UCAN: Catholic, other religious leaders, laity try silence when peace talks fail

UCANews

ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka (UCAN) – Silence filled the soundproof room as people sat on the floor, their eyes closed.

This odd grouping of people in a strange setting seemed to be doing nothing.

They had come together at Nuwarawewa Rest House, a well-known tourist hotel in Anuradhapura, 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) north of Colombo.

Amid the barely audible hum of the air conditioners, more than 100 people – half of them local religious leaders, the other half lay guests – meditated on peace for six hours a day for five days, July 3-7.

Intense extended meditation was the cornerstone of the "Peace Building and Reconciliation" workshop run by Centre for Peace Building and Reconciliation (CPBR), which says meditation is common to all religions. So the Buddhists, Catholics, Hindus, Muslims and Protestants all sat in silence and meditated.

The organizers used silence to stress the urgent need for peace in a country plagued by decades of civil war between Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese-led government. They chose a conference room overlooking a large reservoir built by a long dead king that is renowned for its calm serenity.

To Sri Lankan Buddhists, ancient Anuradhapura is sacred because that is where bhavana (meditation) was introduced to Sri Lanka about 2,200 years ago.

Many locals and foreign tourists quietly watched the meditating people from corridors, an unusual sight in a tourist resort more attuned to entertainment.

Besides daily meditation, the participants also discussed the war and its vicious cycle of hatred and violence, and contemplated how to bring peace. An important meditation focused on love and compassion.

Naratha Thero, a Buddhist monk from nearby Kalla Siyambalawa Sri Sudharmarama Temple, said, "Meditation will put us on the way to peace and to experience the world as a paradise."

"With religious unity, we hope we can reach our target of peace," said Professor Jayantha Seneviratnem, one CPBR founder. He told UCA News that Sri Lanka is blessed with the four major religions – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam – and religion maintains a pervasive influence in society.

However, he said that with the civil war, the leaders of the four religions fail whenever they strive for unity. He also acknowledged that such efforts have created a little awareness amongst the warring factions.

This was the fourth in a series of meditation workshops held since 2002.

Seneviratne co-founded CPBR to promote "unity of all religions and bring peace to the country." His group plans to continue the program in other dioceses.

"I know only my religion and do not have an interest in knowing other religions," George Ivan Rex, 58, a Christian member of the local Caritas staff in Anuradhapura, told UCA News. "We are divided and separated by religions."

When he was a child, Rex said, his parents did not allow him to visit the temple, and yet, "here we are gathered."

Sister Ethal Fernando, 64, of Holy Family Convent told UCA News that the spirituality of man is "wonderful" in that it holds a person's ideas and needs and is the answer to their problems and happiness, a common trait of all religions. Her convent is in Talawa, 15 kilometers south of Anuradhapura.

Moulavi Mohamed Irfan, 23, of Ikirigolla Mosque, told UCA News that he appreciated the interfaith meditation because "when you know yourself, then you will understand who God is."

Father Gerard Anthony Silva, 47, procurator general and catechetical director of Anuradhapura diocese, added that most people long for peace but only a few come forward to struggle for peace. "It is a hard job in a warring country," he told UCA News. He "felt happy" after the meditation, he added.

Sister Fernando expressed optimism after going through the meditation workshop. She told UCA News that such an experience with religious leaders will bring about a "big change in the minds of our countrymen."