Lest We Forget: The Disappearance of Arahantship in Ancient Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, there is a strong cultural memory of the existence of large numbers of arahants. There is a folk tale that so many arahants used to fly through the sky at a monastery in the south of Sri Lanka that farmers found it hard to grow crops in the vicinity. The existence of large numbers of Sinhalese arahants is now a thing of the past. What caused the loss of living arahants in ancient Sri Lanka? What can we do to prevent such a thing from happening again in the future? In this session, we will explore these questions. To answer them, we will travel back to an ancient event, which would have catastrophic consequences for the entire Theravada world. *Translation credits for the 'Atthakatha debate' to Ven. America Indavamsa