Acharya Godwin Samararatne (6 September 1932 – 22 March 2000) was one of the best known lay meditation teachers in Sri Lanka in recent times. During his teaching career he was based at his Meditation Centre at Nilambe in the central hill country near Kandy. After his death in March 2000 letters and tributes poured in as many people around the world attested to the impact that Godwin and his teaching had made on their lives.
Life and teaching
Godwin Samararatne was born on 6 September 1932 in Kandy, Sri Lanka. His father was the chief clerk of a tea estate at Hantane in the hills above Kandy and his mother was a simple up-country housewife. He had three brothers and four sisters. A younger sister died prematurely and an older brother died in a car accident on the day of his wedding. His three surviving sisters were Dorothy, Matilde and Lakshmi. Godwin was the youngest of the two surviving brothers, Felix and Hector.[1]
Godwin attended the Dharmaraja College in Kandy, where his best friend was Siri Gunawardana who later ordained as Venerable Sivali and became a well-known and respected meditation teacher at the Kanduboda International Vipassana Meditation Center. He was an able student and after finishing his education got a job at the Kegalle Public Library in 1956. Later Godwin became Chief Librarian in the D.S. Senanayaka Library in Kandy where he worked until his early retirement in 1979.[1]
Godwin was an active collaborator with the reincarnation researcher Ian Stevenson, and worked with him whenever he visited Sri Lanka from the mid-1960s until Stevenson ended his research in the country in 1988 [2] During that time he co-authored a number of articles with Stevenson on the subject on rebirth [3] and he also visited Stevenson in Virginia, United States in 1977 to help with his studies.[1]
In about 1977 Godwin started helping Dr. L. Rodrigo who worked in the Psychiatric Ward of the Kandy General Hospital. This was the beginning of a long career in counselling and therapeutic work that Godwin was to undertake at various centres, clinics and hospitals around the Kandy area.,[1][4] and that continued until his death.
In early 1979 a prosperous Kandy businessman, Mr. Alahakoon[who?] announced that he would donate some land from his tea-estate for the establishment of a meditation centre and pay for the construction of some buildings. This became the foundation of the Nilambe Meditation Centre. Godwin left his job as Librarian in Kandy, at first to be the caretaker at the new Center but later he became the resident teacher.[1]
At the beginning meditation retreats were mainly conducted by Ven S. Dhammika, and others including Ven. Yogavacara Rahula and Joseph Goldstein; but over time Godwin became the resident teacher at the centre, and became accepted as the Centre's main teacher.
During the 1980s Godwin started receiving and accepting invitations for teaching tours that were being organised for him in Switzerland, Germany, U.K., South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana; and later in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.[1][5]
This touring only increased during the 1990s, and Godwin gave many teachings throughout Europe, Asia and Africa right until the time of his death shortly after returning from a tour of South Africa. He taught meditation not only to Theravada Buddhists but to all sorts of groups, including Christian priests and pastors, and Chinese Mahayana Buddhists.[1]
The personal testimonies that poured in after his death and in publications since then attest to the profound influence Godwin had on people from all walks of life; and the centres he set up in Nilambe and Lewella in Sri Lanka are still flourishing till this day.[6]
After he died two of his friends started collecting transcripts and recordings from all over the world, and this material now makes up a large website,[7] which has formed the basis for numerous books, articles and other publications over the years.[8]
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