Sanaseemata Maga

By Dr Amitha Hewavitharana

A Review by Nimal Brinsley Fonseka
DAILY NEWS 24 September 2008

The Sinhala translation of the spiritual best seller THE POWER OF NOW – A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle, (www.eckharttolle.com) published by Sahana Prakashakayo, Weliveriya, Gampaha. (www.sahanabooks.com).

The Power of Now is perhaps the most widely read spiritual book ever to have appeared in bookshops recently. It has been translated into 33 languages and millions of people worldwide have read it. The book has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for a number of years. Tolle’s book stresses the importance of living with total awareness of the present moment and not being trapped in thought that lead either to past or future.

Eckhart Tolle is one of the most notable spiritual teachers to have emerged during the last few years. Tolle was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of twenty-nine a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Since 1995 he has lived in Vancouver, Canada.

Eckhart Tolle is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. In his teaching, he conveys a simple yet profound message with the timeless and uncomplicated clarity of the ancient spiritual masters: there is a way out of suffering and into peace.

The Sinhala translation of this immortal spiritual classic was undertaken by Dr Amitha Hewavitharana, an academic attached to The University of Queensland, Australia. Dr Hewavitharana obtained her B.Sc. from the University of Colombo and her post-graduate qualifications in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Victoria (Canada) and the University of Alberta (Canada).

The teaching outlined in the book is that the present moment, or the Now, is the gateway to a hightened sense of happiness and peace. “Being in the Now” takes you beyond the mind, an awareness which transcends the ego. The word “ego” here means false identification with anything that is form-based, the body, mind, emotions, all material possessions, the past and future and very particularly, thoughts. To make the journey into the Now, you need to leave your mind and ego behind.

From the very first page of the book, you take-off on a spiritual journey, and reach a very high altitude, where you breathe the fresh air of spiritualism. Although this is a challenging journey, due to the simplicity of language and the question and answer format used, it makes you feel that “Enlightenment” is something possible here and now, and not after ones death, as is popularly believed.

Tolle tries to simplify the word “Enlightenment” by saying, “The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you”.

To her credit, Dr Hewavitharana doesn’t use the common word “Nirvanaya” or “Nivana” for the word enlightenment in her translation. She uses the word “Sanaseema”, a word that does not overwhelm you like the word Nirvanaya, which, through hundreds of years of use, or perhaps misuse, has come to mean something not achievable, at least not in this lifetime.

In “The Power of Now”, in response to the question to explain the word Being, Tolle writes, “Being is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death. However, Being is not only beyond, but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature.”

However, the word Dr Hewavitharana uses for Being, Bhavaya, may not be the most appropriate. Having lived and studied in Sri Lanka until she obtained her BSc from the University of Colombo, and having brought up in a Buddhist household, she uses many words that are familiar to Buddhists. Non-Buddhist Sinhala readers may find it difficult to understand some words like bhavaya, which is her choice of word for Being. I feel a simple word like pavathma or a similar word would have enabled any Sinhala reader to understand the word better.

As you go through this wonderful book, you will stumble upon new discoveries like, you are not your mind, you can find your way out of the psychological pain, true power can only be found by surrendering to the Now, your body is an entry point into deep inner peace, fear arises through identification with form, true salvation is freedom from negativity, etc. The author bravely declares: “You are already complete and perfect.”

Having prepared the reader by convincing him that enlightenment is possible in this lifetime, the author gradually takes the reader into the many gateways that are open towards realising this noble state. The greatest impediment to becoming enlightened is identification with your mind. And how can you free yourself from your mind? “Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old gramophone records that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years … be there as the witnessing presence.”

The author says that the greater part of human pain is unnecessary as it is self-created by letting the unobserved mind run your life. The emotional pain experienced by every human being is an accumulation of pain from your childhood, which the author calls the “pain body, and the translator calls vedana rupaya. Everyone carries a pain body in varied levels. Some pain bodies are dormant and some are active, and when the pain body is active, it drives you into a negative state. In its extreme forms, the pain body may drive its host to commit acts of violence. How can you overcome the pain body? Pain body is active when you are “unconscious”, so only consciousness can severe the link between the pain body and the thought process.

One of the hindrances to becoming conscious is identification with “psychological time”. Psychological time is identifying with your past and future, which are both illusions. “Have you ever experienced, done, thought, or felt anything outside the Now? Do you think you ever will? Is it possible for anything to happen or be outside the Now? The answer is obvious, is it not?”

The book concludes by stressing the importance of “surrender”. Though surrender may have negative connotations implying defeat, true surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life. Since Now is the only place you can experience the flow of life, surrender means accepting the present moment unconditionally and without reservation. Relinquishing inner resistance to the reality of the present moment is living with grace.

The Power of Now and Sanaseemata Maga are books of universal significance. They transcend all religious, ethnic and class boundaries. The book quotes extensively from Buddha, the Bible, J. Krishnamurthy, a Course in Miracles, Zen Buddhism, Tao Te Ching and a host of other philosophical and religious texts.

Sanaseemata Maga is a beautiful book of clarity and understanding and deserves a place among classical expressions of human spirituality. Translating The Power of Now is no easy task. Dr Amitha Hewavitharana accepts this challenge and produces a beautiful work, which should rank among the top in the self-help and spiritual categories.

In a future edition of the book, I would suggest that the frequently occurring English words in the text be shifted to a Glossary at the end of the book. Finding the English equivalent of many Sinhala words in the text is a hindrance to smooth reading. Sahana Publishers should be commended for having ventured into this task. Ven. U. Dhammajeeva Thero of Nissaranavana, Meethirigala has commended Dr Amitha Hewavitharana for undertaking the translation of this great book and says “it will be a wonder if the Sinhala reader doesn’t feel a shift within while reading it”.

Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now – A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, created quite a stir recently when Oprah Winfry hosted a webminar (web seminar) for millions of viewers around the world to introduce his latest book A New Earth – Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. For ten Mondays, Oprah and Tolle sat facing each other and spoke live before an estimated internet webcast audience exceeding three million from all corners of the globe and answered questions live. A New Earth, which is ranking No.1 in the New York Best Sellers list today, is an equally great book like The Power of Now, and I hope, the Sinhala version of this book too will be available to our readers soon.

Nimal Brinsley Fonseka