Shunyata: the influence of Buddhism on life in Sri Lanka
During catastrophes like the tsunami and the economic crisis, the people of Sri Lanka went out of their way to help those who were worst hit. A meditation on how Buddhism has influenced life in Sri Lanka for more than two millennia
Poson Poya, the full moon day on which Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka by Ashoka’s son Mahinda in 236BC was celebrated in Sri Lanka on 21st June. In May, it was Buddha Purnima, or Vesak — the day Buddha was born, attained nirvana and died. As Aditya and I drove around Colombo lit up with lamps and lined with long queues of dansalas — makeshift tents where food is distributed and partaken — I remembered our drive in the countryside on Vesak Day, 2022. The road was almost empty due to the severe fuel shortage. The island lay bleeding after the economic crisis of terrifying scale. The word “consequence” hung heavily in the forest-scented air; the absence of celebrations as sharp as tamarind on tongues… when we saw a large colourful flag waving on the village road to stop our jeep. Not to ask for help, but to offer dana — food, drinks, short-eats, ice-cream — on this holiest of days. And then there was another flag, and another, etched in the folds of the country roads, till our journey was a series of smiling faces and hailing yowls.
That is Sri Lanka. Buddhism, as a philosophy, echoes not in its rituals but in the forgiving smiles and large-hearted gestures, even from those who don’t have much to give. It has influenced life on the island for more than two millennia. We have witnessed the spirit of giving in people during catastrophes like the tsunami and economic crisis. During the flash floods in 2021, many of our Lankan friends were in the flooded areas, distributing food packets. A Turkish expat noted that in the supermarkets, eight out of 10 trolleys were of people buying essentials for the victims. He went on to say how he had not seen this in any other country.
I first landed in Sri Lanka in 2004 and found it to be an island of contradictions. There are blue seas crashing around her perimeter and frozen green seas of tea plantations in her girth. Soft cloud forests on her breastbone and hard blue, green, yellow and pink sapphires in the cavity of her chest. Dry zones are green, Crocs are not in your feet but in Colombo city canals and Knuckles are not on your hands but on the hills near Kandy. And yes, Kandy is not a candy but a hill town.
I began looking for signs of Ravana in Lanka. I found Buddha instead. Buddhism is the predominant religion along with Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. The philosophy is reflected in the laid back way of life, drivers stopping the car to let pedestrians cross a road and women being more empowered than many parts of our region.
The bodhi is the tree of awakening — under which Siddhartha Gautam became Gautam Buddha. Bo trees stand tall throughout the island. My partiality has not been towards glamorous roses or sweeping palms but the grand old fig with birds and bees in its hair. Buddha spoke of the ashtangic marg — the middle path of minimum harm. A balance in one’s views and behaviour to attain moksha — freedom from the endless cycle of birth and death. He didn’t believe in baffling the masses with the search for God; instead, he chose to show them how to live a good life. Atom by atom, we began to attune to this island, familiar yet different.
The classical Indian language of Pali is the sacred language in which the Theravada (Way of the Elders) school of Buddhism, practised in Ceylon, has preserved their version of Buddha’s teachings. The proximity of Pali and Sanskrit made the Sinhala language and its sounds familiar to us. The relation of India and Sri Lanka has been porous, with 2000 years of cultural, social and political exchanges. From Kerala’s appams to Lanka’s string hoppers, from the dreaded rahu ketu in India to the rahu ketu in Ceylon, from the symbol of the lion in Bengal to the lion on the island nation’s flag — the links run as deep as the strait connecting the two land masses. But Sri Lanka retains a distinct flavour and its own culture, civilisation, grace and good looks.
On Mahatma Gandhi’s historic visit to Ceylon on the invitation of the freedom fighter CE Corea, he was taken by the island’s natural beauty, which he said was “unsurpassed on the face of the earth”. A village near Chilaw was renamed Swarajya Pura after his visit. If only Gandhi’s and Buddha’s teachings were heeded, the nation would have never had the vicious civil war. And yet, it is clear that Buddhism as a culture influences the way of life of Sri Lankan Christians, Buddhists, Burghers, Moors, Tamils and all other communities, being a silent strand of social harmony, not discord.
Some claim that the biggest contribution of India to the world is the zero, the basis of calculus, the mother of everything technological and modern. I believe, though, that India’s greatest export to the world has been Buddhism, a philosophy that defies time. Its teachings are simple and profound and do not instill a dread of hell or a yearning for the drool of heaven. Shunya (voidness and yoga) aims to empty the mind, and the ‘non-self’ or Shunyata is the meditative state in Buddhism. Zero and Buddhism seem to merge in a peaceful smile.
I have crossed my legs and become comfortable in Sri Lanka, as you would be on the sofa of an old friend. Maybe my karma got me here. Maybe not. But I am reasonably convinced that nirvana can be achieved in the swish and fall of tidal waves, the twinkles of fireflies and the bo trees tossed by tempests and still standing, half-dreamlike, for a thousand years.
Arefa Tehsin is the author of The Witch in the Peepul Tree, which has been shortlisted for The Asian Prize for Fiction.
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