Ven Panadure Ariyadhamma Thero The awakening of interest in Buddhism seen in Sri Lanka can be attributed to the effort of few Sangha fathers who took the courage to bring Dhamma to the people. Ven Panadure Ariyadhamma is one of those pioneers who blew life in to Sasana in the recent past. He was born on 22 nd of June 1940 the second son of a family of seven in Nalluruwa, Panadura. His lay name was Lal Buddhadasa. His father was Mr. Solomon Fernando, a farmer, and mother was W. Linie Fernando, a very simple, devout, Buddhist.
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He had three brothers and three sisters.Buddhadasa received his primary and secondary education at Siri Seewali Vidyalaya, Nalluruwa, Panadura; Cyril Jansz Vidyalaya, Panadura, and Vidyarathna Pirivena, Horana. During his childhood he had the good fortune to associate with some eminent scholar monks like Ven. Panadure Ariyawansa, Keselwatte Chandamuni,Ven.Dr. Horana Vajiragnana, and Ven.
Kottegoda Gnanalankara Nayaka Thera. He received his Dhamma Education at Sri Wimala Daham Pasala, Nalluruwa, Panadura. Unlike the other youths in the prime age of youth, Buddhadasa was always attracted to the serenity of the temple, so that, after his education, he chose the most suitable place for work in the sacred city of Anuradhapura. He was employed as a clerk in the Preservation Board in accordance with his wish. Everyday, during his leisure, he took the opportunity to visit the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi Tree, and the image of the Buddha in concentration (Samadhi Pilimaya) in the Mahamevna Grove in Anuradhapura. He always admired the pleasant atmosphere of the Sacred City of Anuaradhapura and,devotionally, he paid his homage to the Buddha and meditated under the Bo tree and also where-ever possible.
For many years he was engaged in meditation and practiced Buddhism as a layman. Ultimately he realised that it is not easy while living in a home to lead a holy life. The household life is close and dusty, the homeless life is as air (Sambodayamgaravaso rajapatho abbhokasova pabbajja) 1. Thus he decided to go forth (pabbajja) from the home to homelessness. While he was in Anuradhapura he spent hours and hours meditating under the Sri Maha Bodhi Tree. Once he visited the “Kaludiya Pokuna” forest hermitage, at Mihintale, Anuradhapura, and there he met a dedicated Bhikkhu, Ven. Dodampahala Chandrasiri, who was highly engaged in meditation.
He expressed his willingness to enter the Sasana to the Bhikkhu, who is the present Chief Abbot of the Gotama Tapovanaya hermitage, Kalapaluwawa, and the Mahanayaka Thera of the Sri Kalyanawansa Nikaya. Thera consented and directed him to his Master, the Ven. Kudawelle Wangeesa Maha Nayaka Thera. Buddhadasa accepted the monk’s advice and decided to meet the Ven. Maha Nayaka Thera.
He was ordained on the 22 nd of December, 1966,under the tutelage of Ven. Kudawelle Wangeesa Maha Nayaka Thera, the then Chief Abbot of the Gotama Tapoavanaya and the Maha Nayaka Thera of Kalyanawansa Nikaya. At the Ordination his name, Lal Buddhadasa, was changed into Tapowanaye Atthakusala. But later on it was converted to “ Panadure Ariyadhamma” This newly ordained novice spent a few months under his teacher and practised meditation and got instruction from his teachers and brother monks to be a well disciplined and well conducted monk.
Ariyadhamma had an unparalleled inborn ability to sing religious and devotional stanzas. He used his skills to recite religious and devotional stanzas and quatrains composed by himself praising the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma and the Sangha. By composing poems he practised the art of melodious and devotional recitation. Due to the attraction of his Dhamma propaganda programmes people of all walks of like got drawn to listen to his talks and participate in his programmes. With such popularity he was the subject of much veneration. But this did not affect his noble character and he lived always a very simple life.
Though he received hundreds of Pirikara he was conted with three as praised by the blessed one. Whenever he visited a remote area he distributed everything he received among those who were in local temples. Ven Ariyadhamma was much interested in saving the youth of the day and directing the youth on to the noble path. Much of his talks are addressed to the youth. Vent Thero passed away unexpectedly on the 27 th of May 1986 and it is one of the severest blows to the Buddha sasana in Sri Lanka.
May the venerable thero reach Nibbana. ——————————————————————————————————-. You can download Desana and Puja Stanzas of the Venerable thero from.
The Sixth Patriarch's Rice Mill, ink on paper, 10.8 x 16.7 cm, Shinwa-an Collection Early life of Huineng According to Huineng's autobiography in the Platform Sutra, Huineng's father was from Fanyang, but he was banished from his government position and passed away at a young age. Huineng and his mother were left in poverty and moved to Nanhai, where Huineng sold firewood to support his family. One day, Huineng delivered firewood to a customer's shop, where he met a man reciting the Diamond Sutra. 'On hearing the words of the scripture, my mind opened up and I understood.' He inquired about the reason that the Diamond Sutra was chanted, and the person stated that he came from the Eastern Meditation Monastery in Huangmei District of the province of Qi, where the Fifth Patriarch of Chan lived and delivered his teachings.
Huineng's customer paid his ten silver taels and suggested that he meet the Fifth Patriarch of Chan. Meeting the Fifth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism Huineng reached Huangmei thirty days later, and expressed to the Fifth Patriarch his specific request of attaining Buddhahood. Since Huineng came from Guangdong and was physically distinctive from the northern people from China, the Fifth Patriarch Hongren questioned his origin as a “barbarian from the south”, and doubted his ability to attain enlightenment.
Huineng impressed Hongren with a clear understanding of the ubiquitous Buddha nature in everyone, and convinced Hongren to let him stay. He was told to split firewood and pound rice in the backyard of the monastery and avoid going to the main hall. The Platform Sutra The is attributed to a disciple of Huineng named Fahai (法海) and purports to be a record of Huineng's life, lectures and interactions with disciples. However, the text shows signs of having been constructed over a longer period of time, and contains different layers of writing. It is.a wonderful melange of early Chan teachings, a virtual repository of the entire tradition up to the second half of the eighth century. At the heart of the sermon is the same understanding of the Buddha-nature that we have seen in texts attributed to Bodhidharma and Hongren, including the idea that the fundamental Buddha-nature is only made invisible to ordinary humans by their illusions. Citation of Buddhist Scriptures The Platform Sūtra cites and explains a wide range of Buddhist scriptures listed here in the order of appearance:.
Succession of the Six Patriarch Poem Contest Eight months later, the Fifth Patriarch summoned all his followers and proposed a poem contest for his followers to demonstrate the stage of their understanding of the essence of mind. He decided to pass down his robe and teachings to the winner of the contest, who would become the Sixth Patriarch. Shenxiu, the leading disciple of the Fifth Patriarch, composed a stanza but did not have the courage to present it to the master. Instead, he wrote his stanza on the south corridor wall to remain anonymous one day at midnight.
The other monks saw the stanza and commended it. Shenxiu's stanza is as follows: The body is the tree of enlightenment, 身是菩提樹, The mind is like a bright mirror’s stand; 心如明鏡臺。 Time after time polish it diligently, 時時勤拂拭, So that no dust can collect. 勿使惹塵埃。 The Patriarch was not satisfied with Shenxiu's stanza, and pointed out that the poem did not show understanding of “his own fundamental nature and essence of mind”. He gave Shenxiu a chance to submit another poem to demonstrate that he had entered the “gate of enlightenment”, so that he could transmit his robe and the Dharma to Shenxiu, but the student's mind was agitated and could not write one more stanza.
Two days later, the illiterate Huineng heard Shenxiu's stanza being chanted by a young attendant at the monastery and inquired about the context of the poem. The attendant explained to him the poem contest and the transmission of the robe and Dharma. Huineng asked to be led to the corridor, where he could also pay homage to the stanza.
He asked a low-ranking official named Zhang Riyong from Jiangzhou to read the verse to him, and then immediately asked him to write down a stanza that he composed. Huineng's stanza was the following: Enlightenment is not a tree, 菩提本無樹, The bright mirror has no stand; 明鏡亦非臺。 Originally there is not one thing— 本來無一物, What place could there be for dust? 何處惹塵埃。 The followers who were present were astonished by the work of a southern barbarian. Being cautious of Huineng's status, the Patriarch wiped away the stanza and claimed that the author of the stanza had not reached enlightenment. Succession of Sixth Patriarch However, on the next day, the Patriarch secretly went to Huineng's room and asked, “Should not a seeker after the Dharma risk his life this way?” Then he asked, “is the rice ready?” Huineng responded that the rice was ready and only waiting to be sieved. The Patriarch secretly explained the Diamond Sutra to Huineng, and when Huineng heard the phrase “one should activate one’s mind so it has no attachment”, he was “suddenly and completely enlightened, and understood that all things exist in self-nature.” The Dharma was passed to Huineng at night, when the Patriarch transmitted “the doctrine of sudden enlightenment” as well as his robe and bowl to Huineng. He told Huineng, “You are now the Sixth Patriarch.
Take care of yourself, save as many sentient beings as you can, and spread the teachings so they will not be lost in the future. Escape from Monastery He also explained to Huineng that the Dharma was transmitted from mind to mind, whereas the robe was passed down physically from one patriarch to the next. Hongren instructed the Sixth Patriarch to leave the monastery before he could be harmed. “You can stop at Huai and then hide yourself at Hui.” Hongren showed Huineng the route to leave the monastery, and rowed Huineng across the river to assist his escape. Huineng immediately responded with a clear understanding of Hongren's purpose in doing so, and demonstrated that he could ferry to “the other shore” with the Dharma that had been transmitted to him. The Sixth Patriarch reached the Tayu Mountains within two months, and realized that hundreds of men were following him, attempting to rob him of the robe and bowl.
However, the robe and bowl could not be moved by Huiming, who then asked for the transmission of Dharma from Huineng. Huineng helped him reach enlightenment and continued on his journey.
Interpretation of the verses According to the traditional interpretation, which is based on Guifeng Zongmi, the fifth-generation successor of Shenhui, the two verses represent respectively the gradual and the sudden approach. According to McRae, this is an incorrect understanding: The verse attributed to Shenxiu does not in fact refer to gradual or progressive endeavor, but to a constant practice of cleaning the mirror. His basic message was that of the constant and perfect teaching, the endless personal manifestation of the bodhisattva ideal.
Huineng's verse does not stand alone, but forms a pair with Shenxiu's verse: Huineng's verse(s) apply the rhetoric of emptiness to undercut the substantiality of the terms of that formulation. However, the basic meaning of the first proposition still remains. McRae notes a similarity in reasoning with the Oxhead School, which used a threefold structure of 'absolute, relative and middle', or 'thesis-antithesis-synthesis'. According to McRae, the Platform Sutra itself is the synthesis in this threefold structure, giving a balance between the need of constant practice and the insight into the absolute. Teachings Sudden Enlightenment Doctrinally the Southern School is associated with the teaching that, while the is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is gradual.
This is a polemical exaggeration, since both schools were derived from the same tradition, and the so-called Southern School incorporated many teachings of the more influential Northern School. Eventually both schools died out, but the influence of Shenhui was so immense that all later Chan schools traced their origin to Huineng, and 'sudden enlightenment' became a standard doctrine of Chan. No-thought and According to tradition Huineng taught 'no-thought', the 'pure and unattached mind' which 'comes and goes freely and functions fluently without any hindrance'.
The alleged Northern school's emphasis on quiet contemplation was criticised by Huineng. Liang Kai, The Sixth Patriarch Cutting the Bamboo, Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), ink on paper, 72.7 x 31.5 cm, Tokyo National Museum, Japan The two paintings to the right were both completed by, a painter from Southern Song dynasty, who left his position as the court painter in Jia Tai's count to practice Chan. These paintings depict Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism. The protagonist occupies the lower central portion of both paintings, with his face turned to the side, so that his facial features are not portrayed.
The Sixth Patriarch Cutting the Bamboo depicts the process that Huineng went through to attain enlightenment and shows Huineng's concentration and contemplation while chopping bamboo. This particular enlightenment moment of his is only documented in this painting, not in any literary sources.
He holds an axe in his right hand, and extends his left arm to steady a stalk of bamboo while scrutinizing it. The brushstrokes are loose and free but construct a simplistic and lively image: they indicate a subtle motion of pulling the bamboo towards him.
Huineng wears a shirt with sleeves rolled up, which is suggested by the crease at the edges of the shoulders. He puts his extra cloth into a hair bun. The light and dark ink indicate gradation and contrast, and the light shadow on his right arm and body of bamboo implies the source of light. Similarly, The Sixth Patriarch Tearing a Sutra adopts a similar style in portraying the same figure, Huineng, performing a different mundane action.
This reaffirms the focus of the Southern Chan Tradition, which is to attain sudden enlightenment without having to train to be a monk in the conventional way or to study Buddhist scriptures. Historical Impact According to modern historiography, Huineng was a marginal and obscure historical figure.
Modern scholarship has questioned his, with some researchers speculating that this story was created around the middle of the 8th century, beginning in 731 by, a successor to Huineng, to win influence at the Imperial Court. He claimed Huineng to be the successor to Hongren, instead of the then publicly recognized successor Shenxiu: It was through the propaganda of Shenhui (684-758) that Huineng (d. 710) became the also today still towering figure of sixth patriarch of Chan/Zen Buddhism, and accepted as the ancestor or founder of all subsequent Chan lineages. Using the life of Confucius as a template for its structure, Shenhui invented a hagiography for the then highly obscure Huineng. At the same time, Shenhui forged a lineage of patriarchs of Chan back to the Buddha using ideas from Indian Buddhism and Chinese ancestor worship.
Today, where Huineng is said to have lived and taught. Controversy The biography of Huineng explained in the Platform Sutra is a compelling legend of an illiterate, “barbarian” layman who became a Patriarch of Chan Buddhism. Most of what we know about Huineng comes from the Platform Sutra, which consists of the record of a public talk that includes an autobiography of Huineng, which was a hagiography, or “a biography of a saint portraying him as a hero”, and this pseudo-autobiography was written to give authority to the teachings of Huineng. The Sutra became a very popular text to be circulated around, attempting to increase the importance of this exclusive lineage of Huineng. As a history, the account might have been altered over the centuries. Shenhui (685-758) was the first person to claim that Huineng was a saint and hero.
As a result of this contested claim, modifications were made to the Platform Sutra, a manuscript copy of which was later found at. It turns out that little was known about Huineng before Shenhui's account of him. “It took all the rhetorical skills of Shen-hui and his sympathisers to give a form to the name Huineng,” and hence the character Huineng described by Shenhui was not completely factual.
In the Platform Sutra, following Huineng's sermon was a narrative by Fahai, who addressed a few interviews between Huineng and his disciples, including Shenhui. It is likely that “much of the Platform Sutra was built on the inventions of Shenhui”, and the textual evidence suggests that “the work was written soon after his death”. After Huineng's death, Shenhui wanted to claim his authority over Chan Buddhism, but his position was challenged by Shenxiu and Puji, who supported the Northern lineage that taught gradual enlightenment. It is reasonable to assume that this autobiography was likely an attempt by Shenhui to relate himself to the most renowned figures in Zen Buddhism, which essentially enabled him to connect to the through this lineage. An epitaph of Huineng, inscribed by the established poet Wang Wei also reveals inconsistencies with Shenhui's account of Huineng. The epitaph “does not attack Northern Chan, and adds new information on a monk, Yinzong (627-713), who is said to have tonsured Huineng”.
Wang Wei was a poet and a government official, whereas Shenhui was a propagandist who preached to the crowd, which again leads to questions about his credibility. “As far as can be determined from surviving evidence, Shenhui possessed little or no reliable information on Huineng except that he was a disciple of Hongren, lived in Shaozhou, and was regarded by some Chan followers as a teacher of only regional importance”. It seems that Shenhui invented the figure of Huineng for himself to become the “true heir of the single line of transmission from the Buddha in the Southern lineage”, and this appears to be the only way he could have done so. On a related note, the Chan Buddhist practices, including the wordless transmission and sudden enlightenment were much different from the traditional training of a monk. “The Chan accounts ridicule every element of the scholar-monk ideal that had taken shape over the centuries in traditional hagiography”, with examples found in the immense literature of the “classical period”.
Movie. A movie has been made on Huineng, titled: The legend of Huineng / The Sixth Patriarch / Ancestor See also. Notes.