Banthe Seewalimala, ABS Temple, West Sacramento, California
“In our culture, when a young boy is ordained, it means the family is losing the child. My mother would not be able to call me son anymore, she would have to call me Banthe. I still remember that during the ordination ceremony, one of my sisters was holding my mom’s hand, and she was crying and crying. Instead of being happy about me becoming a monk, they cried, because I was no longer a part of the family. I was really committed to becoming a monk, so my mom thought I might have been a monk in a past life. Even when I was younger, I already acted like one. A monk sits in a high chair, reads, gives Dharma talks and so on, and as a little boy, I used to take the newspaper, fold it like a microphone and pretend to give Dharma talks. I was ten years and one day old when I was ordained.”
“I am fortunate to have been exposed to the original teachings of the Buddha in the Pali text. The original teachings of the Buddha differ from religious traditions. When it is a religious tradition, a lot of culture is embedded into it, for example Sri Lankan culture, Chinese culture, Thai culture, Vietnamese culture and so on. But Dharma is pure and beautiful, it has nothing to do with culture. It has two sides, one is theory and one is practice. And when you put the theory into practice, it has to happen within the culture. I do not have any conflict with any tradition. In the past, sometimes teachers had to bring the Dharma to the people wrapped in something they are interested in. It’s like when kids need to take medication or vitamins, you pack it in something sugary. So after a while, they think the sugar is actually part of the vitamin.”
“In moments when I get frustrated, mindfulness activates to shine a light on the area of misunderstanding, confusion or wrong thinking, and then I get calm immediately. I don’t let myself be taken over by wrong views and stupidity, stupidity meaning that I don’t see the cause and effect.”
“Fear always comes from the fact that you are going to lose something. If you are not going to lose anything, you are not going to have fear. It could be your reputation, your income, any material things you own, relationships, anything. Fear arises because of the notion of loss. And where does the notion of loss come from? The notion of I, me, my and mine. The last thing you could lose is your life. If you do not have the wrong image of your life, then you don’t have an attachment to it. Life is something that goes on. I have died so many times, lost my life. What is wrong with losing it one more time? I have already lost it a million times. It’s no big deal.”
“Happiness is peace of mind, and peace of mind means absence of an eruption of emotions.”