Caroline Leibowitz
The Alabama Buddhist Vihara was founded in 2017 in Birmingham, AL. This community follows the Theravada Buddhist tradition (also referred to as “the Way of Elders”), a tradition found most commonly in southern parts of Asia. Parts of the Vihara’s website and Facebook page are written in Sinhala, the most commonly spoken language in Sri Lanka to appeal to many Sri Lankan members of the Vihara’s community. Theravada Buddhism has had a strong presence in Sri Lanka, and this goes back to the time of King Asoka when he sent his children as Buddhist missionaries around 210 BCE to establish Buddhism there. Despite Ashoka’s missionaries who were sent north and east of India being unsuccessful, his children were highly successful in cementing Buddhism in Sri Lanka.
Theravada Buddhism is one of three still surviving Vinaya schools, and followers of this school claim to be descendants of the Theras, or Elders, who held discipline and following doctrine of utmost importance. The first splitting of the Sangha (Buddhist community) was 100 years after the Buddha achieved Nirvana. After meeting and disagreeing over ways in which the sangha should function (some of which being acceptable times to eat or whether or not monastics could own salt to season their food) the Theras broke away from the larger community. The Theravada tradition is founded on strict adherence to doctrine, connecting the past and present. Taking directly from the Alabama Buddhist Vihara’s website: “Theravada Buddhism emphasizes attaining self-liberation through one’s own efforts. Meditation and concentration are vital elements of the way to enlightenment. The ideal road is to dedicate oneself to full-time monastic life.”
While preparing to fully commit oneself to monastic life can be seen as daunting, the Vihara holds many services to help aid those who want to travel down that path. Meditation services are held twice a week, first on Mondays from 7:00-8:15 PM in English, and again on Sunday from 8:00-9:00 AM in Sinhala. The English services practice Anapanasati meditation which centers on mindfulness of breathing, whereas the Sinhala services practice Samatha and Vipassana meditation. Vipassana meditation focuses on insight and vision, and Samatha meditation focuses on concentration and steadying the mind. The division of services by language could potentially express the catering of needs towards different people. People outside of the tradition originally, or without an understanding of the Sinhala language would likely find themselves at the Anapanasati service. The Anapanasati service, for this reason, could be targeted more at people with an interest in Buddhism or Buddhist practices but who do not have as much of a background with it. The opposite could be said about the Samatha and Vipassana service, where people who speak Sinhala are comforted in practicing meditation in a language they do not hear outside of their community often, given that they are in America.
Along with meditation services, there is weekly Dhamma School. Dhamma School (also called in parentheses on the Vihara’s website “Sunday School”, potentially to bridge understanding with Americans outside of the Buddhist tradition and familiar with Christianity) is for children in the Vihara’s community. The Vihara describes the school as “an organized effort to provide an opportunity for our children in their search for a ‘right-way’ of living. It will guide the children to learn and adopt Buddhist values to their way of life to find happiness. To this end, Dhamma School provides a solid foundation to develop wholesome thoughts that will take them on the ‘right-way’.” The website also notes that adults interested in learning more about Buddhism are encouraged to attend the classes, even though they are targeted toward children. The community makes an active effort to educate their children from a young age on the importance of Buddhism in their lives and includes adults who want to be educated.
Another practice the Vihara takes part in is the Poya program. Poya, or full-moon day, happens once a month and is dedicated to religious observance and a recentering of the mind on the right path. It emphasizes religious piety and taking a break from regular daily tasks. Devotees are encouraged to spend the day at the temple and observe sil or right conduct. Sil is made up of the three stages of the Eightfold Path: wisdom, morality, and meditation. Attendees also observe the eight precepts. Other practices during Poya include observers learning the dhamma, meditation, reciting gatha (short poetic verses), offering and partaking in dana (charitable giving), and dhamma discussions (public discourse on Buddhism led by a teacher). Dhamma discussions are especially important to Theravada Buddhists and happen regularly to keep communication and education open and frequent.
One of the most significant events held at the Alabama Buddhist Vihara is the annual Kathina Festival. The Kathina Festival is held after Vas (the three-month rainy season), and devotees can receive blessings and make offerings to the Sangha. This is the time of year when monks are given new robes, and they make these fresh robes from the kathina cloth. The cloth is given to monks by laypeople and is made from cotton. While the festival is centered around monks being gifted cloth for robes, laypeople can also make donations to the Sangha to help maintain their Vihara. The main virtue highlighted at the Kathina Festival is generosity, and the festival is surely a time of giving. On the Vihara’s website, included in the description of the festival, the Buddha during the Anapanasatti Sutra is quoted to give further background on the festival’s background and intentions: “O Bhikkhu! The Sangha here is a pure assembly. It is worth it for devotees to come a long way to pay respect and make a donation. For this assembly, a small donation will get a lot of merits and a large donation even gets more merits in return. The Sangha Assembly is indeed a field for all devotees to seed their good kamma and cultivate their merits.”
The 2022 Kathina Festival was held on October 29-30 and began on the 29th during the afternoon with Pirith chanting. The entirety of the Piruwana book of sermons is blessed during this time, with chanting scheduled from 2:30 PM until 10:30 PM. The second day of the festival is when offerings are made to the sangha and the Buddha Pooja. Devotees arrive at the temple early in the morning (6:00 AM) with the kathina they will be offering. Offerings are made first to the Buddha Pooja, and then to the monks. While conducting my research, I was unable to find out how many monks are in residence at the Vihara, but it appears in images from the Alabama Buddhist Vihara’s website that they have a thriving monastic community.
During the Kathina Festival dana (giving) of food and clothing and resources to the sangha as well as the larger community happens multiple times. Devotees switch between dana for the Buddha and the sangha until it is time for the luncheon at noon. Throughout the day, devotees can also be blessed by the sangha, listen to Dhamma discussions, and take the five precepts.
The Alabama Buddhist Vihara also collaborates with the Georgia Buddhist Vihara to fundraise by selling traditional Sri Lankan food. The temples are both non for profit organizations, so they make money through donations and fundraising. At the annual food fair, some of the dishes highlighted include kottu roti and lumprais. Collaboration between the two Viharas shows solidarity between different Sri Lankan Buddhist communities for the greater good of them both. Outside of the United States, the Alabama Buddhist Vihara has a section on its website dedicated to shipping items to Sri Lanka. The community makes an effort to give back to communities in Sri Lanka and publicized on their Facebook in April 2022 the Georgia Buddhist Vihara’s fundraiser for Sri Lanka. The goal of this fundraiser was to raise money to help buy medicine and surgical supplies to send to Sri Lanka, as their health system was in decline with the national economic crisis.
Within the Alabama Buddhist Vihara, outside of the annual Kathina Festival, giving is a common occurrence. Weekly dana is given, with the laypeople offering breakfast, lunch, and gilanpasa to the monks. Gilanpasa is offered to the sangha in the evening, and it is a drink and medicine. Laypeople take turns weekly giving dana to the sangha, and they do their part to see that their monks are taken care of.
Despite being in a majority Christian area, (according to Pew Research Center as of 2014 only 1% of Alabama’s religious population is non-Christian: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/state/alabama/) the Alabama Buddhist Vihara thrives and brings focus to both Sri Lankan and Buddhist culture. With only two other temples in the area, the Alabama Buddhist Vihara fills a special place in the Birmingham community. Cultivating a devoted and selfless community centered around doing good and following Buddhist teachings is the mission of the Alabama Buddhist Vihara.
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