨We are on our way to high Heaven¨.
Hold tight.
What nonsense I am already in high heaven and the Kassippu was invigorating to say the least.
No my dear, we are really ascending to high heaven and hold tight.
The mahout woke up from his slumber and having realized that he was holding onto the tail and took his hand off to take the Henduwa to bring his mad Elephant to senses but alas he dropped from the sky to the earth below in a flash.
 

The elephant guy said to Maha that his master who was holding onto his tail had met with this tragic misadventure and I fear he is dead and he is in hell now.
Maha Brahma had a little pause and burst out into a big laughter.
Our new god was bit bemused.
Your friend did not die of the crash but the Nilame was dead instantaneously.
How come?
The Nilame has come to visit the mahout to pay his dues for the day.
Then when both of you ascended up the Nilame got hold of the mahout´s leg knowing very well that the trip was to high heaven.

When they crash landed the mahout fell on top of the Nilame and survived but not his Nilame.

He was taken into custody by the Sri-Lankan police and now he is in prison charged with murder of his boss.
 

Now he is in prison?
YES.
Poor guy it must be worst than the hell know?

What nonsense?
Sri-Lankan prison is hundred thousand times better than the hell with cellphones and all the paraphernalia.
Is it so?
Yes.
Do you want to see the glimpse of the hell.
Yes, please.
My goodness.
 

Who is that guy?
He is the Nilame that just arrived.
Why is he having a big thing hooked into his back.
He is still under investigation and on probation for a proper appraisal.
Who is that guy?
He is one of your ex-presidents now already assigned a post in hell.
What is his post?
If any of his fellow presidents join prison he has to give a proper affidavit to process his or her claim in the hierarchy reserved only for Sri-Lankan politicians.
Does he give a good one.
NEVER.
Why?
He never wanted anyone other than his party of Elephants to hold the post of presidency.
Now, that he has lost it he takes the PIN (Kusal or the merits) or PAIN of it in Hell.
 

Do you want to see some of the Diyawadanae Nilames there?
 

NO, Sir.

Brahmin

 One is not a brahmin by birth, Nor by birth a non-brahmin.
By action is one a brahmin, By action is one a non-brahmin.

Buddhagosa Tradition-Visuddhimagga

Buddhagosa Tradition-Visuddhimagga 

 

Buddhaghosa was a scholar, erudite and a compulsive researcher who vitalized the dying Pali Tradition (Pali was killed by Sinhala Theravada Tradition- in other word "Sinhalen Bhana").
 

His biggest failure was that he has to wait until the Mettyya Buddha to appear in eons time to realize Nibbhana.
 

In other words Buddhist Meditation is to practice Now and not later as envisaged, by Buddhagosa.
 

I have a copy of Visuddhimagga with me to remind me that the literary exercise is futile in the long run and the copy of Vimuttimagga (The path of FREEDOM) is much shorter and precise.
 

This is to counteract a distortion made by a senile guy who writes to the Island Paper for recreation of some sort.
Sometimes, I have to wake up from my slumber to awaken the misguided masses.
 

Reproduction from WiKiPedia and not my View!
Buddhaghosa Tradition

Buddhaghosa with three copies of Visuddhimagga, Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara
Occupation     Buddhist monk
Era     5th century
Movement     Theravada Buddhism
Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Indian Theravada Buddhist commentator, translator and philosopher.
 

He worked in the Great Monastery (Mahavihara) at Anurādhapura, Ceylon and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajjavada school and in the lineage of the Sinhalese Mahavihara.
 
His best-known work is the Visuddhimagga ("Path of Purification"), a comprehensive summary of older Sinhala commentaries on Theravada teachings and practices. According to Sarah Shaw, in Theravada this systematic work is "the principal text on the subject of meditation."
The interpretations provided by Buddhaghosa have generally constituted the orthodox understanding of Theravada scriptures since at least the 12th century CE.
He is generally recognized by both Western scholars and Theravadins as the most important philosopher and commentator of the Theravada, but is also criticized for his departures from the canonical texts.
 

Name
The name Buddhaghosa means "Voice of the Buddha" (Buddha+ghosa) in Pali, the language in which Buddhaghosa composed. In Sanskrit, the name would be spelled Buddhaghoṣa (Devanagari बुद्धघोष), but there is no retroflexing sound in Pali, and the name is not found in Sanskrit works.
Biography

Limited reliable information is available about the life of Buddhaghosa.
Three primary sources of information exist: short prologues and epilogues attached to Buddhaghosa's works; details of his life recorded in the Mahavamsa, a Ceylonese chronicle; and a later biographical work called the Buddhaghosuppatti.
A few other sources discuss the life of Buddhaghosa, but do not appear to add any reliable material.
The biographical excerpts attached to works attributed to Buddhaghosa reveal relatively few details of his life, but were presumably added at the time of his actual composition. Largely identical in form, these short excerpts describe Buddhaghosa as having come to Ceylon from India and settled in Anuradhapura.
Besides this information, they provide only short lists of teachers, supporters, and associates of Buddhaghosa, whose names are not generally to be found elsewhere for comparison.
The Mahavamsa records that Buddhaghosa was born into a Brahmin family in the kingdom of Magadha.
He is said to have been born near Bodh Gaya, and to have been a master of the Vedas, traveling through India engaging in philosophical debates.
Only upon encountering a Buddhist monk named Revata was Buddhaghosa bested in debate, first being defeated in a dispute over the meaning of a Vedic doctrine and then being confounded by the presentation of a teaching from the Abhidhamma.

 
Impressed, Buddhaghosa became a Bhikkhu (Buddhist monk) and undertook the study of the Tipiṭaka and its commentaries.
On finding a text for which the commentary had been lost in India, Buddhaghosa determined to travel to Ceylon to study a Sinhala commentary that was believed to have been preserved.
 

In Ceylon, Buddhaghosa began to study what was apparently a very large volume of Sinhala commentarial texts that had been assembled and preserved by the monks of the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya.

Buddhaghosa sought permission to synthesize the assembled Sinhala-language commentaries into a comprehensive single commentary composed in Pali.
Traditional accounts hold that the elder monks sought to first test Buddhaghosa's knowledge by assigning him the task of elaborating the doctrine regarding two verses of the suttas; Buddhaghosa replied by composing the Visuddhimagga.
His abilities were further tested when deities intervened and hid the text of his book, twice forcing him to recreate it from scratch.
When the three texts were found to completely summarize all of the Tipiṭaka and match in every respect, the monks acceded to his request and provided Buddhaghosa with the full body of their commentaries.
Buddhaghosa went on to write commentaries on most of the other major books of the Pali Canon, with his works becoming the definitive Theravadin interpretation of the scriptures.
Having synthesized or translated the whole of the Sinhala commentary preserved at the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya, Buddhaghosa reportedly returned to India, making a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya to pay his respects to the Bodhi Tree.
The details of the Mahavamsa account cannot readily be verified; while it is generally regarded by Western scholars as having been embellished with legendary events (such as the hiding of Buddhaghosa's text by the gods), in the absence of contradictory evidence it is assumed to be generally accurate.
While the Mahavamsa claims that Buddhaghosa was born in northern India near Bodh Gaya, the epilogues to his commentaries make reference to only one location in India as being a place of at least temporary residence: Kanci in southern India.
Some scholars thus conclude (among them Oskar von Hinüber and Polwatte Buddhadatta Thera) that Buddhaghosa was actually born in South India and was relocated in later biographies to give him closer ties to the region of the Buddha.
The Buddhaghosuppatti, a later biographical text, is generally regarded by Western scholars as being legend rather than history.
It adds to the Mahavamsa tale certain details, such as the identity of Buddhaghosa's parents and his village, as well as several dramatic episodes, such as the conversion of Buddhaghosa's father and Buddhaghosa's role in deciding a legal case.

 
It also explains the eventual loss of the Sinhala originals that Buddhaghosa worked from in creating his Pali commentaries by claiming that Buddhaghosa collected and burnt the original manuscripts once his work was completed.
 

Commentarial style
Buddhaghosa was reputedly responsible for an extensive project of synthesizing and translating a large body of ancient Sinhala commentaries on the Pāli Canon. His Visuddhimagga (Pāli: Path of Purification) is a comprehensive manual of Theravada Buddhism that is still read and studied today.
Maria Heim notes that, while Buddhaghosa worked by using older Sinhala commentarial tradition, he is also "the crafter of a new version of it that rendered the original version obsolete, for his work supplanted the Sinhala versions that are now lost to us".
Writing style
Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu writes that Buddhaghosa's work is "characterized by relentless accuracy, consistency, and fluency of erudition, and much dominated by formalism."
According to Richard Shankman, the Visuddhimagga is "meticulous and specific," in contrast to the Pali suttas, which "can be vague at times, without a lot of explanatory detail and open to various interpretations."
Method
According to Maria Heim, Buddhaghosa is explicitly clear and systematic regarding his hermeneutical principles and exegetical strategies in his commentaries.
He writes and theorizes on texts, genre, registers of discourse, reader response, Buddhist knowledge and pedagogy.
Buddhaghosa considers each Pitaka of the Buddhist canon a kind of method (naya) that requires different skills to interpret. One of his most important ideas about exegesis of the Buddha's words (buddhavacana) is that these words are immeasurable, that is to say, there are innumerable ways and modes to teach and explain the Dhamma and likewise there are innumerable ways in which to receive these teachings.
According to Heim, Buddhaghosa considered the Dhamma to be "well-spoken visible here and now, timeless," visible meaning that the fruits of the path can be seen in the behavior of the noble ones, and that comprehending the Dhamma is a transformative way of seeing, which has immediate impact.
According to Heim, this idea of the transformative and immediate impact of the scriptures is "vital to Buddhaghosa's interpretative practice," concerned as he is with the immediate and transformative impact of the Buddha's words on his audiences, as attested in the suttas.
Regarding his systematic thought, Maria Heim and Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad see Buddhaghosa's use of Abhidhamma as part of a phenomenological "contemplative structuring" which is expressed in his writings on Buddhist praxis.
They argue that "Buddhaghosa’s use of nāma-rūpa should be seen as the analytic by which he understands how experience is undergone, and not his account of how some reality is structured."
Yogacara influences
Some scholars have argued that Buddhaghosa's writing evinces a strong but unacknowledged Yogācāra Buddhist influence, which subsequently came to characterize Theravada thought in the wake of his profound influence on the Theravada tradition.
According to Kalupahana, Buddhaghosa was influenced by Mahayana-thought, which were subtly mixed with Theravada orthodoxy to introduce new ideas.
According to Kalupahana, this eventually led to the flowering of metaphysical tendencies, in contrast to the original stress on anattā in early Buddhism.
According to Jonardon Ganeri, though Buddhaghosa may have been influenced by Yogacara Vijñānavāda, "the influence consists not in endorsement but in creative engagement and refutation."
 

Theory of consciousness

The philosopher Jonardon Ganeri has called attention to Buddhaghosa's theory of the nature of consciousness and attention.

Ganeri calls Buddhaghosa's approach a kind of "attentionalism", which places primacy on the faculty of attention in explaining activities of thought and mind and is against representationalism.
Ganeri also states that Buddhaghosa's treatment of cognition "anticipates the concept of working memory, the idea of mind as a global workplace, subliminal orienting, and the thesis that visual processing occurs at three levels."
Ganeri also states:

    Buddhaghosa is unlike nearly every other Buddhist philosopher in that he discusses episodic memory and knows it as a reliving of experience from one’s personal past; but he blocks any reduction of the phenomenology of temporal experience to the representation of oneself as in the past. The alternative claim that episodic memory is a phenomenon of attention is one he develops with greater sophistication than has been done elsewhere.

Ganeri sees Buddhaghosa's work as being free from a mediational picture of the mind and also free of the Myth of the Given, two views he sees as having been introduced by the Indian philosopher Dignāga.
Meditation

Vipassanā and Vipassana movement
The Visuddhimagga's doctrine reflects Theravada Abhidhamma scholasticism, which includes several innovations and interpretations not found in the earliest discourses (suttas) of the Buddha.
Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga includes non-canonical instructions on Theravada meditation, such as "ways of guarding the mental image (nimitta)," which point to later developments in Theravada meditation. 

 
According to Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "the Visuddhimagga uses a very different paradigm for concentration from what you find in the Canon."

 
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana also notes that what "the suttas say is not the same as what the Visuddhimagga says they are actually different," leading to a divergence between a [traditional] scholarly understanding and a practical understanding based on meditative experience.

Gunaratana further notes that Buddhaghosa invented several key meditation terms which are not to be found in the suttas, such as "parikamma samadhi (preparatory concentration), upacara samadhi (access concentration), appanasamadhi (absorption concentration)."

Gunaratana also notes that the Buddhaghosa's emphasis on kasina-meditation is not to be found in the suttas, where dhyana is always combined with mindfulness.
Bhikkhu Sujato has argued that certain views regarding Buddhist meditation expounded in the Visuddhimagga are a "distortion of the Suttas" since it denies the necessity of Jhana.
The Australian monk Shravasti Dhammika is also critical of contemporary practice based on this work.
He concludes that Buddhaghosa did not believe that following the practice set forth in the Visuddhimagga will really lead him to Nirvana, basing himself on the postscript to the Visuddhimagga:

    Even Buddhaghosa did not really believe that Theravada practice could lead to Nirvana. His Visuddhimagga is supposed to be a detailed, step by step guide to enlightenment. And yet in the postscript he says he hopes that the merit he has earned by writing the Vishuddhimagga will allow him to be reborn in heaven, abide there until Metteyya (Maitreya) appears, hear his teaching and then attain enlightenment.

According to Sarah Shaw, "it is unlikely that the meditative tradition could have survived in such a healthy way, if at all, without his detailed lists and exhaustive guidance."
Yet, according to Buswell, by the 10th century Vipassana was no longer practiced in the Theravada tradition, due to the belief that Buddhism had degenerated, and that liberation was no longer attainable until the coming of Maitreya.

It was re-introduced in Myanmar (Burma) in the 18th century by Medawi (1728–1816), leading to the rise of the Vipassana movement in the 20th century, re-inventing Vipassana-meditation and developing simplified meditation techniques, based on the Satipatthana sutta, the Visuddhimagga, and other texts, emphasizing Satipatthana and bare insight.
 

Attributed works
The Mahavamsa ascribes a great many books to Buddhaghosa, some of which are believed not to have been his work, but composed later and attributed to him. Below is a listing of the fourteen commentaries (Aṭṭhakathā) on the Pāli Canon traditionally ascribed to Buddhaghosa
Tipitaka     Buddhaghosa's
commentary
from the
Vinaya Pitaka     Vinaya (general)     Samantapasadika
Patimokkha     Kankhavitarani
from the
Sutta Pitaka     Digha Nikaya     Sumangalavilasini
Majjhima Nikaya     Papañcasudani
Samyutta Nikaya     Saratthappakasini
Anguttara Nikaya     Manorathapurani
from the
Khuddaka Nikaya     Khuddakapatha     Paramatthajotika (I)
Dhammapada     Dhammapada-atthakatha
Sutta Nipata     Paramatthajotika (II),
Suttanipata-atthakatha
Jataka     Jatakatthavannana,
Jataka-atthakatha
from the
Abhidhamma Pitaka     

Dhammasangani     

Atthasālinī
Vibhanga     

Sammohavinodani
Dhatukatha     

Pañcappakaranatthakatha
Puggalapaññatti
Kathavatthu
Yamaka
Patthana


While traditional accounts list Buddhaghosa as the author of all of these works, some scholars hold that only the Visuddhimagga and the commentaries on the first four Nikayas as Buddhaghosa's work.

Meanwhile, Maria Heim holds that Buddhaghosa is the author of the commentaries on the first four Nikayas, the Samantapasadika, the Paramatthajotika, the Visuddhimagga and the three commentaries on the books of the Abhidhamma.
Maria Heim also notes that some scholars hold that Buddaghosa was the head of a team of scholars and translators, and that this is not an unlikely scenario.
Influence and legacy
In the 12th century, the Ceylonese (Sinhalese) monk Sāriputta Thera became the leading scholar of the Theravada following the reunification of the Ceylonese (Sinhala) monastic community by King Parakramabahu-I.
Sariputta incorporated many of the works of Buddhaghosa into his own interpretations.
In subsequent years, many monks from Theravada traditions in Southeast Asia sought ordination or re-ordination in Ceylon, because of the reputation of the Ceylonese (Sinhala) Mahavihara lineage for doctrinal purity and scholarship.
The result was the spread of the teachings of the Mahavihara tradition— and thus Buddhaghosa— throughout the Theravada world.
Buddhaghosa's commentaries thereby became the standard method by which the Theravada scriptures were understood, establishing Buddhaghosa as the definitive interpreter of Theravada doctrine.
In later years, Buddhaghosa's fame and influence inspired various accolades.
His life story was recorded, in an expanded and likely exaggerated form, in a Pali chronicle known as the Buddhaghosuppatti, or "The Development of the Career of Buddhaghosa".
Despite the general belief that he was Indian by birth, he later may have been claimed by the Mon people of Burma as an attempt to assert primacy over Ceylon in the development of Theravada tradition.
Other scholars believe that the Mon records refer to another figure, but whose name and personal history are much in the mold of the Indian Buddhaghosa.
Finally, Buddhaghosa's works likely played a significant role in the revival and preservation of the Pali language as the scriptural language of the Theravada, and as a lingua franca in the exchange of ideas, texts, and scholars between Ceylon and the Theravada countries of mainland Southeast Asia. 

The development of new analyses of Theravada doctrine, both in Pali and Sinhala, seems to have dried up prior to Buddhaghosa's emergence in Ceylon. 

In India, new schools of Buddhist philosophy (such as the Mahayana) were emerging, many of them making use of classical Sanskrit both as a scriptural language and as a language of philosophical discourse.
The monks of the Mahavihara may have attempted to counter the growth of such schools by re-emphasizing the study and composition in Pali, along with the study of previously disused secondary sources that may have vanished in India, as evidenced by the Mahavamsa.
Early indications of this resurgence in the use of Pali as a literary language may be visible in the composition of the Dipavamsa and the Vimuttimagga, both dating to shortly before Buddhaghosa's arrival in Ceylon.
The addition of Buddhaghosa's works— which combined the pedigree of the oldest Sinhala commentaries with the use of Pali, a language shared by all of the Theravada learning centers of the time— provided a significant boost to the revitalization of the Pali language and the Theravada intellectual tradition, possibly aiding the Theravada school in surviving the challenge to its position posed by emerging Buddhist schools of mainland India.
According to Maria Heim, he is "one of the greatest minds in the history of Buddhism" and British philosopher Jonardon Ganeri considers Buddhaghosa "a true innovator, a pioneer, and a creative thinker."
Yet, according to Buddhadasa, Buddhaghosa was influenced by Hindu thought, and the uncritical respect for the Visuddhimagga has even hindered the practice of authentic Buddhism.
Notes

    1. See also Bronkhorst (1993), Two Traditions of Meditation in ancient India; Wynne (2007), The Origin of Buddhist Meditation; and Polak (2011), Reexaming Jhana
    2. Devotion to Metteya was common in South Asia from early in the Buddhist era, and is believed to have been particularly popular during Buddhaghosa's era.

References

    (v. Hinüber 1996, p. 103) is more specific, estimating dates for Buddhaghosa of 370–450 CE based on the Mahavamsa and other sources. Following the Mahavamsa, (Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxvi) places Buddhaghosa's arrival as coming during the reign of King Mahanama, between 412 and 434 CE.

    Strong 2004, p. 75.

    Gethin, Rupert, Was Buddhaghosa a Theravādin? Buddhist Identity in the Pali Commentariesand Chronicles, 2012.

    Shaw 2006, p. 5.

    (Crosby 2004, p. 837)

    Gombrich 2012, p. 51.

    (v. Hinüber 1996, p. 102)

    Rhys Davids & Stede, 1921-25, Pali-English Dictionary, Pali Text Society.

    "Sanskrit Dictionary". Retrieved July 23, 2016.

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxviii.

    Gray 1892.

    (Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxix)

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxix-xxx.

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxxiv.

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxxii.

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxxv.

    Strong 2004, p. 76.

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxxc.

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxxix.

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxxvii-xxxviii.

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxxviii.

    Stede, W. (October 1951). "The Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosācariya by Henry Clarke Warren; Dharmananda Kosambi". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (3/4): 210–211. JSTOR 25222520.

    Stede, D. A. L. (1953). "Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosācariya by Henry Clarke Warren; Dharmananda Kosambi". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 15 (2): 415. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00111346. JSTOR 608574.

    Edgerton, Franklin (January 1952). "Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosācariya by Henry Clarke Warren; Dharmananda Kosambi". Philosophy East and West. 1 (4): 84–85. doi:10.2307/1397003. JSTOR 1397003.

    Heim 2014, p. 7.

    Ñāṇamoli, 1999, Introduction p. xxxvii

    Shankman 2008, p. 54.

    Heim 2018, p. 5-6.

    Heim 2018, p. 9.

    Heim 2018, p. 13.

    Heim 2018, p. 14.

    Heim, Ram-Prasad, In a Double Way: Nāma-rūpa in Buddhaghosa’s Phenomenology, Philosophy East and West, University of Hawai'i Press.

    Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism by Dan Lusthaus. RoutledgeCurzom: 2002 ISBN 0700711864 pg 106 n 30

    Kalupahana 1994.

    Ganeri, 2018, 32.

    Ganeri, 2018, 31.

    Ganeri, 2018, 34.

    Kalupahana, David J. (1994), A history of Buddhist philosophy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited

    Sujato, Bhante (2012), A History of Mindfulness (PDF), Santipada, p. 329, ISBN

    Shankman 2008, p. 117.

    Shankman 2008, p. 136.

    Shankman 2008, p. 137.

    Shankman 2008, p. 137-138.

    Sujato, Bhante (2012), A History of Mindfulness (PDF), Santipada, p. 332, ISBN

    The Broken Buddha by S. Dhammika, see p.13 of 80

    Sponberg 2004, p. 737–738.

    "Maitreya (Buddhism) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Retrieved 2009-01-28.

    Buswell 2004, p. 889.

    Buswell 2004, p. 890.

    McMahan 2008, p. 189.

    (v. Hinüber 1996, p. 103)

    Table based on (Bullitt 2002) For translations see Atthakatha

    For instance, regarding the Khuddha Nikaya commentaries, (v. Hinüber 1996, pp. 130–1) writes:

    Neither Pj [Paramattha-jotika] I nor Pj II can be dated, not even in relation to each other, except that both presuppose Buddhaghosa. In spite of the 'Buddhaghosa colophon' added to both commentaries ... no immediate relation to Buddhaghosa can be recognized.... Both Ja [Jataka-atthavannana] and Dhp-a [Dhammapada-atthakatha] are traditionally ascribed to Buddhaghosa, an assumption which has been rightly questioned by modern research....

    Heim 2018, p. 19.

    Heim 2014, p. 9.

    (Pranke 2004, p. 574)

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxvii.

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxvii-xxviii.

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli 1999, p. xxxix-x.

    Heim 2013, p. 4.

    Ganeri, 2018, p. 30.

    S. Payulpitack (1991), Buddhadasa and His Interpretation of Buddhism

    Buddhadasa, [https://www.dhammatalks.net/Books6/Bhikkhu_Buddhadasa_Paticcasamuppada.htm Paticcasamuppada: Practical Dependent Origination]

Sources

    Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli (1999), "Introduction", in Buddhaghosa (ed.), Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification, translated by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, Seattle: Buddhist Publication Society, ISBN
    Bullitt, John T. (2002), Beyond the Tipitaka: A Field Guide to Post-canonical Pali Literature, retrieved 2009-04-07
    last Buswell, Robert, ed. (2004), Encyclopedia of Buddhism, MacMillan
    Crosby, Kate (2004), "Theravada", in Buswell, Jr., Robert E. (ed.), Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, USA: Macmillan Reference USA, pp. 836–841, ISBN
    Ganeri, Jonardon (2017), Attention, Not Self, Oxford University Press
    Gray, James, trans. (1892), Buddhaghosuppatti or the Historical Romance of the Rise and Career of Buddhaghosa, London: Luzac
    Heim, Maria (2013), The Forerunner of All Things: Buddhaghosa on Mind, Intention, and Agency, USA: OUP USA
    Heim, Maria (2018), Voice of the Buddha: Buddhaghosa on the Immeasurable Words, Oxford University Press
    Hinüber, Oskar von (1996), A Handbook of Pali Literature, New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., ISBN
    Kalupahana, David J. (1994), A history of Buddhist philosophy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
    McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford University Press, ISBN
    Pranke, Patrick A. (2004), "Myanmar", in Buswell, Jr., Robert E. (ed.), Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, USA: Macmillan Reference USA, pp. 574–577, ISBN
    Rogers, Henry Thomas, trans. (1870): Buddhaghosha's Parables / translated from Burmese. With an Introduction, containing Buddha's Dhammapada, or "Path of Virtue" / transl. from Pâli by F. Max Müller, London: Trübner.
    Shankman, Richard (2008), The Experience of Samadhi: An In-depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation, Shambhala
    Shaw, Sarah (2006), Buddhist Meditation: An Anthology of Texts from the Pali Canon, Routledge
    Sponberg, Alan (2004), "Maitreya", in Buswell, Jr., Robert E. (ed.), Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, USA: Macmillan Reference USA, ISBN
    Strong, John (2004), "Buddhaghosa", in Buswell, Jr., Robert E. (ed.), Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, USA: Macmillan Reference USA, p. 75, ISBN

Further reading

    Law, Bimala Charan (1923). The life and work of Buddhaghosa, Calcutta, Thacker, Spink.
    Pe Maung Tin (1922). The path of purity; being a translation of Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagg. London, Published for the Pali Text Society by Oxford University Press.

Who is Buddha and what he is not?

    Who is Buddha and what he is not?

    It is very difficult to answer this question either in positive or negative sense.

    BUT;
   

 I will start with the negatives.

    1. He was not a philosopher and Buddhism is not a philosophy.

    2. He was not a scientific scholar.
    The science and technology were not his domain.
    

In fact, it was a bane by his subtle insinuations of scientific goals which are by nature local or global in nature and not absolutes truths. 

 

In fact, rational investigating mind is a hindrance to mental awakening, which he prescribed for understanding of the uncertainty or the unsatisfactoriness of the greed, ignorance and selfishness within every human being. 

 

What it means is basic understanding of nature is OK but looking for absolutes is a vain exercise of no use except of temporary benefit.

    3. He did not proclaim a rigid dogma of God and a Creator of the Universe.

    He was part of the cosmos and all living beings are part of this cosmos and not outside (this cosmos). 

 

Simply put God is outside of this cosmos and the God is not part of it (in literal sense, he cannot exist on his or her own domain apart from becoming part of the cosmos).

    The god is only a clumsy and flimsy human creation with no substance at all.

    Coming to positive side of  Buddha's Teaching he was one of us and was a perfect human being.

    1. He lived in the present moment (of mind and associated mental formations of infinite variegation) not in the past or in the future tense.

    No two human beings are alike and no two thought moments are alike.

    2. He was a born environmentalist and lived all his enlightened life (except the rainy season) under a tree and not away from the nature.

    3. He gave equal opportunity to all living beings and a wild cat living on another living being for survival was not an antithesis.

    In other words, wild cats were born of their own karmic exposition and escape from that  predicament is possible at the time of patisandhi citta or linking to  the next life.

    It is not eternal hell but escape is possible from animal kingdom to a better life BUT not being born again is his ONLY goal to eternity.

    It is not a Void but a Signless existence of equanimity.

    4. It is an individual responsibility of each and every individual to seek for his or her own salvation of the inescapable "human suffering and bonding". 

 

I have excluded some difficult areas of Pali rendering and unfortunately English is inadequate to explain the "Wisdom of Buddha" I have put the conceptual framework of Buddha's thinking would have been.

    By the way, I do not claim I understand all of them clearly.

    Do not hang on to Kalama Sutta and questioning the Kalama Sutta itself, is the entry point to Enlightenment.

Buddha was never a saviour of humanity but who showed the way of compassion, boundless kindness, sympathetic joy and above all equanimity.

In his world there is no ground for Killing and War whether due to ideology or religious sects or humiliation of a different faith or sector.

Religion by all means a Brain Virus.

 

Meaning of Freedom

 Published Aug 21, 2016
Meaning of Freedom

Reproduction which is very OLD but relevant to this Day

The dangling of the carrot is the proverbial statement for an offering that is apparently “feasible but not tenable”, that is presented to hoodwink the unsuspecting masses.
Now the operative word is the FUD, a shorthand for Fear, Uncertainty and the Doubt.


FUD the triple of Fear, Uncertainty and the Doubt that is created in the minds of masses by corporate giants and is utilized to sideline the competitors.
 

Good example is the operation of Microsoft against the competitive Linux distributions.

When Linux was emerging as an operating system the FUD was amply utilized to distance the would be computer enthusiast and lure him / her to Microsoft Windows.
 

But being intellectuals most of the Linux enthusiast overcame this by sheer courage and community spirits.

Linux was very flexible and now quite unintentionally FUD is working against its originator.

Community spirit prevailed in the Linux community and the Free Software Foundation laid the foundation in overcoming FUD syndrome.

The spirit of Free Software Foundation / Linux is the gift of original software to the Internet Community.
As long as the authorship (not ownership) is quoted any modification could be done to the original copy to improve it and remove bugs. However the improved version has to be re-released back to the pool for further development by the community.


It is called the copy left and not copy right.


So the natural evolution of the software takes leaps and bounds within a short space of time for the betterment of the masses.
 

Much of this principle is very much close to the Buddhist principle of “Dhamma Dhana” but with a difference.

What is given away is recycled with added improvement in quality and it is given away for another cycle like the “Sansara” cycle never ending.
One need not improve “The Dhamma” but only have to understand its underlying principles and spread the message of goodwill.
It is interesting to note that a Buddhist monk who had appeared in a court to protect his Pirith cassette, he had been marketing.
 

Is the “Sabbha Dhanam Dhamma Dhanam Jinathi” spirit of Buddhism being betrayed?


This monk should read the evolution of Linux Community and the General Public License that came with the Free Software Foundation. This Buddhist monk does not understand that the Gift of Dhamma is the supreme gift and it should not be commercialized.

A blank CD / cassette is only Rs.25 / 50 and anybody who is selling a Pirith CD / cassette for more than Rs.50 is vandalizing these principles.
 

If Buddha is alive today I wonder what he would utter.
 

Would be an another occasion for “Udana Whakya” similar to “Sabbha Dhanam Linux Dhanam Jinathi” and would have a little smile at the corner of his mouth. There would be few more verses added illustrating the illusion of freedom and liberty of the mind filled with lust, hate and delusion.


Are we truly free and liberated?

from China, India and USA?

 
It is something worth pondering.
 

All Sri-Lankans whatever the creed may be, believe that they are prisoners of their own conscience.
Sinhalese believe that they have to be free from interference by Tamils.
Tamils believe they are persecuted by the majority.
Are the Tamils free from persecution by their masters?.
The Muslims, believe they have to be free from indulgence from both Tamils and Sinhalese.
Million dollar question is, could the piece mongers (foreign ambassadors of dubious credentials) allay the FUD syndrome?
They in fact created it.
We are in this vicious cycle of suspicion, the LTTE and party in power and party aspiring to come into power are spreading the FUD syndrome viciously to its maximum zenith (peak).
What is needed is to have FUD syndrome at its nadir (depths).
The international community spreads the FUD syndrome to help the propagation of their corporate agenda with dangling the proverbial carrot.
What is happening in the political field in Sri-Lanka is the insensible manifestation of FUD syndrome.
At a philosophical level what Socrates said to an aggressive follower who would stretch his arm for a punch is relevant even today.
“Your freedom ends where my nose begins”.
The international community should realize that they are very close to every one's nose.


It is nice to recapture what Nazurudeen stated about his failure to marry.
It is said that he had been to all the countries looking for a girl he liked.
Ultimately he found one but the girl who matched his interests was also looking for man whom she wanted but alas for him / her that man was not Nazurudeen.


We have being looking for a suitable match maker for   Sri-Lankan bride. Now we are left with a whole harem of foreign ambassadorial girls (donating their vices).
At what price we do not know?
This is where one has to ponder and ask the vital question what is the price for freedom and what is the meaning of liberty?
Poor man on the street does not understand the jargon he will never be freed from his poverty.
As long as there is corporate mind set in making profits without sharing the wealth of information with its competitors to improve the quality and availability at an affordable price the gap between the rich and poor would widen.
Free market philosophy is not for liberating the masses.
They are there to increase the profits.
The belief that profits would filter to the masses is a grand myth.
There is no community involvement as seen in the Linux community. Linux community feels that they are liberated from the corporate giants. Until and unless we are free from both local and foreign corporate giants who are hell bent on making profits and exercise their monopoly, the freedom of choice is an illusion to the majority.
Only the minority will have the freedom to enjoy and exploit.
This corporate mind set should change to community mind set and community involvement.
There is a limit that the free market philosophy can stretch but beyond that point there are diminishing returns.
Like in the Linux community somewhat similar orientation has to take place in the business community in        Sri-Lanka and worldwide for the true meaning of freedom to be enjoyed by all.
Not a privileged and selected minority.
Freedom that costs is meaningless.
Selfish gains but no devotion as is preached by all the religions is not relevant to the corporate mind set.
Microsoft agents doing a few community projects (to lure a few deprived clients in the periphery) without shedding their corporate mentality is of little benefit to the masses.
A wholesome benefits want accrue.
If we do not think in radical terms and initiate changes now, there going to be massive uprising, hitherto unknown in the past. Some of the manifestations in the world today are a sign of this frustration building.
Not only with the poor but in the middle class too.
The middle class gave stability but it is fast disappearing.
With the wide use of the Internet, we would hear of more and more of evolving crisis.
People would like to see the credibility in their leaders which is sadly lacking in the world because of corporate giants pulling their strings behind their leaders.
They determine policy not the larger masses.
The masses would ask what is the meaning of this freedom?
That is the starting point of the crisis of this century.
Leaders have to be groomed with social values and ideals and not individual profiles and party profiles. Leaders should not be trained only to run the corporate giants. Leaders should be trained to lead the community they live.
Emulating western values only, going to be, not enough and begging bowl mentality should give way to equal partners in international dealing whether the country is big or small.
Some of the eastern values of sharing and caring should take precedence over profits. Then only one can call the citizens of sovereign nations are free and liberated.
United Nations will fail in their duty, if they have only Human Right Charter for cosmetic exercises. In that case the amount money that is spent on UNO could be better utilized for some other ventures.
They should rewrite these Charters.
Profit beyond certain acceptable levels should be prohibited or a certain level of compulsion to do community research both eco-friendly and community-friendly should be encouraged.
What is the big idea of having a few rich people and million and millions of poor souls?
How can a man like Tyson a champion one day and then a pauper the next day (in his twilight years)?
It is not acceptable in USA and for that matter any other country in this world.
Where is the social security?
England had a very well organized social security system and in another 50 years time it is going to be all private pensions?
These questions that are raised in the West and are equally relevant to us. The people who raise these voices have no industrial or corporate muscle.
Party politics seem to have ruined the entire world.
Most of the party leaders worldwide are gullible liars and some of them are of course pathological in nature.
Can we trust these leaders?
This is what is emerging in the West.
The covert political mechanisms are firmly embedded and established, in the  current system, only the corrupt and rich can rise to the top.
So, talking about freedom whether it is in the West or East is futile to the average man on the street. They just get the kick out of kicking a party out of power to get another miserable party into power and languish till the next opportunity to make the same mistake again.
In reality, it is a Gamble or a Casino?
One day cricket was much more interesting until this Casino bug bit it in full.
At the end of the day, all the so called democratic exercises are futile and the freedom of choice, a bad dream and a nightmare, just as well, to be forgotten by the majority at stake.
The liberation that the average man is looking for in economic and social fields is not achieved. Goals are set but never achieved due to lack of penetrating insight and vision.
What is done is patchy and ad hoc. We are blindly going through the cycle of events till events take control of our freedom.
Are we truly liberated?
The answer is firm, No.

Freedom
Four freedoms elegantly expressed by former US President F.D.Roosevelt have given way to FUD factor. The freedom of speech and expression (state controlled media and private media with vested interests), freedom of worship (desecrating religions), freedom from want (poverty) and last but not least freedom from fear (terrorism) has no meaning today worldwide.
The last factor the fear (from both physical and psychological) is utilized to gain undesirable motives.
The psychological fear is the deadliest of all and our doctors are using this to the detriment of the profession (both public and private).

Linux Song

 Linux Song

Grand Finale of Linux

Yes, my activities on Linux will end sooner than late.

But I hit a high point.

I will end with a Linux Song.

It came after a brief dream, simple adaptation of a dream to Linux needs.

We we having a grand University conference on some godforsaken topic of some sort of no significance. 

It was not global warming, by the way.

Spouses who were not academic entities were getting bored to the core.

Then there was a suggestion for each spouse to sing a song.

The best singer spouse gets an award.

It was my wife chance and her name was called.

We could not find her and children were getting agitated.

Finally, we found her hiding behind a pillar in a far away corner which looked like Melbourne University (I have not been there).

The dream abruptly ended and I decided to pen a Linux Song.

Anybody can take it and sing.

Take it to the next level.

If it becomes a hit song, the Royalties should go to FOSS Linux and Linux Freedom site which hosts old Linux images.

It is written with a hint of "Bugger the Bankers" song.

Elephant Talks

 Friday, July 27, 2012
Elephant Talks
I am not referring to the two legged variety.
Talking to them has no meaning electoral wise since they cannot talk with one voice or with coherence.
I sometime think they talk from both ends open, since the odor or the malodor that emanate is no different.
I am referring to the four legged variety who take the center stage for a brief period of ten days in the hill capital, Kandy .
I wish they could talk.
If they do, I know, unlike the two legged variety they will talk with one voice.
They will tell us, ¨Give us our heritage, the vast stretch of land we had for ourselves including  the hill country now covered with tea plantation¨.
Do not give us the barren land without water in the dry zone.
We cannot keep cool in the dry zone without waterholes.
No more development please.
No more electricity nor fence with electric shocks.
This land was hours long before humans existed.
Mammoth has gone for good, we are next in the line of extinction.
Give us a break!
Give us the ¨watershed¨.
I wish they could pull a trigger in evolution to develop the capacity to acquire language facility of their own like how the humanoid developed it (the capacity to talk and develop language was a very recent development in evolution).
But the way, the things are as it is, there is no time in their life history to develop it.
In any case, the man (including Buddhists)  will not allow that to happen by even a stroke of accident.
Why?
They will be extinct in a matter of a century.
There is no time for the evolutionary changes to come about.
Since that is not possible, I decided to have little look around the captive ones and try to develop, some channel of communication.
Make it a silent rapport.
Yes, they can understand our language but we cannot understand how they think of us.
First I wanted to see whether they were happy or not.
Of the few I surveyed they were more than happy.
They weather gods had been nice.
We had light rain from the first day of the Perehara.
The scorching sun has taken a little respite.
They have had good baths, the manicure, pedicure and the trunk-cure (this is a word I coined today-the looking after, the trunk of an elephant) or the tong-cure have been excellent.
(Mind you Cambridge professor of English, take a note of my new word.
I have no trust on Oxford with the Olympics on stage.
They will be busy coining new words for the Olympic Security Protocol taken over by the private sector.
 It looks like, after the Iraq War Crime Issues of Labour regime in the background as it were with some bad taste, the conservative administration has no faith in their regular security arm).
All the elephants were happy, except one veteran in near retirement.
Unfortunately there is no retirement facility for these gentle giants.
He had tears down his cheek but they were dry when I saw him.
He was in the middle of the pack with young and the very young chaperoning him.
This guy was tall and that gave an indication of his age in years.
His skin was brownish and not golden black, like in the young adults.
He looked anaemic too.
He is no longer chewing his meal as he used to do when young.
His molar teeth are failing him and that would have been the reason for his pallor.
I do not say he was neglected but his age was showing.
Moment I came near him he gave me a gesture that told me.
I knew when you were young, you used to come and watch me in the parade or half ditched in water at Katugastota Elephant bath.
You have even scrubbed my skin and you were on top of me.
You were like a feather on my hat.
I was young but you were tiny.
Yes, I can jolly well remember you.
He lifted his trunk very very slowly not very gracefully though, but gave a glimpse of his good old majesty.
I took his picture in a snap second.
Then he stopped and looked at me very attentively.
That look was very familiar to me.
When did I see you last?
Could have been 40 odd years ago.
Your look is admirably different now.
You have no hair on your top.
They are becoming silvery.
But the smile on the corner of your mouth is the same.
You look is trim and I like the way your are.
Look at me I am having arthritis.
I cannot lift my trunk like it used to be.
I am not going to lift you up, it is going to make cranky noises in all my joints.
It might snap few ligaments if I try.
I am sorry but I wish I could take you up for a ride.
Don worry man.
My tears are not because I am sad.
I am old enough to take life on a springboard.
In fact I am happy to be in the parade this year too.
The tears were due to excruciating pain when I chew.
This may be my last parade or the tour of gratitude to the lord.
No, No I will come and see you next year too.
That is of course, if I do not kick the bucket before you.
But you can have  a bypass, know?
But I do not want a heart of a young buddy.
Even if I had a bypass my teeth are failing to pump in enough food for its smooth running.
Good Bye!
We may not see again or may be we might.
I keep my fingers cross.
I said thank you for his thoughtful gestures and remarks.
Good Bye and turned round to come home.
Mind you, I was in between four giants.
I was within their trunk range and all the mahouts were gone for lunch.
One big one was blocking my exit pathway.
He was telling me you had a big chat with the old guy.
Why not me, I can take you on my hood.
Just stay a little while,  till my master comes after his lunch.
I have not had a bath too.
I am game for a chit chat all the same, like the old guy.
As I entered the closed enclosure, I had a long pause at the entrance and he displayed few of his tricks to me with the mahout prompting.
I told the mahout just let him be.
I like the way he is.
You said you like the way I was.
I liked your comment very much.
Before you came, I was thinking of all the lasses I am going to see tonight in the parade.
When you said, ¨I like the way I was¨, I started thinking of the real reason I was here.
Not to see lasses but to pay homage to the lord.
I will focus on that now and I have all the years ahead of me to see not one but many lasses, if I do want.
I politely said, you are blocking my way.
There is nobody to order you now.
It is only a polite request from an older guy.
Why not let me go.
Your big trunk is far to comfortable for me.
I do not trust you.
You might take me for a ride or a trick or two.
I am not a bully, you know, but I like a few teasers though, to keep ahead of the time.
Then he turned 90 degrees to let me pass through the entrance.
That is very nice of you.
Thank you.
Do not forget to come again next year.
I will.
Who says elephants can´t talk?

Exit-Bat Stage

 Exit-Bat Stage

This piece touches the tone of philosophy but has a little flavour of Buddhist outlook.

By the way, Buddhism is not a philosophy as propagated in the West but an advanced life style not seen in the Capitalistic World.

My animal.analogy is the most appropriate to describe the current human tragedy exposed by a tiny but powerful m or t RNA virus.

First 35 years is the dog stage where one tries to achieve his or her goal but many fail  in this exercise and settle in the highest level of incompetency, where as described in Banking Principles (Peter Principle) one settles in his or her highest level of competency.
 

There is no upward climb but usually a downward slide.

The next level is the donkey stage and one only does the delegated work of his or her superior but boring nevertheless.
 

This lasts for 35 years.

The third stage is the Bird Stage (I entered this well before 70) where one reflects on self and on others and basically non judgemental.
 

An extremely difficult to achieve if one is married.

The birds are the best example where they are either in the free stage chirping on the tree tops or in escape mode from the seasonal rain, monsoon in particular.

Our Mynar is the classic example where he/she has a beautiful malady even on a rainy day.

A happy chirpy guy but equally dominating the atmosphere.

Very few humans can enter Bird Stage but they slip prematurely into the next stage which is the fox stage and remain their until one kicks the bucket.

This Bird Stage lasts for only 10 years and  one enters the vermin or fox stage, thereafter.

The worst of all and generally all World Top Politicians fall into this including President Biden.

My mother even went past this fox stage until 90s and luckily she passed away a decade before Coronavirus.

This I called the Bats Stage where one precariously hanging on to the failing heart or lung on a ventilator.

My advice for one is the kick the bucket well before entering this stage, since in Buddhist Samsara Cycle, the death is the beginning of another cycle but may not be human but lower down in the animal Kingdom.

Lot of our politicians end up there whatever the beneficial Karma, they try to acquire, (wearing the mantle of the head of state or Prime Minister post), or try to achieve by going from one pipal tree to another.

Regards to the Buddhist monks of Ceylon, who literally over indulge in TV Banana Bana or sermons, most of them become TV stars in their next life usually in Bollywood and not in Hollywood due to the lack of their competence to put Dhamma to the Western audience in crisp and clear in English.

One should not apply this to married life and one is either in dog stage or donkey stage eternally.

This piece will ideally should exit me from the Internet but I could not.

I am in Bird Stage anyway and watching Internet is boring now that Biden is up there,  boring to say the least to see him hugging a dog.

He should enter the donkey stage where he was for 45 years and was very comfortable.

To Hell or Heaven

Posted on December 23, 2011
To Hell or Heaven

It is said

That when

A Sri-Lankan

Plans to go abroad

He becomes secretive

And almost paranoid

Does not tell anybody

Of his intentions

Lest somebody pulls a string

Under the carpet

To stop

His endeavour

But

Once he is abroad

And found

A filthy dwelling

For habitation

He is in all but praise

Of the new found

Hell sans freedom

Wants all his fellow beings

Left behind

To come, join him

In misery

And share his chores and concerns

I am told

This is so

In the Middle East

Or else as

A refuge

In the West

But,

What is significant?

And the most compelling fact

Is that

When one goes to hell

He makes sure

All his fellow beings

Are pulled out there from here

Like a magnetic attraction

To share the misery

But,

By chance

If he found

A decent and healthy place

As a habitat

He writes home

In shame and disregard

Of the place adopted

Lest he has

To share

The wealth and happiness

Of the New Found Land

This is not

In anyway

A warning for anybody

Who wishes to go out

And explore

The Sri-Lankan

Who wish for divine intervention?

All the time,

End up in hell instead

But,

When one goes to heaven

They go there all alone

Simply because

Increasing the numbers there

Would be antagonistic

To the Zero Growth Principle

Propounded by me

Here and now

The propensity

Adopted by,

The Sri-Lankans

Who are already there

Established in position and fame

Is truly different in magnitude

But,

Buddhist anthology and tradition,

Is the “Kalyana Mitta”,

The true friend who helps

The upward bound

Of beings

To high heaven

Come what it may

Now and always

Sans boundaries,

Of colour, caste, creed or class

Sadly.

It is known for its absence

In the modern world

Of material gain

Is it asking too much?

To go for zero growth

In activity, mobility and expansion

To save our mother nature

Using the eye of wisdom

To see and vision,

The guiding principle

Is “Small is beautiful”

“Less is more”

In Nature

To know this

The man doesn’t

Need a brain as big as

The nature has endowed

Upon him

To apply

The simple principle

Of cohabitation with

Mother nature

The mother of all

Forgotten Tribes

Sunday, June 2, 2013
Forgotten Tribes

I was running short of ides to write then hit upon a gold mine.
Shall I say it is the Pandora’s Box.
It was all indirect.
I was flabbergasted by how the white man of the West and America, now prompting Human Rights as its agenda, while all the time destroying all the history belonging to the tribes that befell (they have decimated in 500 years) in their hands.
No western nation is free of abuses.
European Union so powerful in their proclamation of human rights but won’t have any description of the tribal history in their modern libraries (history books) how and why there is no mention about Aborigines (who were wiped out from Tasmania).
There is a lot conspiring by historians and also people who are editing modern encyclopedias.
There is paucity of information of Arawak’s of Caribbean and the rest of the tribal exterminations.
There is paucity of information of slave trading.
Why,  children of 21st century are not told about these excesses and atrocities.
Can we wipe out the history of almost 50 to 100 million who were wiped out, by western colonizers?
Unfortunately, Christian Church is also culpable of propagating and spreading agenda of false information.
Past is forgotten for convenience.
The tribal nations Including Indian Tamils who were brought in here needs to know who brought them here as slaves for pittance.

History is history, there cannot be duplicity.

This applies to present Sri-Lankan administrators too.

History cannot be forgotten and statistics cannot be doctored.
There are dark ages in every history but falsifying it is not correct.
There is no consolation for the survivors even if the figures are right.
At least there is no genocide in this respect as it is claimed by the western erudite who know little in their history including Canada.
There is a fabric of untruth, they are weaving to distort the history of current events as well as past events of five centuries.
That cannot be called diplomacy, even though diplomats are habitually trained to lie but not get caught off guard, in the process of lying.

Buddhism in Africa, Why no penetration?

Saturday, June 1, 2013
Buddhism in Africa, Why no penetration?

Buddhism in Africa,  Why no penetration?
I am intrigued by the lack of penetration of Buddhism in the South African continent.
It is not that difficult to comprehend.
If one looks to India to the East, China has resisted it for centuries.
India is no exception.

China of course  evicted  DalaiLama and killed millions in the name of Communism.

India for it to keep its class and caste prejudices wanted it out sooner than late.

In the North where Buddhism had penetrated to Persia which is currently Iran.

Muslim expansion in North Africa effectively blocked its  penetration.

What about the West Africa?
Germans have effectively, the missionaries had no place for for indigenous people.
Another religion which preached peace had no valid currency.

What about the South Africa?
It is again colonization and sometimes extermination of tribes could not tolerate, a peaceful religion.

East, again from Sudan to Somalia tribal and religious animosities still simmering, Buddhism is an antithesis.

What about Sri-Lanka’s contribution?

Surprisingly nil, since it practices a modern method of discrimination using religion as a scapegoat.

Above question made me to read a little bit of the history of mankind of the past five centuries.

No religion can cover the atrocities of war of the white man in full gear.

Religion was only a decoy or a cover up of expansion and extermination.

Summary of it goes like this.
1. South America Total annihilation by Spanish and isolation to small pockets.

2. North America Even worse and no Apache was the goal.

3. Africa From Belgium(Central) to West to South Africa it was combined effort of the from French, German, to English.

How come when a peaceful  religion and its present  advocates, preaches war in the name of religion now as a method of logic and  suppression of reason can penetrate Africa when it cannot penetrate its own brethren?

It is the sad truth of 21st century  history and politics.