The year 2024 is rapidly drawing to a close. This year marks the personal losses of many helpful academics, monks, family members, and friends.
I place this brief note of appreciation here to pay tribute to the late Professor Padmasiri de Silva (1933–2024), one of my teachers at the University of Peradeniya in the 1980s, who was just about to celebrate his 92nd birthday on 18th January 2025 with the publication of his most recent contribution The Moral Psychology of Buddhism, which is currently under preparation for publication posthumously in Melbourne. Professor de Silva passed away peacefully in the presence of his three sons—Maneesh, Adeesha and Chandeesha—in Melbourne, Australia on 21st November 2024. We just missed the festive opportunity to celebrate his legacy in the areas related to Buddhist Psychology. Most recently, he was engaged in the composition of creative poetry—Emotional Rhythms of Our Lives (2023)—inspired by years of intense meditation practice of Vipassanā (Insight).
Professor de Silva had a meaningful and highly fruitful academic career in Sri Lanka (University of Peradeniya), Singapore (National University of Singapore) and Australia (Monash University). Political turmoil in the island of his birth was not favourable for his family; circumstances forced him to become another member of the rapidly growing Sri Lankan diaspora when he was closer to retirement age (just 56 years).
Prof. de Silva
In William James’ analytical psychological typology, he remained a “healthy soul”. In adversity, Professor de Silva never lost hope or direction. He was always deeply engaged in multi-faceted research trajectories treading fascinating new pastures. After leaving Sri Lanka, his research developed into Environmental Philosophy and Ethics in Buddhism (1998), The Psychology of Buddhism in Conflict Studies (2017), An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology and Counselling (2014) and Emotions and The Body in Buddhist Contemplative Practice and Mindfulness-Based Therapy (2017).
The last academic post that Professor de Silva held in Sri Lanka was the prestigious Professorship in Philosophy at the University of Peradeniya succeeding the late Professor K.N. Jayatilleke (1920–1970). He served as the Head of the Department of Philosophy for many years (1980–1989). During his tenure, he introduced a novel MA programme in Comparative Religion (1985); he also supported the development of the subject area of Psychology, which eventually became a fully grown separate academic discipline as a Department within the university.
More than during my student days at Peradeniya, during the last decades I noted more and more that Professor de Silva was exceedingly driven with scholarly and academic pursuits. Even in his advanced years, putting most of us, the young, to shame, he travelled tirelessly to distant lands such as Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam to contribute to international scholarly assemblies. Very modestly, he shared his words of wisdom with others with a great sense of humour and fun. I still have vivid memories of his exceptional talent in singing songs of the vocalist Sunil Shanta (1915–1981) and narratng stories of his life journeys at the evening reception in Thailand a few years ago. His mission in all of those events was always educational and transformative. Though I was much junior, I was privileged and honoured to associate with two of his publications: The Psychology of Emotions and Humour in Buddhism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and Mindfulness-based Emotion Focused Counselling (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Since the 2018 publication contains a complete list of his monographs (“Foreword”, p. x), I do not repeat them here. His distinctive scholarly contribution, nevertheless, remains Buddhist and Freudian Psychology (1973).
May Professor Padmasiri de Silva find peace and happiness in attaining Nirvana!
Venerable Professor Mahinda Deegalle
SOAS University of London, UK
from The Island https://ift.tt/lpmG0DC
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