The Anuvrat Movement: Theory and Practice: Meditation in Anuvrat and Sarvodaya

Ariyaratne, the founder of the Sri Lankan Sarvodaya, maintains that in classical Sri Lankan culture, the awakening of the personality was based on four principles:

Sarvodaya interprets the first principle, metta, as respect for all life, cultivating love for all beings. This principle leads to second, karuna or compassion, which Sarvodaya understands as compassionate action. The third principle, mudita or sympathetic joy, results from acting on the first two principles. As well as, the fourth principle, upekha or equanimity becomes important for developing a personality, which is unshaken by praise or blame, by gain or loss.^[59]

With Sarvodaya's psychological connections to these traditional Brahma Viharas  (observances), it leaves me to ask what place meditation holds in the movement. In view  of Ariyaratne: "Meditation helps to purify one's mind and generate an energy of love."^[60]

In a similar way, Tulsi laid stress on incorporating meditation in the movement  when the Anuvrat Movement was at its peak. According to one respondent: "Preksha  Meditation, a Jain form of meditation, was introduced in the Anuvrat program to develop  will power among the Anuvratis that would allow them to smoothly follow the vows. A  method of inner purification was needed that could give them the requisite strength."^[61] In  terms of the Sarvodaya movement, Joanna Macy contends that, "Sarvodaya has brought another innovation to Sri Lankan Buddhism by wedding meditation and social action."^[62]  However, on many occasions both the movements have claimed in different tones that the  constitution of meditation is only to support the social ethical actions of the movement's  philosophy. Does Anuvrat or Sarvodaya require meditation to reach its goal? Is  meditation merely a means to the end or an end in itself? I will further see how the  mendicant Tulsi merges his movement with meditation and how Ariyaratne, the layman,  integrates the Buddhist practice of metta meditation in social activity.

The Anuvrat Movement and Preksha Meditation

Some of the questions that Tulsi encountered regarding the Preksha Meditation (Insight meditation) were: "How did it originate and why? What values do you wish to
establish through it in society? Is this also an extensive movement like Anuvrat?"^[63] Tulsi stated that Preksha Meditation was the next logical step following the Anuvrat
Movement. He explained his point in the following way:

Anuvrat and Preksha dhyana originated almost together. Though, at that time, I had no conception of 'preksha' in my mind. But, for the creation of the kind of ground I required for Anuvrat, it was not possible to ignore the inevitable requirement of dhyana-sadhana. The sapling of Anuvrat bloomed earlier because it was connected with the gross world and the behavioral aspect of life. But, preksha is concerned with the subtle world, the inner aspect of life, and it took a long time to develop. As the conception of moral values took root among the people, the spiritual thirst increased.^[64]

In order to comprehend Tulsi's response, I asked my respondents about Preksha Meditation and how its practice (sadhna) assists the Anuvratis in realizing the goals of the movement. As I gathered from my responses, the technique called Preksha Meditation was developed by the monk Mahapragya (who later became Tulsi's successor as Acharya in 1995) in 1970 to provide a holistic aspect to the growing Anuvrat Movement. Mahapragya, in an article, gives the reason for incorporating meditation in the movement. He writes: "Mental tension has emerged as a dreadful disease of the age of industrial progress. To remedy it, the Anuvrat Movement has added a new chapter to itself in the form of Preksha Meditation."^[65] Elaborating on the benefit of his new experiment Tulsi stated: "Meditation affects the secretion of the endocrine glands and this in turn brings about an inner transformation of the individual."^[66] Another monk (who has been guiding the movement's activities since few decades), I interviewed, sheds light on the position meditation holds in the movement: "The practice of Preksha Meditation helps in the purification of emotions and a transformation from negative thinking to positive thinking. Unless these are purified, people are not able to maintain vows."^[67]

The above explanation led me to ask, with Preksha Meditation holding such a central, transformative role in the movement, what was the need for the vows? An Anuvrati responded that the "Anuvrat vow means self-control and meditation is the technique for strengthening these vows."^[68] Several of my informants also said both Anuvrat and Preksha complement each other. However, what is more intriguing here is to see that when the Anuvrat Movement was growing rapidly during the first two decades, Preksha Meditation was still an undeveloped concept. Twenty years later as Preksha developed, it came to be understood as a part of the Anuvrat Movement. In fact, it was such an over-powering aspect that Acharya Tulsi, in later years was painfully aware of the weakening force of the Anuvrat Movement. According to another informant, "Preksha Meditation was the second stage of the movement, and the third stage was the Science of Living.^[69] It was introduced for children to complement the education system and the development of an integrated personality."^[70] From the various responses I collected with regard to Preksha's role in the movement, it seems that it has largely over­ridden the focus from the vows. Having seen the gradual shift in the Anuvrat Movement from vows to Preksha Meditation, let us now look at how Ariyaratne blends his Sarvodaya movement with metta meditation.

Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement and Metta Meditation.

The Sarvodaya movement started with the aim of building a Buddhist centered society in postcolonial Ceylon.^[71] The founder of the movement, Ariyaratne, annotates his movement as: "The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement drew abundantly from the wealth of Buddhist thought which we have attempted to apply to the realization of socio-economic ideals in harmony with moral and spiritual ends."^[72] Unlike Tulsi's Anuvrat Movement, Sarvodaya is a layman's movement promoting meditation for social reform. Ariyaratne reinterpreted the Buddhist virtue of dana for his social movement. Dana, traditionally referred to almsgiving for the Buddha or to the sangha (community of monks) as a merit-making practice. The reinterpretation of this virtue in the movement is: "Dana becomes the social ideal of sharing; sharing one's wealth and one's labor, as in shramadana, for the welfare of all."^[73] Here a reflection of Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan movement is observed as concurrent to Ariyaratne's movement. Furthermore, an element of comparison here with Tulsi's movement is that Anuvrat laid emphasis on non-possessiveness by cultivating sanyam i.e., self restraint and Sarvodaya focuses on non-possessiveness by integrating the virtue of dana i.e., charity within their movement.

Ariyaratne laid emphasis on metta bhavana (meditation) and regarded it "an energy of love that counteracts the negative thoughts in our psychosphere."^[74]He emphasized the pragmatic role of meditation and stated: "The short periods of meditation at shramdana camps are intended only as reminders to the people that this movement has a spiritual base and is not like just any other rat race."^[75] Yet another point Ariyaratne made is that "meditation is as an activity for its own sake leading to higher consciousness and does not constitute a central pursuit in Sarvodaya."^[76] Thus, Sarvodaya's approach is in contrast with the primary role of meditation for the Anuvratis. The Anuvrati laid a greater emphasis on the practice of Preksha Meditation for advancing the movement's philosophy of human regeneration through individual transformation. For Ariyaratne and other Sarvodaya leaders "meditation plays a secondary, but a useful, role in the movement."^[77]

Even though the two movements uphold different propositions and significance to meditation, albeit agree upon the fact that the component of meditation complements their movement. Both reformers, Tulsi and Ariyaratne, were optimistic in recognizing what Mary Douglas has called "the human potential for sustaining great spiritual achievements."^[78] As analyzed from the various viewpoints, the addition of meditation to their social-ethical movements was in accord with the spiritual goals of Tulsi and Ariyaratne.