Italiano - 
English Alien - Maggio 1997
Italiano - English
On Sunday 30th March the inauguration of the first Buddhist Temple took place in Milan. On that occasion seven Buddhist Monks came from different European cities :Paris, London, Geneva, Berlin, Rome and from Sri Lanka. They received us to have an interview, so at first we told them about the Humanist Movement, particularly about the Center of Cultures, and on the different activitieswe are carrying on which have the purpose to favour discussion, interchange and working team between the various associations, groups and individuals of different cultures placing the human being as the central value.
We went on talking with Venerable Thawalama Dhammika the Head of the Bauddha Vihara (Temple) living in Geneva, and he started this way:
-"I’m very happy to talk with you about human being. Human value is very important, as many wars and things are happening while we are going on and people don’t understand they could do much more... we are monks since we were 10 years old and we decided to dedicate all our life to build a beneficial way to help the others, but we don’t have any individual purpose that’s our noble task. You’re proposals are very important, it is very necessary if you think about the actual situation all over the world . To make people understand each other, otherwise this world will become a real disaster.
While we are visualizing what a catastrophe is happening in this world, people become more and more individualist, we are becoming egoist, and it happens because people don’t understand each other, they don’t want to understand; because of this advanced modern technology they do not have human feelings, common feelings, they only think of their own interests, they don’t want to share their feelings, they are escaping , therefore we are happy to talk with you... to help you to contribute with this issue. It is a very noble task for the benefit of the world, humanity. We appreciate your work very much, we are close to you, we share your ideas, it is something very important to create an harmony. We should make people understand enlighten on which are human values, they do not care about each other, they think "It’s your problem, so I don’t care, it is not my problem!" . That’s the way human value is , you see human being only has a mind to think, the skill of talking; we have to use all human being’s skills, as we are born human beings. If we only use our mouth to eat there will be no difference with animals, they can do the same things, therefore the most important thing should be to use all human beings skills, body, mind, actions for the benefit of all humanity the only way should be to communicate, sharing things, that should be the noble proposes of everyone , and to work together for this, the noble task of all human beings."
- Is there any difference between Buddhism in general and Singhalese one ?
- Sri Lanka is our nation. The son of the emperor Asoka was in India, he brought Buddhism in Sri Lanka during the IIIrd century and from that moment until today Singhaleses has been the owners of this religion, they introduced Buddhism to Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Tibet, Korea, Japan and other countries. Singhalese nation and Buddhism are tightly close to each other, you can’t divide them. Singhalese Buddhism had the heritage of taking the responsibility of this religion from the IIIrd century till today.
- Which is your relationship with other religions ?
- As monks we have the responsibility of this century 28 years long. I dedicated my whole life to all human beings with any discrimination of any kind, so even the religious one.
- Why did you decide so young to become a monk?
- I believed in Karma theory of Buddhism; we all are the result of our past Karma’s. When I was 11 years old, even my parents were not very happy when I got the idea to become a monk, but I had a very strong idea, something influenced me very strongly to lead me to this faith, to make this decision to become a monk. That is karma, the actions that I have done in my previous life. The Buddhist Karma is cause and effect, you have a cause and a result, that’s my karmic formation, my karmic influence took me to get the decision to become a monk when I was 11 years old. My mother was not happy, but now they are very happy of what I’m doing here in Sri Lanka and also in Switzerland and in other countries. We never convert people we only say "come and see", you can come and see what Buddha said, you can criticize by yourself, you can understand by yourself, if you find something good for you, if you like it’s OK, otherwise, just forget it. we never force people to accept Buddhism’ Ideas. free thinking, it’ a free choice. In 28 years I never asked anybody to become a Buddhist.
- Which are the basic principles of Buddhism?
- There are 5 basic principles : 4 noble truths, 8 noble paths, karma and rebirth, Theory of dependent origination (birth circle of existing) and the middle one, Nirvana Karma final liberation from the universal suffering of Samsara.
But if you think of the whole doctrine it is 15 times bigger than the Bible, there are many sermons, there are 84.000 parts of Buddhist Dharma. The emperor Asoka during the IIIrd century built in India the greatest 84.000 Temples all over this country, to represent the 84.000 parts of the dharma.
Anyway, normally in Buddhism there are 3 noble qualities and virtues which anyone , monks and laypeople, must respect: generosity, morality and meditation. These are the basic fundamental aspects.
- How are you financed?
- Monks are not earning, I don’t work for the salary, I never earn money, I do some service to the people, and they prepare my food, provide medical care. We are depending on donations of laypeople and devotes. We help people and people help us. We are helping people to be able to develop their task. In Sri Lanka there are 20.000 monks and they are living depending on donations. I never cook, and anyway Buddhist monks don’t have dinner, we only have breakfast and lunch, and families, from the 1st of each month up to its end are organized with a list to prepare our food .
-Which way you use to develop your activities?
- We train, Buddhist monastic training. Normally in this world, we are living, experiencing 8 worldly conditions which are : happiness and unhappiness, loss and gain, fame and defame, blame and praise. These are the 8 worldly conditions which all human beings have experienced from the birth to the death. Every moment, every single moment we experience this worldly conditions. Nobody can avoid them. Each of us, we have to train our mind to accept this 8 worldly conditions. Usually when you loose you suffer and when you gain you’re happy; we have to learn to accept this conditions at all level, to consider these conditions as part of our life. We have to train our mind to take these things at the same level; human being has this feature.
-Which is your training method?
- Meditation, concentration. Normally you are here, but even if your body is here, your mind is close to the past, it’s not here. This meditation help to concentrate to this present moment. If you want to be happy you have to concentrate what ever you do, where ever you are, what ever you are engaged in, to be where you are; when you talk, you talk, when you eat you have to eat, do not do anything else, concentrate in the action you are doing, concentrate to this moment, if you talk and do something else, you can’t do anything properly, otherwise you create suffering. In the past there are only worries and miseries. Future means hope and happiness. Of course we can plane our future, we have to do it, but concentrate to this moment, if you live this moment correctly, you do not worry about the future and the past. Concentrate completely to this present moment, don’t think about the past, do not speculate on future. Concentrate to this moment and you will live forever. "I don’t think about tomorrow". There are many meditation techniques that we are using to train our mind. The man who concentrate himself to this moment will be the happiest in the world.
So we greet each other thanking for the possibility of talking together and then we agreed to keep in touch to start a mail interchange. We take this opportunity to send them our best wishes: Peace, force and joy.
Alien - Maggio 1997