SuttaCentral
Hi there! I have been watching some live streams from mahamevnawa. I am interested in visiting after the pandemic is under control. They seem like they are teaching and practicing authentic dhamma but I can’t help but be skeptical of any modern religious organization, although I have been to an Ambedkar centre and I had good experiences there.
Please let me know if anyone knows of or has been to one of their centres, and what your experience has been.
I ran across them recently, as well. I don’t know anything about them, though. They mention studying the suttas, which is good. I didn’t see any mention of abhidhamma or the Visuddhimagga on their website, but I suppose someone would have to spend time at one of their monasteries to know if they really study suttas or not.
It might be “modern” only in the sense that they set up a “nikaya” separate from the ones that already existed in Sri Lanka. It being a young nikaya doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s something other than plain old Theravada Buddhism. Anyway, I’d be interested in knowing more.
This is correct. They do not take them as words of the Buddha AFAIK.
The question really is why a new Nikaya when there are divisions already.
I, being one who was instrumental in setting up a temple for them a few years back do not think the same way as they do. It is why I left them.
To be precise, although they do chant Suttas and explain them to devotees, they are more intent on accumulating merit on the belief that they can be reborn in heaven. They believe that when they are in heaven they will come to associate with devas who understand right view and as a result they too will attain arahantship while in heaven without ever returning.
The activities they perform in order to get to heaven consist mostly of offerings of food such as rice and curries, fruits and vegetables always in very big quantities. They associate the offering of big quantities with being more generous.
These are my honest observations. I personally do not think that their above mentioned understanding is correct and that is why I left. But may be they are correct, who knows? So the best advise I can offer is, visit them, talk to them, observe what they do. If you think that their practices make sense in relation to the Buddha’s teaching, you have found the right place.
With Metta
This isn’t really the kind of question I’d ask on SuttaCentral. I recommend DhammaWheel for this kind of thing.
Oh okay, I had some bad experiences with lots of immature replies on dhammawheel (not to say that I didn’t have some good conversations there) which is why I came here, but I can understand if this forum is geared more towards the texts themselves.