This is one of my finest day here in Sri Lanka. Meeting some new friends. This is the first time in my life to make friends with monks. They are all around my age, around 25, some are younger. Spending time with them everyday gives me insight of being a monk. Amazing yet very simple life. Everything make sense when we lead this kind of life. Being not attached to various things in life somehow is a liberation for me. Why we have to cling to something that is subject to decay and death, if we could understand that ourself is subject to decay and death? Something else must be there. Money and material things are subject to decay and death, wife and children are subject to decay and death, fame and glory are subject to decay and death, even religion & philosophy are subject to decay & death. These are not kind of understanding that everything is vain & empty. Just the opposite, where there is an understanding that everything is impermanence then something great are b...
Photo: Mahatma Putra 's Personal Archive The room was black, as black as his past. He sat there alone, in his black Victorian-chair, accompanied only by his books. He had no friends, for he thought there were no one he could speak to, he thought everyone else was dumb and that if he socialize with them, it could lead him away to reach enlightenment. So he locked himself in his black painted office, where he could spoke and listened to Heidegger and Machiavelli -some of his few imaginary friends. They told him -and he believed- that when he had enlightened, his black-painted office would transform itself into a brilliant white box. When someone was too lonely, sometimes there was a voice that one couldn’t differ whether it was real or not. He had been a director in Mayhem-Factory for almost a thousand years. This job was no different than any other job; it had its ups and downs, and maybe this time, right now was the most-down side his job. He mourned a lot, for everything ar...
Saya benar-benar tidak tahu apa yang saya harapkan ketika pertama kali memutuskan untuk pergi ke Sri Lanka. Tentu saja saya tahu bahwa Sri Lanka adalah negara yang mengadopsi ajaran Buddha Theravada, aliran Buddhisme yang diklaim sebagai aliran tertua di dunia. Foto pertama di Sri Lanka. Bendera dan stupa Buddha bisa ditemui di hampir setiap sudut Kolombo. Itulah akhirnya yang membuat saya memutuskan untuk mengambil kursus singkat Buddhist Studies di Sri Lanka International Buddhist Academy. Walau Tibet terdengar lebih eksotik untuk dijelajahi, Sri Lanka punya akar sejarah yang jauh lebih kuat akan ajaran Buddha mula-mula dibanding negara-negara lain di Asia Selatan. Theravada dibawa masuk dari India ke Sri Lanka pada abad ke 3 Masehi. Awalnya Theravada adalah salah satu cabang dari Hinayana Buddhism, yang sekarang bahkan di India sendiri kini telah punah. Perjalanan saya menuju SIBA (Sri Lanka International Buddhist Academy) dimulai dari Airport Kolombo ke ...
Comments