Spiritually impeccable | Daily News

Spiritually impeccable

In the narrative form, the reader is made to encounter the areas of miracles and make-believe experiences like taming the poisonous and flaming serpents by the Buddha through the dissipation of compassion. This too heightens the fact that though the world is a place of evildoers and hateful creatures, they could be nevertheless tackled or conquered with the spread of Metta or a deep sense of compassion.

Shines forth blissfully, the dispensation or the order of the Gautama Buddha (Asirimath Gauthama Budu Sasuna Bebalei) is the title of the seventh work in the series of Buddhist books as written by Damayanthi Jayakody and published by Dayawansa Jayakody Publishers. The central intention of the writer is to highlight the widespread of the Buddha Sasana initially in its birthplace known as Dambadiva or India as it is popularly known.

As a reader, I felt that quite a lot of material pertaining to the subject of the growth and spread of the Buddhist system of doctrine is unearthed. As cited by this writer, the source materials are culled from Tripitaka as well as other works both rare and resourceful.

The attempt on the part of Jayakody is to express the growth and spread via a narrative form of expression handed down the generations in various forms of narratological means, resembling indigenous fairy tales, miracles, legends myths and tales. They all in all go into the making of good reading for the younger generation of school-goers who are not only interested in the doctrinal areas but also the creative and literary areas alike. This intention of the writer is interspersed with doctrinal material in a lighter vein enabling the young mind to investigate more and more further details from other allied sources.

Deep sense of compassion

The writer sensitively captures the historical factors pertaining to the formation of Gautama Buddha’s order of monks, and the function of the first five monks or Pasvaga Mahanun whose number increased as time goes by to sixty. These sixty monks became the foremost missionaries (Duta) who traverse to sixty directions imitating the value of the doctrine of the Buddha. As a reader, I felt that the factors pertaining to the mission are sensitively handled enabling the reader to delve deeply into the interlinked areas of more findings.

In the narrative form, the reader is made to encounter the areas of miracles and make-believe experiences like taming the poisonous and flaming serpents by the Buddha through the dissipation of compassion. This too heightens the fact that though the world is a place of evildoers and hateful creatures, they could be nevertheless tackled or conquered with the spread of Metta or a deep sense of compassion.

As such, the central theme of the mission of the monks who wander in sixty directions as to impart the great and noble sense of compassion or loving-kindness. This theme of loving-kindness is even spread into our soil at a time when it was infested by a retinue of Yakkhas or devilish creatures, who come in the guise of evildoers. Some of the material cited is observed to be taken from the age-old chronicles like Mahawamsa.

Storytelling barriers

These facts are though known as historical realities, come in the form of ingredients that go into the making of a readable narrative that transcends the narrow barriers of storytelling.

One another factor that is underlined in the narrative reaches the reader as the techniques utilised by the Buddha in the process of reaching the minds of some individuals. This area I felt as a reader embraces some of the modern psychotherapeutic nuances that had gone into several subject disciplines.

One good example as cited by the writer is the example of ruling doctrinal plans of King Dutugemunu in the conquest of foreign forces that came to be disastrous. The doctrine as laid down by the Buddhist discipline had been shown as the guiding power of the beacon light. But the reader, I am sure, is not misguided by mere historical events, but sensitively feels the necessity to eradicate the evil forces.

The serious sense of the meditative and/or contemplative mind too is underlined in the narrative factors as a guiding concept in good living on the part of the rulers as well as the advisors to the said rulers. An attempt is made to depict the sensitive and blissful nature of adhering to the necessity to conquer oneself in order to know what is happening around. Moreover, several factors pertaining to the lives of great disciples of the Buddha such as Sariputta and Maha Moggallana are presented as interlinked narratives.

These narratives are not presented as mere profiles, but as guiding forces that help the clergy as well as the laity to reconsider their stance as noble humans who are willing to feel and understand this likes and dislikes as well as good and events of others who live with them.

The embedded or accompanied picturesque illustrations lavishly utilised provide an extra dimension to the events that flow in the narrative.

The language used is more poetic and pave the way for the reader to consider the work as a prose poem.

All in all, this is a timely gift not only to the younger generation of readers but also an enlightening gift for the pious adult as well. As the writer emphasises in the last page of the work, rare is the birth of a Buddhist order in the world. Rare is also the human who could perceive the doctrine thus emerged.