By Dr Upali Abeysiri

May I be permitted to add to the thought-provoking article, “The Buddha I believe in” (The Island, 24th February) by my very good friend Dr Upul Wijayawardhana, a few comments on some of the ‘firsts’ achieved by the Buddha. When we were young medical students in the early sixties, living at the just established Jeevaka Buddhist Medical Hostel, named in honour of the physician to the Buddha, I never imagined that Upul and I would be sharing a passion for the study of the scientific aspects of Buddhism, in the evening of our lives!

The Buddha, born a human being, is characterised by his superhuman achievements. His unique wisdom, compassion, exemplary life style and leadership made some deify him. He was the first to establish a democratic code of conduct as enshrined in the Vinaya pitaka. However, the Western world has continued to ignore many of his ‘firsts’ at the same time using them liberally, sometimes even crediting others instead. In fact, there were attempts to change the period of Buddha’s life to corroborate the narrative that the Buddha was influenced by Greek philosophers whereas the truth was just the opposite.

Some of the firsts achieved by the Buddha are as follows:

He showed that there is no permanent entity in living beings, be they named the spirit, soul or athman, but a constantly changing psychic component that depends on the physical component and vice versa. He agreed with Mahavira, the contemporary Jain teacher, that there is no creative god but disagreed with Mahavira’s belief in a permanent entity, athman. Some wrongly attribute Buddhist philosophy to be a variant of Vedic and Jain philosophies, despite the description of the summum bonum: Nibbana in Buddhism.

The Buddha also showed that the psyche is not a permanent entity but consists of a stream of units arising and ceasing. However, Western scientists attribute the first description of the momentary nature of consciousness to William James, the nineteenth century American philosopher who is considered the father of American philosophy.

He was the first to state that physical items are constantly changing processes though we misperceive as substances; solids, liquids, and gases (description of Mahabutha or elementary physical processes in Abhidhamma pitaka). Quantum physics has since discovered that quantum particles that make the universe are waves but appear as particles when we observe and that matter and energy are interchangeable. Buddha further stated that basic processes arise, decay, and cease due to many conditions replaced by new processes. Similar new processes arise to replace the ceased processes provided similar conditions for arising exist. However, as conditions themselves change, the newly arisen conditions also change. Thus, he described the universal characters of impermanence (anicca) leading to unsatisfactory nature (dukkha) with emptiness of a permanent entity in the universe (anatta and sunyata).

He classified the animal kingdom into four categories according to type of birth; andaja or egg borne, jalabuja or womb borne, sansedhaja or formed in an external medium and opapathika or spontaneous birth. However, the first classification of the animal kingdom is attributed to Aristotle who lived about three hundred years later. He classified according to motility such as flying, swimming, or moving on land; on birth as egg borne or womb borne. Since then, his classification has been abandoned as inaccurate, for example flying animals include insects, mammals, and birds as one category. Classification by Buddha agrees with modern science, perhaps, except for replacement of spontaneous birth by cloning achieved through current scientific methods, as spontaneous birth is not recognised as it is not yet proven by scientific methods.

Buddha described six sense organs in contrast to five attributed to Aristotle who did not include the mind. As modern science now shows that some information such as position of joints, visceral pain, memorised data etc. arrive directly to the mind, Buddha’s classification seems vindicated.

He described infinite world systems (lokadhathu now named galaxies) in the universe into thousand-fold, ten thousand-fold, etc., scattered in space. Further, he expounded that the universe is in a cyclic process expanding and contracting for eons before dissolution and reformation (samvatta or eons of destruction, samvatta– tthayi or eons of continuation of chaos, vivatta or eons of world formation and vivatta–tthayi or continuation of formation as well explained in Anguttara nikaya; group of fours and group of sevens suttas). He also explained how several suns appear before destruction of the universe (Anguttara nikaya group of fours sutta).

This parallels the description of black hole formation in science. Apart from further classifying the living beings of the universe, depending on the development of the mind and results of past kamma to 31 planes, he refused to discuss cosmology any further as it was not conducive to progress in the path of purification of the mind. What little he described was to illustrate impermanence as a universal characteristic. Later authors confused this classification by trying to fit it into the knowledge of the universe in ancient India around a mountain Mahameru based on Hindu mythology. The new theory on the universe is attributed to Stephen Hawkins who postulated that it started with a big bang from a singularity which agreed with the creation theory. However, shortly before death, he with his colleagues, advanced a new theory; the universe existed and contracted to a singularity before the big bang (As described by his colleague Bernard Carr, emeritus professor of astronomy in the New Scientist, 1 April 2023: p47).

The Buddha was the first to distinguish that while seeing and hearing are between the object and the subject at a distance, which he termed asampatta, smell, taste and touch are due to direct contact between the object and the subject (sampatta) and that there is a difference between touch and all other senses. The reason given in Abhidhamma for this difference is that contact between the basic physical processes of the object and the basic physical processes of the body sense bases of the subject are more forceful in touch in comparison to others like smell and taste.

According to quantum physics, in touch what is felt is the repulsive force between electrons of the physical processes of the object and the subject and that there is no real contact or chemical reaction between them whereas in smell and taste the physical processes of the object and subject exchange electrons and chemical reaction happens to stimulate the senses (New Scientist, 8 April 2023: p37) which confirms what the Buddha stated.

He was the first to describe breathing meditation (Anapana Sathi) without interfering in the normal process of breathing. This contrasted with meditation on physical and psychic objects were practised in ancient India (including application of breath control or pranayama supposed to awaken hidden powers of the body) with some attaining prolonged focus of the mind on a single object, also called absorption or jhana but not attaining enlightenment. It is insight meditation (vipassana) that the Buddha invented which leads to that path.

The Buddha described the mental factor sati or mindfulness as the basic ingredient in meditation which has now been given a new name in psychology; metacognition.

As Upul correctly stated the Buddha was a human being, not supernatural, with an intellect so far unsurpassed in human history. His many firsts have laid a path for us to follow if we are to escape from the ever-pervading sense of dissatisfaction.

Easter Sunday attacks:

Interview with Dhara Wijayatilake,
Attorney-at-Law,
Chairperson,
The Office for Reparations,
on disbursements from the Easter Attack Victim Fund.

by Saman Indrajith

Q: How did the Office for Reparations set about making compensation payments to victims of the Easter Attack?

A: We don’t like to call these grants “compensation” because you can never really compensate victims in such tragic circumstances. We refer to these grants as monetary relief and in the context of the concept of “reparations”, monies are granted to assist victims in the process of restoring their normal lives.

In 2019, soon after the Easter Bomb attack, monies were paid out to victims from funds made available by the Government through the Consolidated Fund, in compliance with government circulars that were applicable to all such situations. The Cabinet had decided how much should be paid to each category of victims. There were two categories – Next of kin of those who had died, and those who had suffered injuries. These payments were made speedily and completed by about October 2019.

Thereafter, on an order of the Supreme Court in January 2023, the “Easter Attack 2019 Victim Fund” was established by the OR to receive monies ordered to be paid by respondents in certain Fundamental Rights applications. In compliance with the order of the Supreme Court, the OR formulated a scheme to grant monies from this Fund.

The sums ordered to be paid by the respondents did not come in all at once. The remittances came in stages. So, each time we received a sum that was adequate to disburse, we identified the most vulnerable victim category and made grants as per our priority policy. So, families of deceased and those permanently totally disabled, and severely injured, received grants on a priority basis.

When more money came in, we had enough to expand the grants to wider categories. We then formulated a Disbursement Policy to make grants.

The OR believes in transparency and in making relevant information available to the public, so all these schemes and the Policy and sums disbursed to the different categories were uploaded to our website in real time. We did not however reveal the identity and amounts disbursed to individuals to safeguard their privacy.

Q: How did you publicise the fact that grants were being given?

A: We did not need to publicise it because we were dealing with victims who were already in our database. We reached out to them. Everyone who was a victim and claimed compensation had submitted applications soon after the attack. There was wide publicity given at that time and the victims were identified also by the Divisional Secretaries. There were victims who had opted not to claim grants at the outset, and we did not pursue them.

Our database is not confined to one church or geographic location, but includes all victims including those affected by the attack at the Zion church in Batticaloa.

Q: Can you describe some of the features of your disbursement policy?

A: It is uploaded on our website but let me summarise. We identified the following support schemes to those who are victims due to the death of a parent or sibling or due to injury suffered by either a parent or is a direct victim of an injury –

· Grants to next of kin of deceased

· Grants to injured persons. We gave grants to those who had been medically certified to be permanently injured based on the degree of incapacity. We also wrote to all those temporarily injured to inquire if they had continuing medical needs. These requests supported by current medical reports are evaluated by a team of medical doctors who will recommend to us the degree of disability and the OR will make payments as per the scale we have identified.

· Grants to support secondary school education – 50 children were given grants to assist in defraying expenses to complete secondary school. All children are those who lost one or both parents or were direct victims who suffered serious injuries themselves.

· Grants to support Tertiary education – we have given grants to applicants who requested support. The OR is monitoring these grantees to ensure they stay on course and to provide support where needed. These grantees were also those who had lost one or both parents.

· Elders support – there are some elderly people who need support because someone they were dependent on, died in the attack. These are being considered.

· Entrepreneurship support – We will look at the feasibility of the identified project, the commitment to sustain a project and other relevant factors.

Q: There were other organisations that provided assistance. Did the OR consult those and take into account the relief provided by them?

A: No, we did not, for several reasons. Firstly, we proceeded on a needs-based approach and sought the information direct from each victim to assess their individual needs. We designed an Application Form for each scheme and distributed those. Also, no Organisation that has helped victims would have been willing to share that information with outside sources.

However, we worked closely with the office of His Eminence the Cardinal to share information that was useful to them and to us, to assess needs. They were also engaged in providing financial and other needs and so were we. So, we have an ongoing working arrangement and readily use each other’s information to ensure that the funds available are distributed in the most meaningful way to those most in need. That continues. They also know details of the circumstances of each victim engaged with their church and we find that information useful.

Q: Did the OR discuss the schemes with any other respondents?

A: Yes. We had a special meeting in January, 2025 to discuss these matters with representatives of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and representatives of His Eminence the Cardinal. This meeting was held on an order given by the Supreme Court. Both parties were represented at that meeting and we had a detailed discussion at which documents containing our Disbursement Policy, the Schemes, the methodology adopted, and a summary of disbursements as at that time were shared with them. In our documents submitted to the Hon. Attorney General to be filed in court we reported that fact that the meeting was held. Both parties expressed their complete satisfaction with the manner in which we were handling the disbursements.

Q: How much money came into the Victim Fund and how much has been paid out?

A: A total of Rs. 311 million came into the Fund from the respondents. The sum of Rs. 245 million that was referred to in court was the sum paid out as at January 31, 2025 which was the date by which we submitted our reports to the Hon. Attorney General. We have paid out a larger sum now.

As at the end of February we have made grants amounting to Rs. 250,633,000 million which is 80 % of the Fund. We’re currently finalizing the payments to the injured in consultation with the team of doctors, and also looking at payments to elders who need support. We plan to complete all grants by the end of March, 2025.

Q: An issue that came up at the hearing on the 27^th was that two counsel were not given copies of the detailed lists. Any comments on that?

A: Anything that will help them represent their clients best can be shared. I believe the Additional Solicitor General will now act on the court order.

Although the two counsel did not receive the lists, all details of the schemes, the manner of reaching out to victims and obtaining applications, etc., were discussed in detail at the January 2025 meeting attended by their juniors. There was plenty of opportunity to seek further clarifications if any were required.

It’s the policy of the OR to safeguard the privacy of the beneficiary. I’m sure Counsel will respect that, so we have no issue.

By Ifham Nizam 

Ramadan is widely known as the holiest month in Islam, a time of fasting, reflection, and devotion. However, beyond its spiritual significance, Ramadan is also a season of joy, community, and cultural vibrancy—an aspect often overlooked in some parts of the world.

In this insightful interview, Ifham Nizam sits down with Asiff Hussein, author and Vice-President of Outreach at the Centre for Islamic Studies Harmony Center, to explore the deeper meaning of Ramadan, its impact on individuals and society, and how it can be celebrated in a more inclusive and festive manner.

Hussein shares his thoughts on the transformative power of fasting, the importance of fostering a welcoming atmosphere for people of all faiths, and practical steps to make Ramadan a truly national occasion.

Excerpts of the interview

Q: Ramadan is Islam’s holiest month, what are your thoughts on this?

A: Ramadan is something we Muslims look forward to. Most folks think this is simply the Muslim month of fasting somewhat like the Christian Season of Lent, but it’s much more. It was during this holy month that God chose to make His Final Revelation to mankind, the Holy Qur’an.

That was when a forty-year old Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), the last in the line of the Great Prophets, retreated for his meditations in the cave of Hira in the heart of Arabia.  The night must have been calm and still, that is until the archangel Gabriel descended from the heavens and asked the quiet, pious Arab descended from the line of Abraham to Read!. Bewildered he replied, “I do not know how to read.” The angel again asked him to read and he replied, “I do not know how to read”  When the Angel repeated it for the third time, the Arab realised that all he had to do was to repeat the words taught to him by Gabriel, a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds: “Read! In the Name of Your Lord, Who created, Created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, Who taught by the pen – Taught man that which he knew not”.

The moon-long fast is another important teaching of Islam that takes place during this Holy Month. Fasting is food for the spirit just as bread and meat are for the body. It instills piety and God-consciousness impressing on us that at the end of the day we are utterly dependent on God and the creation he created for us for our daily bread, we are such dependent creatures without anything that we could call self-sufficiency in the true sense of the word because our bodies don’t produce its own food or nourishment. We owe all that we enjoy to the Mercy of God and God alone. Fasting impresses this on us more than anything else.

Then of course there is the empathy we can feel for the poor and needy because fasting is equally binding on everybody, however affluent one may be. Only a person who has experienced real hunger could feel what its like, and this kindles in one a strong desire to do good and help out one’s fellow humans out of their predicament.

Falooda

And then there are the many physical benefits of fasting, not only in terms of giving one’s body a well-deserved rest, but also in detoxifying the body of natural toxins found in foods and cleansing the digestive system. Other benefits include reducing the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease and even reducing the chances of developing cancer. There is a very simple explanation as to why this happens. Scientists have found that when the human body is exposed to hunger for a fairly prolonged period, it goes through a process called autophagy. When a person’s body is hungry, the cells of his body are also hungry. These hungry cells will eat up dead or damaged cells that are no longer useful. Cancerous cells also fall victim to the process. Thus cancerous cells that have just commenced proliferating, but not to the extent of causing symptoms to appear, will be eliminated in this process. This means that your body would have eliminated this early spread of cancer without you even knowing it.

 Q: You have been advocating for the Ramadan season to be more colourful and inclusive, would you care to elaborate on this?

 A:  I’m talking about the way we in Muslim-minority countries look at it. You will find in Muslim-majority countries that Ramadan is a month of joy and thanksgiving, especially after the fast is broken at sundown.

 In countries like Turkey, Malaysia and across many parts of the far-flung Arab world, one finds many ways where people express their happiness during this holy month. For example, streets would be gaily decorated with colourful drivethroughs and walkthroughs and shops would display brightly lit lights often in the form of crescent and star or Islamic greetings or verses from the Qur’an, there would be beautiful lanterns of myriad colours known as fanoos adorning homes and shops and golden and silver tinsel decorations of star and crescent in homes as if a fairy tale were coming to life. One would find happy families picnicking at Zoos, Parks and other happy spots for their Ifthar or breaking fast. Furthermore, family and friends could be seen gathering to enjoy communal meals at night with cookies for the little ones filled with nuts and coated with sugar, ice cream and other delights. As a result, children in these countries look forward to the holy month with much anticipation, despite having to fast in the day.

The Eid-ul-Fitr festival that follows the moon-long fast is still grander with people in festive mood gathering in the evenings to enjoy communal meals, musical shows and other forms of entertainment including a few fireworks every now and then. Of course, none are so happy as the little children who would be gifted special gift bags of toys and candy and money to spend time at amusement parks. People of other faiths visiting these countries during this season also come to admire Islamic culture and look upon it as a rich and vibrant one.

Asiff Hussein

Unlike in mediaeval Europe where religious celebrations were looked down upon- which is why Oliver Cromwell and his roundheads in their puritanical fervour banned Christmas celebrations in England –Islam allows one ample scope to get into festive mood when the occasion demands. It happened that one day, when an over-zealous companion found some little girls singing in the Prophet’s house and cried out: “Musical instruments of Satan in the house of the Messenger of God!”, the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) rebuked him “Leave them alone, Abu Bakr, every nation has a festival, and this is our festival” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari).

 Although in most Muslim majority countries, Ramadan is a happy occasion which has been made merrier for the sake of children, we do not find this in Sri Lanka since Muslims are in a minority and could simply not be bothered making it a cheerful and colourful event.

However, this has not done the community any good. People of other faiths have as a result come to think of Sri Lankan Muslims as a dull, killjoy community that despises celebrations or decorations of any kind. The children of such communities also grow up thinking of Muslims in this manner, because they see their own festivals and holy days being celebrated with much colour like in the days of Christmas and Vesak celebrations.

Furthermore, Muslim children may -God forbid- also come to look at their culture in the same manner, as a dull, lusterless culture, since they are exposed to other cultures that express their religious occasions in more colourful ways. As a result, some of them await the Christmas season or Vesak with more anticipation than they do our holiest of months or even the festival following it. This is a very sad situation indeed.

Q: So what do you propose should be done towards this end?

A: What I’m saying is that the Ramadan season and festival should be made more pleasant and memorable, not only for our children, but also for people of other faiths, so as to win their hearts and create a love for Islamic culture in them.  In other words, it should be more inclusive and be promoted as a truly national event like Vesak or Christmas.

Sadly, in countries like ours, there are cultural inhibitions, because living as a minority especially in a context where racism has been a force to contend with, has created a narrow, insular mindset within the community itself. This negative attitude favours isolationism and looking inwards rather than reaching out and winning hearts. In the long run, it is also counter-productive.

However, those bad old days are now a thing of the past. We have a very good government in place that is keen on stamping out racism in all its forms and being as inclusive as possible. And yet one may still come across members of the community who feel Ramadan should be kept low key and exclusive to Muslims, but this is more of a Jewish, rather than a truly Islamic attitude.

So what I would suggest is that the initiative to popularize Ramadan should be spearheaded by the business community as they are the best placed to drive this due to two very good reasons, Firstly, the fact that they command considerable respect within and outside the community. Secondly, they own and manage leading business establishments with many branches dealing in a variety of items from garments to toys. These often have frontages facing main arterial roads like Galle Road and are situated in prominent places. Examples are firms like Hameedias, No Limit and Fashion Bug to name a few. Such establishments could make their business places more lively and colourful during the Ramadan period. Surely they have no qualms decorating their establishments for Vesak or Christmas, so why not for their very own festivals?

Q: What are the special features or events you propose that could be adopted by these businesses?

A: To start with, announcing on the large Pilkington windows of their businesses “Happy Ramadan” to show that Muslims too have special occasions and a culture worth telling about which they are justly proud of as equal citizens of our country. They could also consider decorating their businesses with colourful Islamically inspired decorations like bright golden or silver star and crescent symbols and traditional Arabic lamps known as Fanoos which can be imported for the purpose from countries like Egypt. They could also put up canopies or tents with fairground colours like red and white stripes in front or on the sides or insides of their businesses which could be used to distribute traditional Muslim foods like samosas, falooda or Wattalappam to customers on a complimentary basis.

They could also introduce special features like Henna Corner for their female visitors and Calligraphy services for those customers who are interested in taking home a souvenir of their names inscribed in ornate Arabic calligraphy. These services are very popular with people of other faiths and should go a long way in creating a fondness for Islamic culture in their hearts. It also makes business sense because more customers would be attracted to these establishments during the season, so to say. To add to this, they should also consider introducing special prices on their items during this period. Although this will mean discounts from the usual prices, it could attract more people to these shops.

Once such a culture is created, smaller businesses and households should hopefully adopt it as a matter of course, so that such a culture gets broad-based over time to be a truly national occasion.