Pure Inspiration

59
Recollections of Venerable Ñāṇavimala
Ven. Bhikkhu Guttasīla
rewritten transcript of an interview
I was ordained at Wat Bowon, Bangkok in 1976 as a bhikkhu
(monk) and in 1975 as a sāmaṇera (novice monk) at Wat Phleng
Vipassana, also in Bangkok. In 1979, I was invited to participate,
along with some other foreign monks, in a Dhamma seminar
and pilgrimage to Sri Lanka. During this trip, we managed to
visit Nissarana Vanaya at Meetirigala. There we met Ven.
Katukurunde Ñāṇananda and the abbot, Ven. Mātara Śrī
Ñāṇārāma. It was a very beautiful forest monastery and I could
see that the Sri Lankan monks there were very dedicated to their
meditation. But also, they were quite learned. What attracted me
was the combination of sutta study with the meditation practice.
I returned to Thailand and then in 1980, arranged to spend my
fifth vassa in Sri Lanka. I had permission from my upajjhāya
(preceptor), Somdet Ñāṇasaṁvara, the abbot of Wat Bowon to
go to Sri Lanka. After the 1980 vassa at Island Hermitage, I got
the opportunity to go to Nissarana Vanaya and that became the
base for my stay in Sri Lanka for several years.
When we used to go to Colombo, we stayed at a study temple called
Vajirarama. The abbot at that time was Ven. Nārada. It was still quite
a beautiful place to stay in the suburb of Bambalapitiya as that area
was not yet so commercialized. It was mainly just residential houses
which made it easy for piṇḍapāta (almsround) practice. It was the seat
of the Sri Dharmarakshita Nikāya (a sub sect of the Amarapura