Sri Lankans seem to have a particular interest in locations. It is not uncommon to have an average Sri Lankan, and by this I mean not a vendor or guide trying to sell you a product or service, approach you on the street and strike up a conversation. Of course, it's not unusual that they would ask an obvious foreigner: "Where are you from?" But invariably the question also arises: "Where are you going?" I'm still not sure if this is a kind of equivalent of "How are you?", for which we most often do not care for an accurate response. At any rate, the question inspired me to include another map, showing the route that I took to my first weekend of courses at the Sri Lanka International Buddhist Academy.
I take two buses to get there. The route from A to B is accurate, but I'm not sure that the route Google shows from B to C is entirely accurate right at the beginning. The bus does have to make that loop around the lake and backtrack though, as the direct route across the top of the lake in this map is closed to all but foot traffic ever since an attempted bombing of the Temple of the Tooth during the long civil war here. The whole route is about 15km, and takes about an hour including catching the buses. The first bus costs 12lkr (Sri Lankan Rupees, about $0.09) and the second bus 27lkr (about $0.21), so about $0.30 each way. (Didn't keyboards used to have a 'cents' character? Or am I thinking all the way back to typewriters?)
I arrived at 8am and the first order of business at 8:30am was a meeting to discuss the schedule. It seems some of the local monks in the program were not always able to make it to the Sunday classes because of their Temple duties, and the desire was to establish a schedule that everyone could agree on. We also discussed whether to replace A.K. Warder's book as our Pali text, and I think I spoke out the most forcefully about its deficiencies, but in the end was overruled. Overall, the meeting was a practice in patience and disappointment, and I got the distinct impression that, although the authorities running the meeting were genuinely flexible and open to input, most of the students were just not willing to speak up honestly about their preferences, so not much could be effectively determined. Only the Americans and Russian student were willing to speak up. But that is ok. I am not responsible for the other students' benefit from the classes, and I am content to ensure for myself that I get what I need from my experience here.
The other students consist of a few local Sri Lankan monks, a couple of monks from Vietnam, a retired teacher from the area, Gabe (a fellow American) and Evgenia (Jane) (who is Russian). One of the Vietnamese monks is a Bhikkhuni, the only other female in the class. I'm not going to bother trying to write out the monks' names, as I mostly got vague phonetic approximations and would surely butcher them. This is the first year that the Academy has offered this MA program, and there are only about eight or nine of us in total (attendance was spotty, so an accurate count is difficult.)
The meeting took up the time of what would have been our meditation class, so our first class was Pali. I still have not taken the final from the first semester, which I had offered to do as a way of showing my qualification for the second semester class. But once again I have been assured that this week I will get a call to tell me to come and take the exam. This is one area where I think it will be up to me to ensure that I learn the necessary Pali. I have already acquired some extra books, and I will proceed with self-study and use the class and exams as a check on my progress. I am looking forward to finally having some people of whom I can ask the many questions that arise as I study these textbooks on Pali. I don't think that just from Warder and this class I would achieve the level of competence that I seek.
The next class was the most exciting at the school. It is a seminar on secondary sources in Buddhist Philosophy. The instructor, Mr. Sumana Rathnayake seems to really know his stuff and struck me as a very likable fellow. I have been intrigued by the glimpses of Buddhist Philosophy that I've gotten from my reading so far, and I'm looking forward to exploring these ideas more deeply. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find all the books he has assigned here in Kandy, including the first one we are to be reading for next weekend. I may have to make a trip to Columbo, where I'm assured there is a very good bookstore that should have everything I need. I could also get Xeroxed copies of any of the books, which the school is making available at cost, but I would much rather have the 'real thing'. (Attachment to books...)
That was Saturday. For Sunday, I had 'volunteered' to teach Dhamma School, which is like Sunday School for Buddhists. I guess it is technically a Sunday School, too. The local monks in the program already have such responsibilities at their respective temples. I'm not sure what the foreign monks (there are a few from Vietnam in the program) are doing on Sunday mornings. But the other foreign students have all stopped participating in this Dhamma School aspect of the program, out of lack of support. When I mentioned that I didn't know if I was qualified to teach the Dhamma to young Buddhists, the Rector, Prof. Somaratne, assured me that I would be fine, and anyway the kids would be excited to have a foreign teacher with whom to practice their English. Oh yeah, this Dhamma School for young Sri Lankan kids is conducted in English. Is that strange?
As seems typical here, nobody told me what time I should be there or where I should go or whoṃ I should see when I got there. Fortunately, my fellow student Gabe gave me the lowdown, at least on where and when to go. So I showed up at 8am on Sunday. Many little kids from about 5 to 15 were being dropped off by their parents. They were all wearing cute little white outfits, and were fairly well behaved. I started asking around for other teachers and looking for an authority figure, but couldn't find anyone in charge, so I just followed all the kids around to see what they were up to. I was a little uncertain about taking pictures to share here, not knowing if that would be disrespectful or even just unwanted by the parents. Maybe I'll get some next week.
The kids were all lined up at the bottom of the hill below the main shrine room. They all had little baskets of flower petals to offer to the Buddha. After a little while, they marched up the hill in single file, youngest children first, followed by the older ones. When they got to the shrine room they gave their offerings at the Buddha statue and then they were all lined up sitting on the floor and told in English and Sinhalese to sit still and stop talking. A monk came in and led them dryly in some Pali chants and then a brief metta meditation. I recognized the taking of the three refuges (Buddha, Dhamma, Sanga), but the other chants I didn't understand. Then they were led out of the shrine to their classes, and once again I started wandering around wondering what I was supposed to do.
I was about to go off and just watch one of the classes, when a young man, Kaveen, came up and asked if I was the new teacher he had been told about. I said I was, and started getting my hopes up that soon I'd have a class... But he just kept going on about the chaos, that kids were running around everywhere and hiding in the bathroom and so on. The younger kids all seemed to have teachers and had classes going on, but there was a group of young boys and girls who just seemed to be loitering and playing. One young girl, Ishani, 14, came up and started talking to Kaveen about an 'assembly' that was to happen today, prefacing every sentence with 'Sir'. She actually seemed to know more about what was supposed to be happening than Kaveen. Or at least she was more set on seeing that something was going to happen.
Apparently all these loiterers were the class or classes that Kaveen and/or I were supposed to be teaching. After which there was supposed to be an assembly where some of them would perform songs or dances or poems. This sounded like fun to me, and as Ishani seemed to have been selected as the M.C., she asked if I would help her write her introductory remarks. We wrote a few sentences welcoming everyone and thanking them for coming to see the kids' talents. Some other kids were interested to talk to me about my locations and some wanted to know about being a Software Engineer and if I could come back during the week to teach them programming (a question I dodged).
But there were still no classes for all these kids. I asked what was about, and they said they had no classroom. Or maybe there just weren't enough benches in the lobby area in which we were all loitering. Still, it seemed to me that we were all mostly in the same place and something could be done. But I couldn't get any traction with the kids or Kaveen, who was mostly worried about discipline, but not actually doing anything one way or another. There was an 'Interval' coming up, so obviously we didn't have time to do anything serious. A bell was eventually rung to signal the 'break', and not much changed. The boys were having a contest to see who could punch the wall the hardest. And when one was holding his hand afterwards, I offered him the wisdom that "The wall always wins." They had a good laugh about that.
Then we discovered that the auditorium in which we were to hold the assembly was locked, and nobody knew where the key was, or maybe someone had gone to get the key, but at any rate the situation was generally accepted by all to be hopeless. In the end, I did get the books that the kids are supposed to be studying, and although no instruction and no assembly took place this time, I got enough of a feel for things that if the same thing happens next week, I think I will be able to assert myself a little more and see that they get something a little more educational from the day. At least I will have been able to read their textbook by then, and I can ask them questions about the material that they're supposed to be learning. They have standardized tests that they are supposed to take, and I've heard from Gabe that at least one parent has complained about their kids not getting enough instruction, so I'd like to try and help them if I can. Besides, they're lots of fun!
After the 'school' was over and the kids all ran off to meet their parents who had come to pick them up, Kaveen and I went to the 'canteen' to talk and wait for Gabe, who was arriving soon for our afternoon classes. Kaveen told me about his job teaching English in the city, and asked if I could come once a week to his class. I offered to go one time. We talked a bit about Buddhism. It was mostly at what felt to me like the platitude level, but I suppose talking to the average Buddhist about Buddhism should be expected to be something like talking to the average Christian about Christianity in that regard. There was a hint of the social tensions in the country when he told me that if you really look at all the wars in the world, you will always find Muslims to be responsible. Since he seemed to be asserting Islam was the only religion that 'causes' people to go to war, I offered that Christianity was at least as guilty of this, but I didn't press this topic.
Jane and Gabe soon arrived and we all had lunch (75lkr/$0.58) and looked at some pictures on Gabe's laptop. Then Jane and I went for a walk while Gabe shared some TESOL materials he had gathered with Kaveen. Our next class was one that I don't think will help me much, as it just consisted of trying to watch the recording of Prof. Anālayo's class, which I had already attended on Thursday. Oh yes, about this. We have one class that is being conducted remotely by Prof. Anālayo from Hamburg. He is comparing the different recensions of various suttas in the Pali Canon with their equivalents in the Chinese translations. While the Pali Canon preserved here in Sri Lanka is the only complete collection from the early schools of Buddhism, there are collections of translations in Chinese and Tibetan that draw from several of the other schools' collections that were lost in India when the Muslims invaded beginning in the 12th Century. Anālayo is a great teacher and having these texts to compare is a great way to see what kinds of things changed in the early oral transmission and later translations. This is another really good class, but since I can participate live online when he holds the class on Thursdays, it doesn't do me much good to watch it again with the other students. But some of them don't have the opportunity to watch it otherwise, so it's not a bad idea to hold this session.
The final class on Sunday is our Research Methodology class, which will also not be of much use to me in terms of its content, but it looks like a lot of what we will be doing is reading various Buddhist Studies articles and examining their methodology, so I will still profit from reading those articles. And perhaps this is a place where I can help the other students with less background in writing than I have. In fact, since this class is only to be held every other week, I have offered to help the others with their studies during this time on the off-weeks. Some do not have the English-language skills to keep up with the level of reading and writing that we will be doing, so this is an area where I can help out. Last semester, Mark, who is out of the country this semester and in whose apartment I'm staying, was doing this for the monks, and he suggested it would be helpful if I did the same.
So, there is a fairly lengthy description of my first weekend of classes. The classes are a mixed bag, but my main goal in coming here was to be able to spend my days reading and meditating, and to learn Pali, and all of that I'm sure I can accomplish. The opportunity to teach the Dhamma School seemed at first kind of daunting and awkward, but now I'm actually looking forward to it. I forget sometimes how much I generally like being around kids. These kids seem great, and I only hope I will be able to do something useful for them.
There are of course all kinds of other things going on, and I will be updating my pictures post at some point and telling you more about other things I've been up to and other people I've met, but I don't intend to write a book here, and I do have lots of books to go read!
Update:
I was asked via email about the course schedule. It looks like this:
Thursday 5:45 - 7:15 - The Madhyama-āgama (e-learning) Saturday 8:00 - 9:30 - Meditation 9:30 - 11:30 - Pali 12:30 - 1:30 - Pali 1:30 - 4:30 - Buddhist Philosophy Sunday 8:00 - 11:30 - Dhamma School 1:00 - 2:30 - The Madhyama-āgama (repeat)
2:30 - 4:30 - Research Methodology
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