CONTENTS
Buddhism; An Unorthodox Interpretation
Religious Aspect of Buddhism
Reason and Intuition in Buddhism
Buddhist Stories and Modem Psychology
Occultism Invades the Buddhist Temple
Tantrism in Ceylon
The Peace Movement in Asia
The New Humanism
The World in Twenty Years
Our Cultural Problems and Anthropology
Intolerance—an Aspect of Cultural Conflict
Romanticism in, Politics
The Lanka of the Ramayana
Basic Aspects of Sinhalese Culture
Tagore and Ceylon
Sinhalese Literature
The Classical Culture and Medieval Literature
The Russian Novel
A View of Life in Chekov’s Stories
Nationalisation of Education
Influence of English on Sinhalese Literature
A Sculptor of Promise
Reahsm in Buddhist Literature
Index
PREFACE
Most of these essays, short studies and sketches appeared in Annuals published in Ceylon, India and the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1963. The others are appearing for the first time in this publication.
I thank Mr. Reggie Siriwardena for reading these essays and making many corrections and Tisara Poth Prakasakayo for publishing them in book form.
Martin Wickramasinghe
Nawala,
Rajagiriya,
1-5-1964.
FOREWORD
I have read these essays of my friend Martin Wickramasinghe with great interest and appreciation, and commend them to all readers in the Western as well as the Eastern world. For the former especially there is no greater need than a better understanding of the world-outlooks of the peoples of Asia; and here we have an enlightened Buddhist telling us of his reactions to Russian and West European literature, to modern education, science and learning. With this book we can all, as it were, sit in a basket chair at Nawala (Rajagiriya) and enjoy the conversation of one of the most active minds of contemporary Ceylon.
Joseph Needham
Fellow and President
of Caius College, Cambridge