Community Voice: Buddhist monk shares philosophy at Prana Yoga Center in Geneva

Back in 2010, I heard about Prana Yoga Center in Geneva, where a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka, by the name of Bhante Sumana, was teaching meditation.

One night, I decided to go to the yoga studio, and when I entered the door, I saw Bhante sitting peacefully on a cushion on a wooden floor with a group of people sitting silently before him. We introduced ourselves, and he invited me to have a seat on a meditation cushion with the other people in the room. For the rest of the evening, he led us through meditation, and afterward he talked about Buddhism. From then on, I became a regular visitor to the yoga studio.

Bhante grew up in a small village in Sri Lanka, at a time when the country was caught in a civil war. He and his fellow villagers were very poor, and many he knew were killed. They ate one meal a day and shared one TV, their connection to America and the outside world.

At the age of 11, when many boys leave for the temple to begin their training to be a monk, a Buddhist monk who had gotten to know Bhante asked his parents whether they would approve if their son wished to go to the temple. It is an honor for a family living in Sri Lanka to have their son become a monk, and so they gave their consent. Bhante accepted the monk’s invitation, and the next day he left with the monk for the temple in the Sri Lankan mountains.

Initially, he enjoyed his new life, but soon enough he missed his family and never lost his anger about the war and the carnage he saw in the village. For a long time he rejected the Buddhist training, until eventually he opened his mind to Buddha’s teachings and learned how to meditate – through which he learned awareness, mindfulness and the path to inner peace.

Ten years after he entered the temple, Bhante finished his training, but the war had not ended, and monks were being killed while carrying on their duty to help the Sri Lankan villagers. He joined his fellow monks and performed his duty to bring food and clothes to the villagers and to try to help ease their suffering.

In 2009, the war that claimed thousands of Sri Lankan lives ended.

In the fall of that year, Bhante Sujatha – Bhante Sumana’s teacher and leader of his Buddhist community – determined that he could help people in America, where Buddhism was lesser known. Through research, he found the small town of Woodstock and a Unitarian church, where the minister offered the facility as a temple for Bhante Sujatha to teach Buddhism and mediation. At the age of 26, Bhante Sumana left with his teacher and his fellow monks for America.

Soon after Bhante Sumana arrived, he realized that while Americans worked hard – and while they were outwardly rich with material things – many of them were suffering. In time, people came to him for guidance, like they would come to see a minister or a priest.

We are a country of immigrants. Most of us are open-minded and welcome immigrants like Bhante Sumana. In return for being open to his eastern beliefs and practices, we have gained a great deal in return because he has brought us ways to expand our minds and live more peaceful lives.

Bhante Sumana invites you to come to the Prana Yoga Center in Geneva from 6 to 7 p.m. on Sunday nights, where he teaches meditation and the philosophy of Buddhism.

Russell Altersohn is a freelance writer who is married and has two children. He enjoys the outdoors and traveling. Feedback on this column can be sent to editorial@kcchronicle.com.