From Siddhartha Gautama To God

By Jagath Asoka -January 5, 2014 

Dr. Jagath Asoka

Before I write my thoughts on this topic, I want to emphasize that all these articles that I have written are just my opinions that are based on my profound pondering and constant reflections. These conversations and exchange of ideas with my readers have only one purpose: As the Buddha explained, “To liberate my mind from clinging.”

I want all of you to know that I have borrowed the phrase “God Buddha” fromSharmini Serasinghe. Sharmini’s and Tisaranee Gunasekara’s writings concretize one of my long-held thoughts, based on my own experience as a medical/technical writer, over the last thirteen years: I personally think women are better writers than men; since 2001, I have not worked with a male medical/technical writer here in the USA, yet.

The commenters who identify themselves as ”Dude,” “Sirimal,” “Gamini,” and, of course, the others who make cogent and cohesive comments and contributions to this website must contribute their own articles toColombo Telegraph because all of you are much better than some of the learned and professional writers who appear on this website. I am sorry to say that most of them are boring, but I am happy to say that they have cured my insomnia!

I don’t know about you, but I contribute to Colombo Telegraph because it is banned in Sri Lanka, because Rajapaksas have taken away our precious freedom of expression, and because they have hired sycophants and thugs to kill, harass, and intimidate journalists and dissenters. I sincerely believe that Rajakapsas will stop all these nonsense because if they don’t, they will not survive. They will end up like Prabakaran. It is just a matter of time.

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka belongs to a different category; I sometimes disagree with Dr. Dayan Jayatillakae, but I admire his cogent and cohesive arguments, analyses, and predictions. I sincerely understand his predicament. So, Dayan, keep entertaining, educating, enlightening, and edifying us with your impartial, erudite, fair, and scholarly articles and analyses, not with their antitheses.                 Read More

God In Buddhism? A Response To Dr Jagath Asoka

By Shyamon Jayasinghe -January 6, 2014 

Shyamon Jayasinghe

I read with profound interest the long piece written by Dr Jagath Asoka (JA) captioned “From Siddhartha Gautama to God,” that appears in the Colombo Telegraph today.

JA displays a creative ingenuity that is a consequence of a mind that has got off the hook of the conventional framework he had inherited. JA suggests a pertinent point, namely that popular Buddhism hasn’t done away with the concept of an almighty God. I like to develop on that idea and assert that early Buddhism failed to take root in India and disappeared from the land of its birth due to its rational rejection of a Brahma who supervises us from the sky and who gives us good return for being good while punishing the bad.  The masses were not ready for the Kalama sutra. How many of them are ready for that now? People reverted to the Hindu gallery of deities as that gave them solace, which pure reason could not deliver. Buddhism survived later and spread to other lands only by reincorporating the spiritual vacuum filled by the lost divine.

Sri Lanka practices a popular form of Buddhism that seems to assume a spiritual subtext. Buddha is worshipped as a God in our temples by the vast majority of the population. Our people say: “Budu Saranayi,” as the Christians invoke: “God bless!” How could a mortal Buddha who is dead and gone give us protection or sarana?

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