Learning to Read Between the Lines

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him” – the late Maya Angelou who brought joy to many..

Books are one of the greatest human inventions.  We not only get inside someone else’s head, we also get to read between the lines - imagine, inquire, learn and be entertained - as we bring in our own experiences to relate to the stories we read.

I started reading relatively late in life - when I was 12 years old - compared to our own children who seemed to be born with a book in hand.  My first encounters were short stories in the Sinhala language Silumina newspaper.  My parents, who were educators, had a small library of books and I found Martin Wickramasinghe’s Madol Doova (Island of Mangroves) about the adventures of a boy, Upali Giniwella and his friends on the Southern coast of Sri Lanka during the 1890s.

Finding Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer not long after reminded me of Madol Doova.  Martin Wicremasinghe growing up in Koggala, outside the southern town of Galle, by a small lake with an island, would have had his own adventures and was probably influenced by Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Joe Harper adventures too – giving me a clue to the common thread of humanity.

With my reading habit officially kicked off, I looked at the variety of books on the shelves and cupboards from novels to non-fiction - education, philosophy, religion, economics, development – I first tried the Buddhist book series call Bodhi Leaves, as they were tiny in size, written in an informal style with titles like Elimination of Anger (Ven Piyadassi Thera).  

These piqued my interest and there were othe topics such as karma and dependent origination (the interconnectedness of everything), meditation and general reflections on the Dhamma.  I was intrigued by the notion of training my mind through meditation and managing emotions. 

I eventually graduated to the larger series of books The Wheel.  I remember Ven. Nyanaponika Thera’s book, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation.  I found it again recently and the first chapter, The Way of Mindfulness places mindfulness (sati) at the heart of the Buddhist practice through meditation (bhavana).    

I recall reading this book especially as I knew the friendly European, Ven Nyanaponika (I was intrigued by a white monk in saffron robes then) so vividly at his hermitage in Udawattakelle forest not far from our home in Kandy.  My father took me there often, walking through the pristine forest, sharp sounds of crickets, monkeys jumping around, as he visited his friend at the hermitage to talk about Dhamma and meditate, while I explored not too far away. 

These books are available to the world thanks to the Buddhist Publication Society started in 1958 by three of my father’s friends A.S. Karunaratna, Richard Abeyasekera, and the German-born Nyanaponika Thera, in Kandy to spread Buddha’s doctrine to the world.

This foundational reading influenced my life to realize that the world is indeed interconnected and interdependent – a part of nature.  This also gave me a clue to the complexity of life and that there were no absolute truths as such.  We as individuals have to take responsibility for the way we live in the middle-path (avoiding extremes) according to the noble eightfold pathway (through ethical behaviour, mental discipline, right view and wisdom) in order to alleviate our suffering.   

I also realized the complexity of all this, as ’thanha ‘ - greed – stems from our selfish ego seeking power, pleasure and to procreate, which causes attachment that leads to fear, suffering and reptilian behaviour.  Getting rid of ‘thanha’ and attachment in a consumerist world where power is defined by material wealth, is a daunting task for all of us. 

There were other books by the likes of Carl Jung, Schopenhauer, Goethe, Madam Blavatsky, J.K. Galbraith, Erich Fromm and more.  I read a few paragraphs and put them away as much of it went over me.  In 1973, when we moved to Canada, my father brought only a few books. 

One was Fromm’s Sane Society and I read it when I was about 17 years old.   It was heavy reading but interesting as I was settling into a modern consumerist world of Canada.  Fromm’s critique of a world driven by corporations contributing to alienation of people affecting their sanity, inspired me to continue this inquiry.

As I flip through the weather beaten copy today, I have underlined many sentences - “Conscience exists only when man experiences himself as man, not as a thing, or a commodity”.   

For a book written in 1955, Fromm was well aware of the corporation’s role in the shaping the sustainability of the world.  Chapters Various Answers and Roads to Sanity focus on the corporation and its responsibility to society.  As Corporate Responsibility and Sharing Value takes root in the world of business now, it has been a long time coming. 

In my presentations on business and responsibility as an invited speaker at universities and public forums, I often speak of the pathologies of the professions of engineers, accountants, MBAs who run the capitalist world and how this focus, specialization and conformity contributes to the insanity of individuals, as we become alienated from the beauty and the complexities of nature.   

Another book that I enjoyed very much was Tales of Philosophy edited by Felix Marti-Ibanez – with real life stories of the world’s great philosophers like Descartes who shaped our world by challenging myth, superstition and the dogma of the church.  It gave me a better understanding as to how the western world evolved from the Greek to modern times through the lives of individual philosophers.

Descartes came up again in Fritjof Capra's  Tao of Physics in my late teens, (and later read Turning Point, Uncommon Wisdom and Web of Life).  Descartes-Kepler-Newton combination shaped our modern military industrial complex through the rational-scientific revolution that over shadowed the traditional view of the world as an organic whole.  This encouraged man’s dominance with the notion of ‘world belongs to man’ and man with his intelligence, science and technology will control nature.   

Capra informs us of the folly of this, as man really belongs to the world, backing his thesis with Quantum Physics and its resonance with ancient mysticism of the East who perceives the world as an organic living system.  

I remembered reading about Descarte, the person, in Tales of Philosophy and felt empathy for the man as a thinking, feeling human being, not the cold and calculating person who set the stage for a world which divided mind and matter as objects.  He was a product of his time with the knowledge and scientific wisdom of the day and in a world running away from an all powerful church, controlling minds through fear and superstition. 

I thought Capra to be a brave protagonist of this century to challenge the worldview just as Descarte had in the 14^th century.  Capra writing books for the general public, as his later books became easier to read and understand, I realized that the convergence of the East and the West (especially with Quantum Science) is under way to look at the world in a holistic interconnected way. 

At Toronto's Seneca College in the early 1980s (in my 20s) as I studied Mechanical Engineering-Nuclear, our English lecturer Mr. Holmes introduced us to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Persig.   I was thrilled at the interplay of eastern and western philosophy – not, never the twain shall meet.  What better way for a man, the spirit and a BMW motorcycle to meet me, the meditator and motor head to give me comfort living in that duality. 

Persig opened the pandora’s box to the complexity and uncertainties of life through the main character’s alter ego Phaedrus.  I loved the mind and matter relationship in the book and to realize that there are many ‘gumption trap’s in life for which much is chance, fate and destiny.  We only have to make a choice to thrive or capitulate.  

This came to life when I was changing a tire at the time in my old Austin Mini, a lug nut broke off from the hub.  My normal reaction of rage was subdued to yet another ‘gumption trap’ I have to endure with grace.  In my search for a new hub, I met so many interesting Mini enthusiasts, exchanging stories about our fun little cars, the choice I made from the chance breaking of the lug was much more skillful.   

Along the way, I found Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher and managed to read only half the book.  I got the point and perhaps that was the reason I jumped at starting a solar energy business and my involvement in renewable and appropriate technology along the way.

It may have been my chance and destiny that my early books were of Buddhism and philosophy and how that may have shaped my thinking and what I do now.  My labours of love, in sustainability and leadership, as a trainer, facilitator, coach and clean energy entrepreneur, I push boundaries with my audiences to slow down, take a breath and look within for answers.  

In a world used to external solutions and instant gratification, I take myself and people out of our collective comfort zones.  Then we realize learning about self and self mastery is a life time project, albeit an essential one to keep our sanity and balance in an uncertain and an impermanent world.   

Buddha did say, “do not take what I say as the truth – inquire for yourself and find your own truth”.  So my inquiry continues, through my addiction, ‘my need to read’ as Maya Angelou said as a life time of learning is the only way to go.  The more I read, the more it humbles me to realize how little I know.   

“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” 
― Voltaire

Contact me at <Lalith@sagetraining.org>