BUDDHISM TODAY AND AESTHETIC CREATIVITY by Ananda Guruge

BUDDHISM TODAY AND AESTHETIC CREATIVITY – A MISCELLANY OF RECENT ARTICLES, ESSAYS AND SPEECHES covers many areas of my personal interests in the field of Buddhist studies and action. I have shared these views, opinions, observations and concerns with many audiences in all parts of the world over the last decade. The decision to compile them into a single volume is in response to many requests I receive for copies.

These articles, essays and speeches portray a range of subjects on which most Buddhists and friends of Buddhism seek information, clarification, explanation and solution. I have done my best to share my knowledge and understanding. The treatment of each subject was determined by the nature of the invitation, the kind of targeted audience or readership or the requirements of the organizer or publisher. As such they are not exhaustive or complete. Time and space had necessitated brevity and precision. Some of the subjects dealt with here would require individual treatises if they are to be treated in adequate detail. In many instances, I have indicated where further research is required.

I have been fortunate that a large group of international friends, colleagues and acquaintances have circulated my writings through periodicals, felicitation volumes and Internet forums and that enabled me to limit what I needed to include in this volume. For example I have left out the articles contributed to Venerable Hammalawa Saddhatissa, Venerable Dhammavihari, Venerable Kakkapalliye Anuruddha, Saddhamangala Karunaratne and N. H. Samtani Felicitation Volumes and the Jagajjyoti Centennial Volume.

During the decade under review my output had been many times more despite intermittent health problems. It is my intention to bring out a compilation of Sinhala writings separately. I have also not included what is available through other media such as YouTube and www.closertotruth.com . This website is due to make available several hours of intense interviews I have had with Dr. Robert L. Kuhn on many philosophical and metaphysical issues from the Buddhist point of view.

The motivation for this publication came from a letter to the editor of Island Newspaper of Sri Lanka in response to an appreciation which Dr. Laksiri Jaysuriya of Perth, Australia and I from Los Angeles, USA wrote jointly on late Mr. Padmal de Silva of the University of London. We made reference to the vast array of articles which Padmal had published through Western periodicals on Buddhist approach to psychotherapy and ranked him as an outstanding contributor to the advancement of knowledge in this field. The writer complained that these articles were not accessible to readers in Sri Lanka and mentioned also that a similar situation existed with regard to my writings as well as the erudite contributions on a variety of subjects by Professor Laksiri Jayasuriya. As a remedial measure, I have agreed to a generous proposal of Mr. Sirisumana Godage of the Godage International Publishers of Maradana, Colombo to bring out in a series my complete works in Sinhala and English, commencing with articles published from the age of seventeen as a school boy of Dharmaraja College, Kandy.

My major works are in Sri Lankan editions. ASOKA THE RIGHTEOUS: A DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY has been translated into Sinhala by Jinasoma Weerasooriya and published by Sirisumana Godage following an initiative taken by His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse as Prime Minister. Professor Tissa Kariyawasam translated my MAHAVAMSA into Sinhala and once again it was published by Godage International Publishers who also issued a second edition of the original in English.

Already Sri Lankan editions have been published of my novels SERENDITPITY OF ANDREW GEORGE and PEACE AT LAST IN PARADISE. It is proposed to bring out a Sri Lankan Edition of the first volume of this Trilogy FREE AT LAST IN PARADISE so that my complete Sri Lankan Trilogy on Freedom to Peace will be available to Sri Lankan readers at a reasonable price. In addition, I have donated all my archival material to the National Archives Department of Sri Lanka, where the Director Dr. Saroja Wettasinghe has already put them on display for the use of researchers.

Teaching, speaking and writing on various aspects of Buddhism have occupied a fair amount of my time and energy from my younger days as when the first ever Buddhist journal of the University of Ceylon was edited and produced by me as PATIPADA in 1948 at the age of nineteen years. Traveling to all corners of the world to meet diverse audiences to deliver speeches or moderate seminars or organize conferences has been a visible reward. But the real reward of sheer joy comes from meeting persons who recall what they have heard or read and tell how much the sharing of my views had contributed to their pursuit of the study of Buddhism. I expect no less from this volume.

Neither the intellectual preparation and the actual writing nor the travel around the world to deliver these speeches would have been possible without the generous support and encouragement of my family to whom I can never be too grateful. Once again, I express my indebtedness to my wife Darshanika, the children Anura, Mardhavi Sakuntala and Nisala Abhimana and my grandchildren Danielle, Matthew, Devanee and Tieschan. It is with justifiable pride that I include as a frontispiece a poem written by my grandson Matthew, age 17, who no doubt is inspired to carry on to the third generation the family tradition of a father and a grandfather who have many books and articles to their credit.

Sabbe satta bhavantu sukhittatta:
May all beings be happy and well