1960 Medical batch, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Friday, May 21, 2021

Odds and ends, On Covid 19,

COVID update

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/opinion/herd-immunity-covid.html

Taiwan, Singapore upsurge in the COVID drama

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57153195

COVID virus origin

https://youtu.be/OlO8sKRynBY

Friday, May 14, 2021

Odds and ends, Jerusalema,

'Jerusalema' - Song & Dance

https://youtu.be/Y85SBnERUc0

Prince Philip

https://www.quora.com/After-looking-at-a-bunch-of-pictures-of-Queen-Elizabeth-II-and-Prince-Philip-do-you-think-that-she-loved-Prince-Philip-more-than-she-loved-being-the-Queen-of-the-UK

Orchids

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/physicscentral/PhysicsBuzz/~3/XeZArhdpES8/an-orchids-best-friend.html

Buddhism origins - From ;Quora'

First, the term “Hinduism” is of modern colonial origin, so whether Buddhism is a school of Hinduism depends on how you retroactively define Hinduism. At the time of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, the lands in which he lived, which later came to be called Nepal and India, were full of many schools - not primarily of thought, which wasn’t the point, but schools of spiritual practice. Many of their practices, lineages, and/or scriptures survive, and most of them were included under the umbrella of “Hinduism” when it was coined.

Gautama Buddha’s school fit right in with the others at the time, for the most part. It was not something radically new or different. It was one of the more heterodox rather than orthodox schools, departing as it did from the Vedas which were the basis of most of the schools, but it was not unique in this, nor did it depart all that far. If you study these schools as they were in India at the time, and ask “Which of these are schools of Hinduism and which are not,” the answer wouldn’t be obvious. It’s easy to say they were all schools of Hinduism. Certainly Buddhism grew entirely out of Hinduism, much like Christianity grew out of Judaism; the question is if, and at what point, it left its parentage and went and became something different. It’s a subjective question, a matter of opinion, since Hinduism is a vast umbrella term, only vaguely defined.

Of course, unlike most forms of Hinduism, Buddhism proselytized, and spread to lands far from its birth. This is the main reason why it didn’t get included under the “Hinduism” umbrella, since Hinduism was originally defined as the non-Abrahamic religions of India. Of course that ignored the fact that Hinduism was widespread in Indonesia and other lands far from India, so that definition has had to be revised, but that was how it started. But Buddhism was found in China and Japan, in many lands clearly not “Indic” in character, so it obviously didn’t fit the initial definition of “Hinduism”. By the time the definition of Hinduism was reconsidered, everyone was already used to Buddhism being a “different religion” - itself a rather Abrahamic concept. So that’s how it’s now usually considered by those who are neither Buddhist nor Hindu.

Do Buddhists perceive themselves to be a school of thought in Hinduism? No they don’t, nor did they ever, since there was no such concept as “Hinduism” until modern times. Hindus didn’t perceive themselves as such either. Buddhists perceived themselves to be followers of Buddha Dharma (or Dhamma in the more Pali-influenced Theravada). Similarly, a Hindu might consider herself to be a follower of Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya, or this or that other spiritual lineage. It all blended in the same general cultural milieu.

Do Hindus consider Buddhists to belong within the folds of our religion? Frankly yes, many of us do. But it’s not like we “own” them or any such meaningless nonsense. Rather, I as a Hindu recognize Buddhists as being fellow practitioners of spiritual Dharma, in a way just as similar (and as different) to my own as that of many people who call themselves Hindus. The distinction seems somewhat arbitrary to me.

Buddhism is objectively not an independent religion altogether. It grew from the exact same roots. It is another branch of the tree. And the branches often intermingle: It’s common to find Buddha worshipped with reverence in Hindu temples, common to find shrines to Hindu Gods in Buddhist temple complexes, common to find Hindus practicing Buddhist meditation techniques, common for Buddhists to worship Hindu Gods and go on annual pilgrimages to their temples (such as in Sri Lanka), etc.

We are all beings on the same Wheel of Dharma.

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Obituary, Dr. ELT De Silva.

Pictures above taken one day before his death

Picture taken in 1960

Was a very active batch mate. He married Dr. Merle nee Vincent of the same batch. He got the second Astra-Zenica vaccine at the LRH on Saturday where I met him and took the photos below. He got unsteady on his feet on Sunday and was rushed to NHSL and was dead on admission. Throat swab post mortem was negative and they ruled out Covid infection.

He built a Nursing Home in Avissawella and did GP practice for more than 40 years. He was a well known and popular figure in Avissawella.