Serendipity Travel - Adventure - Sri Lanka

Our Spiritual journey in Sri Lanka

Even in so-called spiritual circles it is common

to hear people say that although they know

there is truly only the emptiness of Awareness,

there is also the separate life of the illusory person

playing out in the vastness of the Self.

However, these only appear while there remains

some invested interest in the identity called a person.

While the 'person' is there, the conviction will be

that it is the reality, the fact, and the Self

will only be felt as a fiction or at best,

an intellectual reality and not one's experiential truth.

This power to identify arises in and from the Self

in its illusory portrait called a 'person' along with its life.

It is this person who sees a world external to himself.

The Sage knows himself to be the universal Self

and perceives only the Self.

~ Mooji

It does not matter what religion you practice, in Sri Lanka every religion is not just practiced, it is genuinely devoutly observed by all its citizens.

"Sri Lanka's population practices a variety ofreligions. As of the 2011 census 70.2% of Sri Lankans wereTheravada Buddhists, 12.6% wereHindus, 9.7% were Muslims (mainlySunni) and 7.4%Christians(6.1%Roman Catholicand 1.3% other Christian). In 2008 Sri Lanka was thethird most religious countryin the world according to aGallup poll, with 99% of Sri Lankans saying religion is an important part of their daily life." Wikipedia.

Sri Lankan Buddhists and Hindus, in particular, share a number of foundational religious beliefs and ritual practices. The moral codes of both these religious traditions recommend moderation and restraint, Hindus emphasising the discipline of one's behaviour and Buddhists advocating "the middle path."

In both, the concept of karma and rebirth are central, ideas that speculate that one's actions in this lifetime determine the kind of life into which one will be reborn through the quantity of merit that one earns.

While both Buddhism and Hinduism also propose that one can escape the cycle of rebirth, a goal that is highly elaborated within Buddhism, the acquisition of spiritual merit to gain a better rebirth either for one's self or one's loved ones generates much of the religious activity of the laity.

Among the participants in both of these religions, there is also a belief in a broad pantheon of gods, spirits, and demons, into which many local deities have been absorbed.

These beings may be male or female, benevolent or malevolent, moral or amoral, but they are all considered subject to the same laws of death and rebirth as other beings.

Devotees, including some Muslims and Christians, appeal to these gods to assist them with a variety of (mostly worldly) concerns.

We found profound love and acceptance in every corner of Sri Lanka. People were showering us with gifts of fruit, food and other precious commodities.

While in the foothills of Ella, a small town in the Badulla District of Uva Province, approximately 200 kilometres east of Colombo, which lies at an elevation of 1,041 metres above sea level, we came across the Kumari family. They lived in a homestead situated on the edge of a tea plantation where they rent out their guest room to passing tourists and it was our lucky chance to stay with them.

On the day we arrived on the Kumari family doorstep, the sky opened up and torrential rains were sweeping through the green tea bush gables. It took about half an hour to reach Jayarathna's Mountain View Guesthouse. There was still some light in the sky but it was fading fast.

Our room was as basic as you can imagine, damp and humid with plastic linoleum floors that were bubbling up at our feet. We were determined to stay with local families and nothing was going to deter us. That night, while we were sipping on some sweet milky tea, we listen to the chanting coming from a distant temple. The day before we arrived in Ella, the head monk of this community had suddenly passed away and the whole village was abuzz with preparations for his public cremation the following day.

Our hosts were gently chanting too, following the mantra from their pre First World War transistor radio attached to loose batteries.

The soft raindrops mixed with the soothing chanting, the smell of freshly brewed tea and the smell of earthspirituality presented to us, as raw as the soil clotting our hiking boots.

In these misty foothills of Ella, cloaked in mist and seeped in devotion, we realised that as poor as the people of Sri Lanka might appear to a western eye, they are immensely rich in their love of God, their respect for fellow men and their unwavering devotion to the Absolute.

If you have not booked your trip to Sri Lanka yetbook it todayit is life changing.