Features

MR’s Second Term (2009-2015) and tension between Mahinda and Sarath Fonseka

Published

1 month ago

2026/04/26

MR after being sworn for second term

By the end of his first term as President MR was riding high. He was rightly credited with ensuring a comprehensive victory over the LTTE and its terrorist network which his predecessors thought was an impossible task. MR and his brother Gotabaya had ensured the smooth working of our armed forces which were earlier manned mostly by “spit and polish” leaders who followed the tactics they had learnt in Sandhurst. They were outwitted by the home grown “officers” of the LTTE who knew their fighting terrain like the back of their hands.

LTTE officers fought side by side their barefoot soldiers while our “arm chair generals” were famous for their boasts in the safety of the mess hall. Many were the times when camp commanders were holidaying in Colombo when LTTE fighters attacked their strategically located camps. Their losses and retreats not only demoralized our foot soldiers but also emboldened the LTTE to openly express their contempt for our military leadership.

I was present when some of our generals argued with successive Presidents that this war could not be won and a negotiated settlement was imperative. Some Presidents lived in fear that the army instead of fighting the LTTE would attempt to grab power and end their rule. They were suspicious of strong leaders and preferred to install weaklings who were either relatives or family friends. We shall describe how later even MR eventually fell a victim to that paranoia with tragic consequences both for himself and the country.

The turning point of the war came with the appointment of Sarath Fonseka as the Army Commander. He came from the Sinha regiment in which my brother Asoka was a Major-General. At my brothers urging I spoke up for Sarath with CBK to no avail. Fortunately when GR became the Defence Secretary he was able to convince his brother to appoint SF who was on the verge of retirement as the army chief. From then on till the end of the var the “troika” of MR, GR and SF conducted the war from the top with mutual understanding.

The tendency of the Rajapaksa brothers to freely delegate decision making to others in the hierarchy was used well in this instance to remove the cobwebs from our old orders of battle. I have referred earlier to the change in tactics from putting large numbers of battalions on a broad front to small units of eight which could penetrate the LTTE and hit and run back to their regiment. This change was quite successful and the morale of the frontline soldiers improved.

They were also aware that there would be no mercy from their chief if the assault was unsuccessful. As the soldier’s grapevine observed “There was Johnny [land mines] in front and Fonny (the Army Chief) behind”. There was no possibility of shirking. SF, with GR’s support, built up a cadre of new commanders who, though they did not come from “posh” schools and social backgrounds were dedicated and patriotic fighters. Among them were Jagath Dias, Chagi Gallage, Shavendra Silva, Kamal Gunaratne, Nanda Mallawaartchi, Daya Ratnayake, Chandrasiri, Ravipriya, and several others who led from the front and were constantly monitored by SF. A strong fighting machine was created by him.

We referred earlier to MR’st impeccable strategy in countering the various groups who were hell bent on exfiltrating Prabhakaran and the top leadership from the Pudumathalan quadrant. They all had their own agendas and were frustrated when they could not change the stance of the MR government that nothing short of a total surrender could be contemplated. Many of the interlocutors, including the UN’s Satish Nambiar, proposed that the LTTE leaders could either be airlifted to a waiting warship or be asked to come out with a white flag denoting surrender.

It was this suggestion that led to a later talk about a white flag of a group of LTTE middle rankers who were killed while attempting to flee. The senior LTTE leaders like Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman and Soosai did not want to surrender notwithstanding the assurances of their supporters. They attempted to break free from the military cordon and reach the power boats that had been made ready to take them out to sea and safety. However they were cut down by the soldiers of the Gajaba regiment under Shavendra Silva. Karuna Amman was flown to Mullaitivu to identify the corpse of Prabhakaran who was cremated in a secret place to prevent later commemorations and glorification.

MR – a national hero

The end of Prabhakaran and the top leadership of the LTTE was celebrated throughout the south. The MR-GR-SF combination that had delivered a victory that many had thought impossible became instant national heroes as were the other heads of the armed services. Politicians of the PA also basked in this glory while the JVP and Hela Urumaya stated that they had been right all along when they pressed MR to continue fighting and not enter into negotiations with the LTTE.

In Parliament many of the Tamil MPs who were constantly subjected to death threats from the LTTE confided in us that they were now relieved that they could continue with their democratic politics. Till then their lives hung on a thread. All their senior leaders, save Sampanthan, had been brutally assassinated by the LTTE.

In the final days of the war MR was advised to leave the country so that he would not be pressurized to intervene. There was intensive campaigning, particularly by the Ambassadors of western nations, to halt the offensive in Mullaitivu. Western media also backed these initiatives and ran horror stories from the “quadrant” about intensive bombing. We now know that the LTTE media managers contacted Marie Colvin, the well known UK war correspondent, to write about their complaints in the western press. She had been cultivated by the LTTE when she spent time in the North reporting on the war. Later she was killed in the Middle East when her shelter was bombed by western aircraft.

As soon as the war was over MR who had been in Jordan returned to a hero’s welcome at Katunayake. Always a showman he came down the airline steps and fell on the ground to “kiss the motherland” in full view of the TV cameras. A seven tiered cake was cut by him, GR and the service chiefs at Temple Trees to celebrate the victory. MR graciously asked SF to be the first to cut the cake. But unknown to their countrymen who were celebrating with national flag waving and cooking “kiribath”, trouble was brewing among the leading “dramatis personae”.

Poor GR was caught in the middle of an incoming fiasco. As usual GR could not act in a situation in which big brother called the shots, be it right or wrong. The Rajapaksa family was beginning to interfere in public decision making and the post war scenario began to take an unanticipated turn. The massive support extended by the people to MR was being misinterpreted as a family victory by interested parties who were now taking centre stage with gay abandon.

MR vs SF

While MR provided political cover and dutifully followed the recommendations of the Security Chiefs during the war, in peacetime he became wary of the popularity of the army and its commander Sarath Fonseka. At first he tried to woo military chiefs in a manner that he had perfected for local politicians. All the armed forces chiefs were given perks like blocks of land in Colombo and bank loans to build their houses. MR and his wife Shiranthi befriended and hosted the wives of the service commanders.

Once when we were on an official visit to China Mahinda brought along his wife and all the wives of the military top brass on government account. We all had a memorable visit to the old forbidden city in Beijing. The Chinese government spared no effort to please this delegation. On one occasion when the ladies complained that they did not have enough time for shopping in an upmarket shop well known for pearls, Chinese officials kept it open late in to the night.

But this public relations campaign of the Rajapaksas did not succeed because SF was now determined to create a new army in his image. As a first sign of this transformation he wanted to stage a grand victory parade where the fighting units would be brought down to Colombo to be honoured by the nation. Such parades have been held in other countries. For instance after the end of the Second World War a massive parade of the victorious allies was held in bombed out Berlin, mostly to intimidate the remaining supporters of the Third Reich.

At the same time SF wanted to increase the numbers of soldiers in the army on the grounds that we had to be prepared to counter Indian military interventions. Naturally this sent shivers down MR’s spine. If over 40 years of political infighting had taught MR anything it was “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”. Like Shakespeare’s Richard the Third he had ruthlessly fought his way to the top of the political heap. All his well honed political instincts told him that SF would eventually challenge him and that his blandishments and gift giving would not succeed.

Sarath Fonseka in prison garb

It was aggravated by the gossiping and tale carrying among our political classes. Once I was surprised to see a middle level army officer in uniform hanging around MR. When I inquired about him I was told that he was a close relative. Such breach of protocol must have irked SF who is a stickler for discipline. It soon became clear that a drama of Shakespearian proportions was in the making.

At first MR acted cautiously. He created the post of Chief of Defence Staff [CDS] following the US and Indian precedents and elevated SF to that position. Chandraprema who wrote from the Rajapaksa perspective says, “As the tensions between Fonseka and the government worsened, Gota had telephoned Lalith Weeratunga and told him that there was a move to have Major General Jagath Jayasuriya arrested. By this time, the government had become intensely suspicious of Fonseka and deemed it necessary to remove him from the position of Army Commander. The following morning Fonseka was appointed CDS, and Jagath Jayasuriya was made army commander, Karannagoda was made advisor to the President and Chandrasiri [Fonseka’s chosen successor] was sworn in as the Governor of Northern province”.

As Minister of Finance MR vetoed the proposal to increase the intake of the army on the sensible grounds that usually there is demobilization after a war. In any case the economic situation did not permit such an outlay. Similarly MR refused to buy a consignment of Chinese weaponry ordered by SF since the war was over and savings on the defence budget was mandatory. The decision not to expand the military was resented by SF because it was a way of depriving him of the post of Field Marshal that he greatly coveted.

On the other hand MR, the consummate politician, was aiming to capitalize on his unprecedented popularity by calling for an early election to be held in April 2010. In preparation for this eventuality a massive conference hall was built within the premises of Temple Trees where delegates from the different professions and various parts of the countryside were brought to be told about the progress made during MR’s first term and be treated to a sumptuous meal. I was invited to be a regular speaker at the meetings for professionals. In fact I became a lead speaker at MR’s first re-election rally held in Kurunegala.

The army reverted to its ceremonial role and provided a popular backstop to the many open air meetings that MR organized to celebrate victory over the LTTE. After SF was sidelined Jagath Jayasuriya, an old Royalist and an officer of the old school, who was widely believed to have been a relative of the President, held the fort without a massive outcry. A disgruntled SF was then wooed by the Opposition which realized that a politician had no chance in challenging MR. A new face had to be brought onto the arena and SF was the natural choice. Only he had the rage and the courage to take up the challenge and accept the poisoned apple offered to him by the Opposition.

GR on the other hand could not escape the orbit of his brother and family. He made use of his management skills and access to the manpower of the army to engage in spectacularly improving public works, particularly in the big cities. He thereby earned a reputation as a hard working, honest and efficient Secretary which added to his brother’s appeal to the country. Both he and SF developed into competent Sinhala orators with the latter often using salty language he was famous for as Army Commander.

(The Sarath Amunugama autobiography is available at the Vijitha Yapa Bookshop)

(Excerpted from volume 3 of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography)

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Features

Is power devolution under JVP-NPP a political daydream?

Published

22 hours ago

2026/06/7

Thilina Walpola

Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga

The JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva’s recent remarks at a news conference in Jaffna where he ruled out the possibility of holding provincial council elections this year has been widely reported and widely criticized. About the same time there was another media event in Jaffna that went largely unnoticed and unreported outside Jaffna. What was said at the second media event may carry far more political implications than Tilvin Silva’s election timing talk. A veteran Tamil political participant made the startling yet not implausible statement that the prospect of having political devolution under the JVP-NPP government is becoming “a daydream”. The statement was made by Dr. K. Vigneswaran, who served as Provincial Secretary to the only North-East Provincial Council Government that was elected under the auspices of the Thirteenth Amendment.

Dr. Vigneswaran is a Professional Civil Engineer who studied at Royal College, graduated with First Class Honours in Engineering in 1964, and went on to complete a pioneering PhD at the university of Waterloo, Canada, applying the finite element method (FEM) in the field of Geotechnical Engineering. His engineering career has always been at the Irrigation Department where he rose to a Deputy Director. That was when the department was in its golden years, and Vigneswaran was known for his technical mentorship, meticulous administrative skills, and for knowing the fine print of everything. While at the Irrigation Department, Vigneswaran married Ramya de Silva, a fellow irrigation Engineer. After 1983, Vigneswaran became a fulltime political activist and a powerful resource in Tamil politics, but with unwavering commitment to nonviolence, democracy and federalism. The family moved first to India and then Canada, and Vigneswaran has been shuttling between Canada and Sri Lanka.

Devolution: Tortuous Trajectory

Since 1987, the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement, and the 13th Amendment, Vigneswaran has been a permanent fixture in all the politics and institutional dynamic of implementing 13A and establishing provincial councils. He served as Secretary to the only elected Provincial Government for the Northern and Eastern Provinces. After 1994 and the election of Chandrika Kumaratunga as President, Vigneswaran became a key participant in all the civil society efforts and government initiatives to restore the PCs and implement 13A, both during the Kumaratunga presidency and the succeeding administrations of Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe duo.

Devolution efforts stalled after the election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who in so many words declared that he had no time for 13A or PCs in his presidential agenda, whatever it was. Only that his whole agenda turned out to be a wholesale disaster for the country. Already by then, all the nine Provincial Councils had fallen into abeyance with the cancellation of the 1988 PC elections by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe duo, with the TNA standing by. The abeyance continues under the JVP-NPP government with no apparent end in sight after Tilvin de Silva’s statement in Jaffna.

I say all this to provide the proper context for Vigneswaran’s statement in Jaffna that the prospects for power devolution under the JVP-NPP government are becoming a political daydream. He said something else as well: that of all the government leaders he has encountered over the years, the only leader who has been genuinely sincere about power devolution is former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, and no one else. I am constrained to add that the insincere category would include Ranil Wickremesinghe, who for all his handsome promises, never matched any of them with experiential sincerity. The present JVP-NPP government still has time to show that they are not an insincere lot.

It is not my purpose to agree with or question Dr. Vigneswaran’s assertions, but to use them as cue and context to comment on the widening mismatch between the JVP-NPP government’s promises and its practices on the matter of power devolution and the restoration of the PC system. With a stalling economy, rising prices and external shocks, it is obvious that the government has all the economic matters to worry about, but that does not mean that it can ignore all the other government responsibilities. No government is put in power to solve a single problem or address a single issue. It is in the nature of governments to deal with multiple problems with varying priorities. Otherwise you could have a single cabinet minister to deal with one problem at a time. That is never going to be the case.

The economy is of course the top of mind priority for the government even as it is a top of mind concern for the people. Even on the economic front, the government is holding steady but is showing little progress. And there are other government initiatives where political accountability will call for answers: to wit, the catchall Clean Sri Lanka programme, ambitious educational reforms, contentious energy sector reforms and, yes, power devolution as well as the overpromised constitutional reforms. Not to mention the sprawling unforced errors over substandard coal imports, foreign exchange fraud, and the chronic neglect of developing the renewable energy sector. Correcting these fields of errors may require a separate ministry for each.

Devolution: Daydream or Deliverable

On the PC system and constitutional reform, there has been scant progress in spite of handsome promises. On both, the government is inadvertently deepening the holes that it had dug itself into through indifference, inaction or procrastination, or all of them and more. In the matter of devolution and provincial councils, the government can simply defuse the situation by directing the Election Commission to conduct elections at the earliest opportunity that is logistically possible. Making his statement in Jaffna, Mr. Tilvin Silva alluded to funding shortfall and legal complications as reasons for the necessity to postpone PC elections until next year. Neither reason holds water.

The funding question would seem to have been put to rest by the statement of Health Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa, presumably reflecting cabinet consensus, that there are no funding issues and if needed additional funds could be arranged through supplementary allocations. It is also disingenuous to cite legal complications as a reason. The so called legal complications arose because of the collective stupidity of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe parliament that included the then miniscule NPP and the politically-lost TNA. The JVP-NPP has now ballooned from a handful MPs to a two-thirds majority and it can expedite any legislation that it wants to enable the PC elections to be held without delays.

Alternatively, the elections can be held under the old arrangement of proportional representation with assurance by political parties to honour their commitment to fielding more female candidates. Already at a gathering of all political parties, including the NPP (but not the JVP), and civil society groups, convened by People’s Action For Free & Fair Elections (PAFFREL), the political parties jointly committed to a 25% quota for women and youth under the old electoral system. The ongoing parliamentary committee exercise studying the legal matter, headed by the overstretched Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, is also an unnecessary red herring. The Election Commission is ready to go under whatever law or electoral system that is before it. So, there is no reason to hide behind legal complications to further delay the PC elections.

Somewhat amusingly, Public and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananda Wijepala has trotted out the argument that the NPP government has already conducted two nationwide elections during the one and a half years it has been in office, and that unlike the Ranil Wickremesinghe government the JVP-NPP is not in the business “to delay elections for our personal benefit” – whatever that means. Unfortunately, the good minister is missing the point. The question is not how many elections can the JVP-NPP hold in how many years, but how many years do people in the provinces have to wait before they vote in another provincial election? How many more years? That really is the question.

We know the current situation in the provinces. There are provincial governments but no elected provincial councils. The government administration in every province is being run by the President of the Republic through his handpicked governors and unelected government officials. This is a travesty of democracy and the euthanizing of the PC system. Already under 13A, the office of the provincial governors has been constitutionally and legally compared to the office of the Governors of old Ceylon who represented the monarch in what was then a crown colony. The irony is that a JVP-NPP President may have inadvertently positioned himself as the monarch of all he provincially surveys, courtesy of the Thirteenth Amendment!

The JVP was in the forefront of the litigation that caused the demerger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. If Dr. Vigneswaran’s assertion were to prove correct, a potential dissolution of the provincial system under the JVP-NPP government would be the consummation of the JVP’s original opposition to the introduction of the provincial council system itself. The whole system may not be eradicated, but it could be devoured of its democratic essence while preserving the administrative shell as the medium for the country’s president to overreach into the provinces. That would be worse than a daydream, a real nightmare.

by Rajan Philips ✍️

Features

‘Spectrum’ Art Exhibition Showcases Emerging Talent at Lionel Wendt

Published

22 hours ago

2026/06/7

Thilina Walpola

A new art exhibition, titled Spectrum ,will be held at the Lionel Wendt Art Centre on the 20th and 21st of June 2026, bringing together a collection of works by ten emerging artists.

Athsara Wijegunawardena

Neha Thirumavalavan

Dillai Joseph

Wasantha Siriwardena

Champika Dias

Nipun Dias

Dr. Prasanna Siriwardena

Kalhari Perera

Siromi Samarasinghe

Chandana Illankone

All ten artists have trained under the guidance of renowned Sri Lankan artist Royden Gibbs, and this exhibition marks an important point in their individual journeys.

Dr. Prasanna Siriwardena

Spectrum brings together a mix of styles, subjects and approaches, giving visitors a chance to experience a wide range of work in one place. The exhibition will include pieces in watercolors, soft pastels, oils and charcoal, reflecting both the discipline and personal direction of each artist. The work ranges from scenery and portraits to still life and studies of the human form, offering different ways of seeing and interpreting familiar subjects.

: Nipun Dias

: Wasantha Siriwardena

Dillai Joseph

Although they share the same mentor, each artist presents a distinct point of view. The result is a show that feels varied yet connected, with each piece carrying its own character and intent. It is this balance that gives Spectrum its identity.

The exhibition aims to support and highlight emerging talent within Sri Lanka’s art scene, while also creating a space where artists and audiences can connect. Visitors will find work that shifts between quiet observation and more expressive pieces, making it an engaging experience for both seasoned collectors and those simply interested in art.

Spectrum is expected to draw art lovers, collectors, students and members of the wider creative community. It also offers an opportunity to discover and support new artists at an early stage in their careers.

Open to the public over two days, Spectrum invites visitors to experience a range of work in a venue that has long been part of Colombo’s cultural landscape.

Features

Rewiring Brain: Meditation to Break the Cycle of Craving

Published

22 hours ago

2026/06/7

Thilina Walpola

“Craving begets sorrow, craving begets fear. For him who is free from craving there is no sorrow; how can there be fear for him,” Dhammapada verse 216 states. The mental factor craving, Tanha in Pali, is central to Buddhist Teaching, as its ultimate goal is the cessation or extinction of it—tanhakkhaya. Even though Tanha is translated as craving here, it can sometimes mislead modern readers into thinking tanha only refers to extreme or physical addictions. Just as with any Pali term, it has broad meanings. Venerable Walpola Rahula describes it as “thirst” or unceasing wanting, one of the deep-rooted proclivities or latent tendencies (anusaya) of life (Rahula 1959), without which life as we know would not exist.

Even though the Buddha recognized this natural phenomenon two and a half millennia ago, it was only in the late 20th century that science took note of it and gave it a captivating term—the Hedonic Treadmill. The advantage of this empirical investigation to us Buddhists is that it provides a way to gain penetrative, experiential comprehension (anubodha) of this concept using the vernacular of this technology-savvy age—an alternative to struggling with the language of a bygone era.

These investigations have revealed that there are no hard-to-comprehend metaphysical or mysterious elements involved with this phenomenon; it is a biochemical process fundamental to sustaining life. What is more, an effort to grasp this concept would be well within the goals of Vipassana meditation described in the Sutta Pitaka, incorporating the four elements of investigation: body (kayanupassana), sensations (vedananupassana), mind (chittanupassana), and natural laws (dhammanupassana).

Vipassana and modern science

Vipassana meditation is an in-depth exploration of how humans perceive the world, gain knowledge, and interact with themselves and the environment. Knowing this with wisdom allows one to lead a harmonious way of life (samadhi), a condition conducive to curbing the “thirst” and achieving the Buddhist ideal. The goal of modern science is also to investigate life, but humanity has often used that knowledge to increase material wealth and comfort, providing only lip service to spirituality on the fringe.

An attitude that tends to ignore the consequences of wanting more and more – thirst, potentially endangering the planet. However, that does not prevent us from using scientific information as and aid or a tool to grasp Buddhist concepts. The scientific method bears parallels to the Buddhist approach: it is based on causality (paticcasamuppada), empirical verification (ehipassiko), systematic observation (meditation), and rejecting dogma and beliefs. The primary difference is simply the vocabulary used.

The process of perception: five aggregates

Our five external sense organs receive data (vedana) containing information on the environment: Eyes: receive light, Ears: receive sound, Skin: senses physical contact and temperature, Nose & Tongue: sense chemical properties of substances. The data received by the sense organs is transmitted to the brain, where it is registered as neural networks (sanna). Neural networks, which are interconnected groups of nerve cells (neurons) can be viewed as mind-readable QR codes.

The activity of the brain, or mind (mano), processes this data and converts them into actionable information (sankhara). Modern neuroscience and psychology have made great advances in understanding these processes at the molecular level. This process allows the individual to become aware of their environment, build an autobiographical memory or the notion of a self (atta), and take actions to protect and perpetuate life.

The Pali term vinnana refers to the collection of information committed to memory. Translating vinnana as “consciousness” can be confusing, as the latter often refers to all brain activities. All physical phenomena that sense organs encounter and the mental constructs (sankhara) are referred to as Rupa. This activity of mind forms the basis of all knowledge, representing the entire world as perceived by the individual. This process is what the Teaching refers to as the Five Aggregates (pancakkhanda). The critical takeaway is that the world we perceive is merely a mental construct. While an objective world exists, our sense organs have limitations in seeing it—a fact easily realized through the hundreds of illusions used for entertainment.

Evolution and emotion

The evolutionary purpose of this data processing mechanism is to enable living beings to respond to environmental factors for survival. The psychological and physiological state that arises prior to acting is called emotion. Primarily, emotions can be of three kinds: desire (loba) – seeing a new phone causes an urge to buy it, even though the current one works fine; aversion (dosha) – encountering a vicious dog triggers a “fight or flight” response; delusion (moha) or illusion – an unanswered message to a loved one triggers worry or speculation. Thus, tanha or thirst represents how we connect to the world in its entirety; it can be desire, aversion, and delusion, not merely simple greed. Consequently, these are natural phenomena beyond our immediate control, which are intended to sustain life. In other words, emotions are the forerunner to volitions or intentions, which the Teaching defines as kamma.

The biochemistry of craving

Emotions result from the interaction between the nervous system and biochemicals known as neurotransmitters and neuromodulators (e.g., dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine, GABA, glutamate, acetylcholine, and endorphins). Just as the Buddha’s simile of two bundles of bamboo supporting each other describes, these two processes are interdependent and co-arising. Every thought or emotional state corresponds to patterns of neural firing. When neurons fire, they release these chemicals into synapses, influencing how one feels and acts. This release perturbs the body’s normal balance, or homeostasis. Once an action is complete, these chemicals are reabsorbed, and the body returns to its baseline.

Return to baseline is essential for survival. For example, if we stay satisfied with just one meal forever, we could not sustain life. Nature has developed another mechanism to prevent us from being satisfied – we also habituate. In the case of dopamine, the brain adapts by reducing the response to the same stimulus. To get the same level of satisfaction with repeated experiences, the amounts of neurotransmitters needed keeps increasing. This leads to the cycle of craving and dissatisfaction—the Hedonic Treadmill. You “run” toward happiness on the treadmill, but it does not take you anywhere, leaving you in the same emotionally unsatisfactory state, wanting more and more.

Breaking the cycle

This explains why achievements and possessions do not bring permanent happiness, and lead to a cycle of struggle, addiction, crime, and other ills of society. For Buddhists, it also explains why we cling to meaningless rituals. The Dhamma captured this complex phenomenon in the Four Noble Truths: pleasant experiences are impermanent (anicca), leading to grasping (tanha) and unsatisfactoriness (dukkha). The remedy is the Eightfold Path that involves wisdom (panna), conduct (sila), and harmony (samadhi).

Neuroplasticity and the point of liberation

While we cannot stop the sense organs from receiving stimulation (vedana) and sending them to brain, the mind can be developed to prevent vedana from leading to tanha. This is the “point of liberation,” the seventh link in the paticcasamuppada formula. We may not have free will, but we have ‘Free Won’t’ or the ability to say no to the natural tendency to act upon stimuli. We can rewire our neural connections to do so. This ability can be cultivated by practice and repetition, and neuroscience refers to it as neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to change with experience.

The natural tendency of the brain is to strengthen frequently used neural networks while weakening and eliminating lesser used networks and building new ones as needed. This is known as neural plasticity or rewiring the brain. As described in the Eight-fold Path, the way to weaken and eliminate dopamine-driven neural networks includes three aspects. First, the process leading to thirst must be understood. One must engage in sila – activities and thoughts that cultivate Metta: loving-kindness and goodwill, Karuna: compassion, Mudita: appreciative joy, and Upekkha: equanimity, emotional stability, calmness, and evenness of mind in the face of gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disrepute, pleasure, and pain. That must be done with wisdom, ritualistic behavior does not strengthen the correct neural networks. These activities promote a “cocktail” of oxytocin, serotonin, and GABA, subduing the role of dopamine and helping us step off the Hedonic Treadmill. This leads to a tranquil state of mind and a harmonious existence – samadhi. Again, it is an interdependent, co-arising process that improves upon repetition. Using mind altering substances hijacks this process, thus the need for adhering to the Fifth Precept.

The goal of Vipassana is to understand this process and train the mind to say “no” to tanha. It is not just about sitting on a mat; it requires developing a lifestyle that maintains homeostasis or harmony, samadhi, at every moment. Pali term bhavana means the development of wisdom and insight. In modern vernacular – rewiring brain. This model must be assessed for its efficacy by the individual and realize the benefits by themselves –ehipassiko; knowledge without practice does not work. According to what the Buddha taught, that is the path to cessation or extinction of craving – tanhakkhaya, the supreme goal.

by Geewananda Gunawardana, Ph.D. ✍️