by ESpellman » Wed May 05, 2010 9:28 pm
Last year I was in Sri Lanka meditating as a Layman and Bertie at the Buddhist Publication Society gave me a list of places around Kandy where I should go. After a month there, just before I was going to leave I stopped back by the BPS and Bertie said, "I was thinking about what we spoke of and I think there is one other monk you should try and find......" Well as luck would have it was the Uposotha and out in the jungle living beneath a huge boulder in a tin corrugated hut with a skeleton and a few bookcases of dhamma books was Nanananda.
I can say of all the monks I met in Sri Lanka he made the greatest impression, in his devotion to practice, his command of pali (which he was a lecturer in), and his very modern almost Burmese views of Dhamma. Truly a remarkable man following the path. I heard it said that he was considered somewhat unorthodox philosophically by the monastic establishment there in Sri Lanka, which would be a great shame it is true, because I encountered a monk capable of imparting the power and complexity of the dhamma simply and succintly. When I left, arms piled high with copies of all of Nananada's books, I asked if he took students... He laughed a kind laugh and said, "When would I have time to write my books?" Indeed upon returning to the states I began reading what Nanananda feels is his magnum opus the multi volume Sermons on Nibbana, at the time he told me the sixth (? I think) and final volume was nearly complete, and perhaps is by now. Having read everything available on Nananada's in English I am glad he chose to write rather than teach!
I am greatly heartened to see this thread interested in this fine monk.