Remembering Dr A.T. Ariyaratne (1931-2024)

Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, founder of the socially engaged Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, has died at 92. The post Remembering Dr A.T. Ariyaratne (1931-2024) appeared first on Lion’s Roar.

Apr 19, 2024 - 21:02

0 35

Remembering Dr A.T. Ariyaratne (1931-2024)

Via Sarvodaya.org comes the news that activist Dr. A.T. (Ahangamage Tudor) Ariyaratne, founder of the socially engaged Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement — “Sri Lanka’s most broadly embedded community-based development organization,” dedicated to “the awakening of all” — and a major inspiration for engaged Buddhists worldwide, has died. He was 92.

Born November 5, 1931, in the Galle District of Ceylon, Ariuyaratne was, as the Sarvodaya website puts it:

A former high school teacher at Nalanda College, he conducted the first Shramadana work camp in 1958, which eventually led to the establishment of the largest people’s movement in the country. He [was] the father of six distinguished adult children and has led tens of thousands of “family gatherings” and meditations with millions of people throughout Sri Lanka and other parts of the world.

Ariyaratne’s work also incorporated Buddhist concepts and what he called “Buddhist Economics” to address societal and individual suffering in a holistic way.

About Ariyaratne, Buddhist teacher and climate activist Joanna Macy has said,

“In this voluble, diminutive dynamo I found a scholar-activist who took the social teachings of the Buddha seriously and dared to believe that they could inspire change in the modern world. He had banked his life on that conviction, drawing from ancient traditions to empower what he called “the poorest of the poor.”

Sarvodaya states that Ariyaratne’s remains will lie at its headquarters in Moratuwa until Saturday, April 20th, at which time a funeral procession and then final religious rites and cremation will take place.

Rod Meade Sperry

Rod Meade Sperry is the editor of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Guide (published by Lion’s Roar), and the book A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation: Practical Advice and Inspiration from Contemporary Buddhist Teachers. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with his partner and their tiny pup, Sid.