The Olcott Oration 2012 was held on the 10th of November at Ananda College. This was an excellent event organised by the main OBA.

The Orator was Mr. Deepal Sooriyaarachchi – FCIM (UK) MBA (Sri J.) – a charted marketeer. His topic was “A new Paradigm for Buddhist Education”. What a timely topic, the content was very informative and Mr. Deepal captivated the audience by his delivery of the speech.

Thanks to Mr. Deva Rodrigo from the main OBA, we have received a transcript of the speech.

I certainly feel we have missed something big. We haven’t had the opportunity of learning the Buddha’s teaching in a way that is relevant, so that we can move beyond the ritualistic practice of it. Why do we freely recite the Five Precepts but not necessarily observe them! It means our faith is not that strong in the teachings of our Master. That is why we haven’t been able to significantly influence the way we approach our affairs from a Buddhist Perspective. More importantly, we haven’t created a thought leadership that influences other spheres of studies to benefit from the wisdom of the Teachings of The Tathagatha.

To read the entire speech, you can download the PDF – A new Paradigm for Buddhist Education
Please excuse if there are any errors on this document that would have been introduced while formatting the content.

Here are some of the pictures from the day. Over 11 members from the 99 Group joined this event. Our representative for the OBA, Mr. Damith Kaldera was a member of the Organising Commitee for the Olcott Oration 2012, headed by the vice president of the OBA Mr. Pani Ranwala.