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KK: Venerable Sir, give me kindly answers to several questions about the Ayukusala tradition, which were posed to me by some monks during my stay in Sri Lanka.
AT: Gladly, what are the questions about?
KK: They are mostly about the differences between the Sinhalese ideas about Buddhism and the Buddha Dhamma as practiced in the Ayukusala tradition according to the Tipitaka.
AT: Venerable Kalakusala, you are a very diligent monk and well established in the practice of Dhamma, so there should be no problem for you to answer any question about it.
KK: After six years of the Dhamma studies and many intensive retreats of Satipatthana-Vipassana Meditation, I became a monk in order to reach the highest liberation, sabbe dukkha nissarana nibbana sacchikaranathaya, as I proclaimed while being ordained. And I take this decision seriously. But I am not equipped, Bhante, to argue with persons who claim to be good monks and yet maintain opinions which you ask us to refuse.
AT: Give me an example please!
KK: For example I was forced to get my patta-bowl painted black inside…
AT: This is a rather sad thing!
KK: Well, what should I tell in such a situation…
AT: There should be two things in your answer, the first is that nobody could ever show you that the Buddha would have ever demanded something like that, the second is to refer to your teacher's instruction. Because of the health reasons I have forbidden our monks to get the stainless steel bowls painted inside.
KK: … well, but now I eat with my rice also the black paint.
AT: You can clean your bowl and also your mind from the dirt some monks forced upon you.
KK: But they pretended to be better in Vinaya because of that.
AT: Something like that was done also by that rascal Devadatta who on the one hand said that because of no killing precept all monks should be vegetarian and on the other hand tried to kill the Buddha. He tried to make people believe that he is a better monk than the Buddha himself.
KK: Well, but I have to coexist with such monks, while living in this country.
AT: So you just ignore their persuasion and think of them with compassion.
KK: And what to answer them, when they tell me in front of the lay people that our conception of Vinaya is different from their one. They imply by that being stricter and better.
AT: There should be three things in your answer: First tell them that a monk who knows Vinaya does not discuss alleged Vinaya problems in the presence of lay people. Second tell them that our understanding Vinaya is strictly complying with the Tipitaka, that your teacher has studied the whole Vinaya-Pitaka, unlike the majority of the monks. Third you tell in such a situation: “Yes, the Ayukusala understanding is very different from yours. We use Vinaya as a means for easy happy monk life and also to promote the saddha-confidence in lay people. You obviously use your understanding of Vinaya to criticize other monks in front of the laymen. You seem to use the Vinaya to busy your mind with the problems of other monks. Well, Venerable Kalakusala, you have to estimate whether such a discussion partner is at all worth of getting involved with. The best thing might be to ignore such a smartie. You just do your practice of the Dhamma-Vinaya to your best conscience and clarify whatever problems only with your teacher.
KK: Venerable Sir, thank you for the answers.Āyukusala
Central European Sangha – ACES
e–mail: ayukusala@web.de
or ayukusala@centrum.cz
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