Background
The Mahamevnawa Meditation Center of Washington DC is located in Rockville, Maryland, about 20 miles outside of DC. From this position it services the greater DC metro area. While the center is called a meditation center it is more accurately a Theravada Buddhist monastery. There are currently three monks in residence there with a congregation of hundreds of people. The number of people who regularly attend the Sutta studies and meditation is fewer, closer to forty people. The center was founded by Sri Lankan Buddhists, and the majority of the constituency are Sri Lankan. Many events at the monastery are open to the general public, or to those who can participate, but they are held in Sinhala, the most prevalent language in Sri Lanka.
While holding many events in Sinhala is limiting to the number of members of the general American public that can attend the events, the center makes it clear that they are very interested in teaching both Buddhist ideas and meditation to the general public. They say that the center is open to all who want to develop mindfulness. Additionally the center does charity work that aids both the Washington DC community as well as Sri Lanka. More specifically, they hold regular blood drives at the temple to contribute to the area’s blood supply. Also, after their 2016 Vesak celebrations, which had over 200 people in attendance, the members of the center contributed to flood and mudslide relief efforts in Sri Lanka following the mudslide disasters in May.
Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery Network
The meditation center was established in 2012 by the Most Venerable Kiribathgoda Gnananda Thero. It is part of the Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery network, which is a closely connected group of Buddhist monasteries originating in Sri Lanka. Currently the network has more than 50 monasteries around the world, including six in the United States and another four in Canada. The network was founded in 1999 by Kiribathgoda Gnananda Thero, who is also responsible for founding many of the individual monasteries currently in the network.
At this time, the network has over six hundred ordained monks associated with it, living all over the world. Additionally there are approximately seventy-five nuns living in a special monastery near Giriulla, Sri Lanka. In Theravada Buddhism monks and nuns are not allowed to share a monastery, and must be kept separate from each other. In addition to the ordained followers, the network has hundreds of thousands of lay disciples.
The network was able to grow so large in a relatively short amount of time due to the writings and attitudes of the founder, Kiribathgoda Gnananda Thero. Gnanananda Thero has published more than ninety books that can be found both in print and digitally on the internet. These books fall into two categories. The first is translations: Gnananda Thero has translated parts of the Pali canon into Sinhala so that they can be read and understood by people in Sri Lanka. Most notably, Gnananda Thero translated the Sutta Pitaka, which contains over 10,000 suttas from the Buddha’s forty-five years of teaching.
The other type of publication that accounts for the majority of Gnananda Thero’s writings are books describing the Buddha’s life and deeds and teachings in an easy-to-understand way, with simple prose. Most of these publications are written in Sinhala; however a few have been translated into English to help bring Suttas and Theravada ideas to western audiences.
Gnananda Thero’s ability to clearly and easily explain Buddhist concepts is what allowed him to begin the monastery network originally. He started as a Theravada monk traveling around Sri Lanka leading meditation classes, teaching the four noble truths, and helping people follow the eight fold path. It quickly became clear that he had the ability to help others clear their minds easily for meditation, and he used this ability to help build a following. He used this following to help him find monasteries and spread his view of Theravada Buddhism
Religious Views
The Mahamevnawa meditation center of Washington DC, and all of the Mahamevnawa Buddhist monastery network, follows Theravada Buddhism. Theravada is the most traditional and conservative form of Buddhism widely practiced today. It follows the Pali canon which is a complete Buddhist canon in the traditional language of the Buddha, Pali. Theravada is mainly practiced in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia.
As a Theravada temple, the meditation center teaches the four noble truths, and uses the eightfold path to overcome suffering. They also believe in reincarnation. While it is possible for every person to reach enlightenment and enter into Nirvana in this life, this is difficult and takes most beings many lifetimes to accomplish. People are not necessarily reincarnated as humans. The type of reincarnation taken is dependent on ones karma. Karma can be increased in this life through the acquisition of good merit by doing things such as helping to support the monks living in the monastery. These monks live strictly by the Vinaya, the Buddhist rules for monastics, and need to be supported by the community.
In addition to stating these general Theravada rules, the Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery Network takes positions on a series of issues facing Buddhism and society.
First they believe that women can reach Nirvana. Some Buddhist traditions and schools say that women cannot become enlightened, and even Nuns are just ensuring that they get a better rebirth in which they can then reach enlightenment. The Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery Network teaches that all people, including both ordained and lay women can reach enlightenment in their lifetime.
The only group that the network says can probably not reach Nirvana is small children, because they are not yet skilled enough at thinking and logic. They do concede however that a particularly bright child can reach Nirvana, and children in the the time of the Buddha did become enlightened.
The network also takes a position on the political hot-button topic of abortion. In their own words they say that:
The Buddha taught us not to involve in killings. In Parajikapali (a part of the Buddha’s teachings included in the discipline part which is known as the Vinaya Pitaka), the Buddha has taught us that it is a sin to kill even one day lasted pregnancy. In fact, Supreme Buddha is the first teacher who made a voice objecting the abortions about 2553 years ago. Thus, you could imagine how marvelous the Buddhism is.
This quote also shows an important aspect of the Theravada tradition where they use words of the Buddha to address modern day problems, and point to his foresight of these problems and his solutions as proof of his greatness and enlightened nature.
Another topic that is often discussed in modern society is the relation between science and religion. The meditation center and the monastery network take a fairly simple position on this subject. They teach that Buddhism is the ultimate and unchanging truth. Science, on the other hand, is constantly in flux and contradicts itself. They believe that science can be used to prove parts of Buddhism but one’s faith should be put into Buddhist practices and not in science.
Meditation
One place where Mahamevnawa Meditation Center and the entire Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery Network differ from a purely traditional approach to Buddhism is with the practice of meditation. While I said at the beginning that the Mahamevnawa Meditation Center of Washington DC could more accurately be described as a Theravada monastery, meditation is still very important to what they do. During the time of the Buddha, meditation was a practice reserved for monastics, and not recommend to lay people. The Mahamevnawa network however recommends and promotes meditation for all people.
This a very common view in modern Buddhism. Meditation is a popular practice and is viewed as an integral part to realizing Nirvana. Furthermore Gnananda Thero, the founder of the Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery Network, gained popularity by teaching meditation. Many of the books he has published have been about meditation and meditative practices. Additionally a lot of the Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery Network website is devoted to information about meditation including in-depth instructions, audio, and videos.
The Meditation Center teaches two types of meditation, Samatha meditation and Vidarshana meditation. Samantha meditation is concerned with using mindfulness in order to overcome the five poisons. These poisons are ignorance, attachment, aversion, pride, and envy. Vidarshana meditation, on the other hand, is built around the idea of observing the truth of life and suffering through concentration and calming the mind. The Meditation Center teaches that both of these forms of meditation need to be learned and practiced together for one to reach full understanding and enlightenment.
Work Cited
MahamevnawaDC. Mahamevnawa Meditation Center of Washington DC, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2016. <http://mahamevnawadc.org/>.
Mahamevnawa.lk. Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery Network, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2016. <http://mahamevnawa.lk/inenglish/>.
The Official Website of Mahamevnawa Monastery CA. Mahamevnawa Monastery, Califorina, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2016. <http://www.mahamevnawa.us/>.