Page 187 - Applied Buddhism

established in all major towns in Malaya. Christian churches and well educated. Buddhist missionary monks from China had found
Christian evangelists were actively converting the Chinese to their it difficult to preach the Dhamma to them (apart from the problem
faith. In nearly all colleges, Catholic and Christian Societies were set of dialect barrier). Hence most of their activities were ritualistic in
up. Many English-speaking Chinese students at tertiary institutions, nature, which the less educated people appreciated very much. Ven.
who refused to be proselytised, began forming Buddhist Societies, K. Sri Dhammananda too faced the same problem. He admitted
so that they would know something about their mother-religion. that when he was invited to the New Villages during the Emergency
to preach Buddhism, he found most of the villagers disinterested in
It is interesting to note that Buddhist societies in tertiary his talks (which had to be translated in the first place), so he had to
institutions were formed, not so much because some students resort to chanting and blessing service instead.
were inspired by the Dharma but more because they felt a sense of
crisis posed by Christian evangelisation. They felt that to counter In other words, when the audience were not so well educated,
Christian evangelisation, they needed to learn about their mother- even the most skilful and knowledgeable teachers, such as Ven.
religion; thus, they formed Buddhist societies and then started Chuk Mor, Ven. Paik Wan and Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda found
inviting monks to teach them Buddhism. From the 1960s to 1980s, difficulty in preaching the profound Dharma.
Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda was about the only monk they could
invite to give talks on Buddhism in English. However, after Malaysia’s independence in 1957, great
emphasis was placed on education. More people were able to
In some of the pamphlets written by Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda, receive higher education. Those who were well-educated and
especially those written in the last century, one can come across knowledgeable found it easier to understand the profound Dharma.
passages of how he countered the Christian evangelists. For They were also less attracted to ritualistic practices but more keen
example, when Christian evangelists condemn Buddhists as idol- on understanding the doctrines of the religion. This increasing
worshippers, Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda responded by writing group of well-educated people became ready audience for Ven.
an article titled Are Buddhist Idol Worshippers? To counter their K. Sri Dhammananda’s teachings. As Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda
argument. Likewise, when the evangelists resorted to unethical always presented the Dharma in a very rational and verifiable
death bed conversions, Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda responded with manner, devoid of superstitious ideas, he was very well appreciated
his article on Changing One’s Religion before Death. by this group of educated people. When more students enrolled into
tertiary institutions, Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda became one of the
Popularisation of Education most popular speakers they would invite to their campuses for talks.

Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda’s missionary works were very much A similar trend is observed among the Chinese-speaking
facilitated by the increasing level of education in society. Before Buddhists. With higher education, students were more inclined to
independence, the majority of the Chinese Malaysians were not listen to the Dharma or practice meditation rather than engage in

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