Godwin Samararatne

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Godwin Samararatne (born September 6, 1932 in Sri Lanka , † March 22, 2000 in Peradeniya near Kandy ) was a Buddhist meditation teacher from Sri Lanka.

For almost 20 years he headed the Nilambe Meditation Center near Kandy in the highlands of Sri Lanka, where he introduced Buddhist teaching and meditation practice to local and numerous foreign visitors . His trademark was the simple, realistic and humorous communication. Since the mid-1980s he has received numerous invitations from abroad and has taught regularly in various countries in Europe , Asia and Africa . When he died in 2000, he was one of the most internationally known figures of Theravada Buddhism.

biography

Godwin Samararatne was born on September 6, 1932 and spent his childhood in Kandy . He attended a Buddhist school. After leaving school he became a librarian and worked in various libraries in and around Kandy, where he eventually became chief librarian at the Kandy Public Library.

During this time he also worked as a translator for various reincarnation researchers , including Ian Stevenson . He reports that Godwin Samararatne developed his own interest in researching cases of possible reincarnation and later also conducted independent surveys. Consequently, he appears as a co-author in various publications.

While his six siblings got married, he stayed at home and looked after his widowed mother until her death in 1977. At that time he was already a member of a group of Buddhist lay people who studied Buddhist teachings and practiced meditation. When the group established a meditation center in Nilambe, near Kandy, in 1979, he gave up his position as a librarian and moved to the new center. Soon after, he became the main meditation teacher.

The meditation center was very well received by locals and foreigners. In the following years, his fame as a meditation teacher rose quickly. As early as 1982 he was invited to Europe and later to South Africa . In the 1990s he continued to teach at the Nilambe Meditation Center and its offshoots, the Lewella and the Visakha Meditation Center, in the rooms of the Buddhist Publication Society in Kandy and at the University of Peradeniya . In addition, the number of invitations from abroad increased. He taught in Germany , England , Switzerland and the Netherlands ; in Asian countries like Hong Kong , Singapore and India as well as in South Africa.

At the beginning of 2000 his last trip abroad took him to South Africa and Botswana . Shortly after his return, a long-standing liver disease worsened and he died on March 22, 2000 in Peradeniya Hospital near Kandy. Many well-known Buddhist personalities praised his selfless and exemplary work for Buddhist teaching.

After his death, a website was set up to collect records of his meditation instructions, speeches and conversations, to transcribe them, translate them and prepare them for publication. An anthology with instructions for meditation practice has already appeared in Germany. In Botswana, the stop on his last trip abroad, a meditation center was named after him.

Quotes

  • "Why meditate? What I would suggest is that what one tries to do in meditation is to find out how our minds work experientially. "(Nilambe, 1990)
  • "Learn to be your best friend and also to be a friend of others. Learn to forgive yourself and others and then heal any wounds that you are carrying. "(Hong Kong, October 7, 1998)
  • "Don't be a Buddhist!" (Attributed)

swell

literature

Buddhism

  • Godwin Samararatne: Watching thoughts and emotions. In: Rod Bucknell and Chris Kang (Eds.): The meditative way. Readings in the theory and practice of Buddhist meditation . Curzon Press, Richmond 1997, pp. 136-145. ISBN 0-7007-0677-1 .
  • Godwin Samararatne: Life is our Best Teacher . (Chinese translation of the speeches and conversations at a retreat in Hong Kong in 1997, place and year unknown)
  • Godwin Samararatne: Talks on Buddhist Meditation. Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy 2002, ISBN 955-24-02330 .
  • Godwin Samararatne: Alive through mindfulness. Instructions for meditation practice. Waldhaus Verlag, Nickenich 2005, ISBN 3-937660-00-3 . ( Reading sample , review by Traudel Reiss )
  • Godwin Samararatne: Meditation for Everyday Life . Buddhist Cultural Center, Colombo 2006.
  • Godwin Samararatne: Seeing Emptiness. In: Sumana Ratanayaka (Ed.): Buddhist Studies in Honor of Venerable Kirindigalle Dhammaratana. Vidumina Pirivena, Pujapitiya (Sri Lanka) 2007, pp. 191-198.

Reincarnation research

  • Emily Williams Cook, Satwant Pasricha, Godwin Samararatne, U Win Maung, Ian Stevenson: Review and analysis of "unsolved" cases of the reincarnation type. I. Introduction and illustrative case reports. In: Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 77: 45-62 (1983). ISSN  0003-1070
  • Emily Williams Cook, Satwant Pasricha, Godwin Samararatne, U Win Maung, Ian Stevenson: Review and analysis of "unsolved" cases of the reincarnation type. II. Comparison of features of solved and unsolved cases. In: Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 77: 115-135 (1983). ISSN  0003-1070
  • Ian Stevenson, Godwin Samararatne: Three new cases of the reincarnation type in Sri Lanka with written records made before verification. In: Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 176: 741 (1988). ISSN  0022-3018
  • Ian Stevenson, Godwin Samararatne. Three new cases of the reincarnation type in Sri Lanka with written records made before verification. In: Journal of Scientific Exploration. 2, pp. 217-238 (1988). ISSN  0892-3310 ; Portuguese translation
  • Ian Stevenson, Satwant Pasricha, Godwin Samararatne: Deception and self-deception in cases of the reincarnation type. Seven illustrative cases in Asia. In: Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 82: 1-31 (1988). ISSN  0003-1070
  • Erlendur Haraldsson, Godwin Samararatne: Children who speak of memories of a previous life as a Buddhist monk. Three new cases. In: Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. 63 (1999), pp. 268-291. ISSN  0037-1475 ; PDF (1.8 MB)

various

  • Anne M. Blackburn, Jeffrey Samuels (Eds.): Approaching the Dhamma: Essays on Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia. Pariyatti Publishing, 2003, ISBN 1928706193 . (Book with Buddhological essays in memory of GS)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Samararatne, Godwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sri Lankan Buddhist meditation teacher
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Sri Lanka
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 2000
Place of death Peradeniya near Kandy