Sri Lankaramaya

by Kathleen Gregory

The Sri Lankaramaya is a Sri Lankan Buddhist Monastery in Ellen Grove, Brisbane. Heading west towards Ipswich from the city, Ellen Grove is one of the newer outer suburbs of Brisbane. The monastery is situated on two and a half acres of bushland on the edge of the development. You can very easily miss the discreet sign under a tree near the fence, but you will know you are in the right place when you see the stupa at the back of the property. Standing three metres tall, the white stupa is beautifully crafted in the style of the Sri Lankan tradition. The candles, flowers and incense that predominate around the stupa make it clear that this is a place of practice. Next to the stupa is a Bodhi tree, obviously growing well in the Brisbane heat. It is surrounded by a low fence, flags hanging in the branches and a small shrine.

The temple itself is a large metal garage at the side of the property. One can only imagine how hot it becomes in the summer, however the two open double garage-doors give the temple a pleasing sense of indoors/outdoors. The shrine is dominated by a large gold Buddha, surrounded by 28 smaller Buddha statues representing the Buddhas of the past.

The Director and Chief Monk, the Venerable Wattegama Dhammawasa Thero, resides at the monastery, along with two resident monks. On the verandah of the monks' quarters - a modest house at the front of the property - I met with the Venerable Wattegama Dhammawasa Thero and the Venerable Sativihari, a Canadian monk recently arrived from Sri Lanka. Venerable Dhammawasa Thero was returning to Sri Lanka that very afternoon, so it is with much appreciation that I acknowledge the time he gave for this interview.

Kathleen Gregory: My first question is about the history of the Temple - how did it come to be here?

Ven. Dhammawasa: In 1991 a few Sri Lankan families had gathered. At the time they had no Sri Lankan temple here and went to a Thai temple for a while. Later, they started a small organisation and in 1993 bought a house and started a small temple in Forest Lake. Slowly it was growing. In 1995, we bought this land and started this temple.

KG: When did the monks first come? Were they invited by the community?

Ven. Dhammawasa: After the first Centre started, they invited Venerable Kamalasiri, who came and stayed for a few months. After that, I came and stayed for a while, then more monks came and stayed.

Ven. Sati: Venerable Kamalasiri is also a senior monk and a brother monk to Venerable Dhammawasa. He came and kind of checked the place out, then decided that this was a better project for Venerable Dhammawasa. He then recommended to the group here that they get in touch with Venerable Dhammawasa, which they did and Venerable Dhammawasa agreed to come here. Venerable Dhammawasa became the Chief Monk. That was in 1993.

KG: What are the regular activities that happen at the Centre?

Ven. Sati: In terms of regular services, there are meditation classes. There are more open-ended Dhamma discussion classes which deal with how Buddhism relates to everyday life situations and there are more structured classes, what we call Dhamma School. Then we have regular Buddha pujas as a weekly ceremony and, after that, a Dhamma talk. There are several practices that are regularly done - usually several times a week - that are initiated by request. For example, a Bodhi puja, which is a special kind of puja surrounding the Bodhi tree; various kinds of chanting for different occasions - like illness, birth, death - and just about everything else that happens in life. We also have special practices on Poya Days (full-moon days), such as meditations under the Bodhi tree.

Ven. Dhammawasa: We also have cultural activities; for example, traditional Sri Lankan drama and Sri Lankan New Year celebrations. Outside the temple, the monks will go to give blessings of homes and things like that.

Ven. Sati: There are the traditional Buddhist holidays as well, like Buddha's birthday. There are other specifically Sri Lankan Buddhist holidays also, like Poson Poya Day, the day Buddhism came to Sri Lanka, and Sanghamitta Day which is the day when the first Bhikkuni Sangha began in Sri Lanka.

Ven. Sati: I think that counselling is also part of the monks' role. It is not something that is structured, but more just as it happens. People are constantly coming in.

KG: Could you say more about the Dhamma School? What level of commitment does that involve and what is studied?

Ven. Sati: Study at the Dhamma School starts out very basic; they go through the basic teachings. Understanding Buddhism, the life of the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths, the Eight-fold Path and so on. Beyond that, it gets deeper into sutra study. It is a weekly class and there are exams also.

KG: Are retreats also part of the practice here?

Ven. Sati: Retreats are a very important part of the monks' practice. At this point, though, I don't think there have been any here for lay Sangha, other than one-day meditation retreats. We are planning for it though. The land here is pretty large we are hoping to build accommodation to house overnight retreats. We have thought about teaming up with Chenrezig Institute to do retreats, because they have such nice facilities.

KG: Does the community have the responsibility of supporting the monks?

Ven Sati: Yes, we are completely supported by the community, which is typically how it works in a south-east Asian Buddhist setting. All of our food, shelter and so on is taken care of by the community. They cook the food, bring it and offer it and this is part of practice for them. Also it is part of our tradition that we don't keep money, so the community deals with all of those concerns for us.

KG: How is the community organised in relation to those activities?

Ven. Dhammawasa: There is a core of four people who founded the Management Committee. Then we have about 200 devotees.

Ven. Sati: The Management Committee takes care of organising all of these things - who will cook for the monks, the schedules and so on. It takes a lot of organising actually. The Chief Monk also has a big organisational role. When Venerable Dhammawasa returns to Sri Lanka, that will be Venerable Sujatha. A lot of the details of everyday life here are overseen by the Chief Monk.

KG: Could you say a little about the role of the Chief Monk in relation to the other monks?

Ven. Sati: I think it is a similar kind of relationship to the Tibetan tradition. We have a primary teacher, which is who the monks receive ordination from. That person becomes the guide to our practice and our study. Not just in formal ways, such as, 'you need to read this,' but also in quite personal ways. What areas of your life need development and how you can do that. It is a very close relationship; like father and son or daughter.

KG: Would this also be true for the lay Sangha?

Ven. Sati: When the Chief Monk is not here, that role is spread out amongst the other monks. My sense about the Tibetan tradition is that there is more focus on one teacher; the Root Guru. It is not the same in this tradition.

KG: Can you say a little bit more about the tradition that you are from?

Ven. Sati: In Sri Lanka, we practise Theravada Buddhism. In Sri Lanka, like most Buddhist countries, there are also other influences - there is some Hindu influence. There are many different varieties of Theravada Buddhism. At this temple, through our teacher, we are very interested in the teaching of Ajahn Chah, from the Thai forest-tradition. This is a bit more mystical in its orientation than traditional Theravadin Buddhism. We have translated a lot of Ajahn Chah's books into Sinalese.

KG: Could you talk about the relationship between the temple here and the one in Sri Lanka?

Ven. Sati: It is a big monastery in Sri Lanka, with about thirty monks. This is a monastic training centre called Subodharama Buddhist Centre. All of the monks that come here are trained there. It is a large centre, with many other activities attached; we have two orphanages and an old-age home and part of our monastic training is working in those environments. There is also a formal bhikku training centre where people learn Pali, Sanskrit, the sutras and all of the technical Buddhist knowledge. We are also related to a number of meditation centres where we can deepen our meditation practice. The Subodharama Buddhist Centre is also under the leadership of the Venerable Dhammawasa. If he is not there, he is here. He needs to be there more however, because there are younger monks there. We need a little less attention than the younger ones!

KG: How did the stupa project come about? What is the significance of building a stupa?

Ven. Dhammawasa: The stupa is a symbol of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. The base signifies confidence; the lotus flower at the bottom means a very clean mind; the three circles are for Buddha, Dharma and Sangha; the big area symbolises samadhi, the concentration of the mind. After that there are box-like sections, which means that after 'big samadhi' we can understand the Four Noble Truths. Then there are eight smaller sections, which represent the Eight-fold Noble Path. The stupa provides us with the right background or environment for spiritual enlightenment; these are very important practices in Dhamma and in our life.

In Sri Lanka, we have a very large stupa which is 250 feet high. There are many stupas there. This is because 2000 years ago, all people led an agricultural-based life; they built reservoirs, like artificial lakes, in the area they lived, for collecting water. After they had built these lakes, they would build a stupa. So now you can see areas in Sri Lanka where there are lakes, temples and stupas all together!

KG: How long did this one take to complete? Did you bring craftspeople from Sri Lanka?

Ven. Dhammawasa: It took maybe four months. One man who knew how to make the stupa came from Sri Lanka and other Sri Lankan people gave materials and their help. It was built by everybody together.

KG: What future plans do you have for the Centre?

Ven. Sati: We have lots of ideas - who knows what will happen! We are wanting to build a monastery for the monks to live in. This would accommodate five at this stage. It has always been the plan to have the ordination of Australians - that would be great. One of the interesting things about this temple is that 99% of the population is Asian, while their children - most of whom are no longer children - have grown up in Australia. So their mentality and attitudes are quite western. It is a very interesting mix of people and that affects how we think and how we teach. There is a lot of openness to other Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions because that is more typical of a western outlook.

One of the directions that we have been developing puts more emphasis on how Buddhism relates to everyday life. How does it relate to solving real problems in relationships, in our emotional life, in terms of personal growth? This is not so much the traditional Buddhist emphasis. We have talked about developing in a lot of different areas; such as doing more meditation retreats, especially for westerners. Then there is also the idea of having a Buddhist child-care centre. We are very focussed on families and building healthy family relationships.

Ven. Dhammawasa: We would also like to have a Buddhist library.

Ven. Sati: Yes, we have a small library now and we would like to expand that. Also, part of the project of building the monastery will be to build a meditation hall.
Ven. Dhammawasa: We would also like to build a dining hall and an office.

KG: Is the emphasis on 'personal growth' and bringing Buddhism into everyday life in the ways that you have explained also developing in Sri Lanka?

Ven. Sati: In my experience, it is more a western phenomena. However, I know it is something that our teacher is interested in. The Venerable Dhammawasa is thinking about having a book by Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart - which really epitomises that perspective of Buddhism - translated into Sinhala. It will be interesting to see how that blends into a traditional Asian Buddhist culture.

KG: What sort of connections do you have with other Buddhist Centres?

Ven. Dhammawasa: For special functions, the Laotian, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Taiwanese and other Sri Lankan temples either come here or we go there.

Ven: Sati: The Buddha statue and the Kuan Yin statue in the monks' house were gifts from the Vietnamese Buddhist community. We are also very close with various Tibetan groups; we have had visiting monks from the FPMT and the Nyingma school, which has been very good. I think we are connected with the Buddhist community in general. We would love to have more visitors from the Kagyu tradition that you represent.