User:Venerable Vilasa Hungary

I am a Theravada Buddhist monk, monk’s name: Bhante (Venerable) Vilasa [Bhante Vilāsa], lay name: István J. Schütz, that is, István János Schütz. I was born on 25 August 1954 in Budapest, Hungary.

I received my higher ordination (upasampadā) as a monk on 31 January 2013 at Shwe Oo Min Dhamma Sukha Tawya Yeiktha, Mingaladon Township, Greater Rangoon (Yangon), Burma. I thus have, as of 2019, seven vassa, i.e. rains.

I have since stayed in diverse monasteries and meditation centres in Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, and tried, due to health reasons, to return to my home country during the years 2016 and 2018. I was one of the then two resident monks at the official Thai temple Wat Thai Rattanaprateep (วัดไทยรัตนประทีป) in Budapest between end-July 2018 and 13 March 2019. (The official website of the temple https://watthai.hu is no longer available.) — This time, I have been back to Hungary since 12 July 2019.

In lay life, I had two professions. I was trained as a bookseller two times in my life: in Hungary, 1978, and in Germany (West), 1988–89, specializing on book imports. After more than seven years in Germany between 1983 and 1990 I returned to Hungary where, by 1992, I set up a tiny enterprise importing and selling books from three continents. The company was shut down 2004.

I pursued university studies as well. From 1991 onward, German studies at ELTE University, Budapest, along with Tibetan studies at the same, whereas I was forced to quit latter owing to a lack of time. M.A. in German, 1999. Thesis on tense and aspect in Icelandic and German.

– In the meantime, Icelandic studies at the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands), 1993 through 1995, concluding with a B.Ph.Isl., the equivalent of a B.A. In actual fact, I had stayed in Iceland 1977 for the first time, and was enrolled, only to return to Hungary shortly afterwards.

Finally, already as a monk, I pursued Buddhist studies – 22 lectures weekly, in nine subjects, at the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University (ITBMU), Rangoon/Yangon, Burma, in the academic year 2013–14, leaving with a Diploma in Buddha-Dhamma [Dip. (B.Dh.)].

Language skills

• Native language: Hungarian.

• Second language: German. Also the medium of earlier scientific activities. – Limited understanding of Dutch and Flemish in writing.

• Third language: Icelandic, both modern and old. Main area of study and research, as well as that of translation work and teaching at university level. – Passive Faroese, that is, reading. – Further, reading skills, depending on text type (and: genre), in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.

• Fourth language: English. At an advanced level.

• Japanese, both written and spoken; at present, at a lower intermediate level, owing to a lack of practice.

• Some French, passive knowledge, the reminiscences of secondary level studies. – Limited understanding of Italian in writing.

• Turkish at everyday conversational level, limited though on grounds of modest vocabulary; a general understanding of the grammatical structure of the language.

• Finnish: by now at a very, very modest level, owing to a lack of practice; an understanding of the grammatical structure of the language.

• Burmese: after intensive individual studies, Burmese course at ITBMU; low level daily interaction, modest vocabulary; reading and writing skills. A general idea of the structure of grammar.

• Pali: intensive studies at ITBMU, lower intermediate level – also active, thanks to all those exercises, translations from English included!

• Thai: mostly in speech, everyday situations; modest vocabulary, minimal grammar; with a command of the writing system.

• Tibetan: just low-speed reading and writing remained to some extent.

• Russian: was 1973 the subject of my choice for the final examination at secondary school. Hardly any opportunity to use it for 46 years by now: buried in the deepest layers of memory. Anyhow, reading and writing skills of Cyrillic script is still there. – Same applies to Greek script.

• Devanāgarī: for identification purposes.

Teaching activities

• Icelandic language and culture, also, translation workshop, between 1992 and 1999, at the Dept. of Scandinavian Studies, ELTE University, Budapest. – One term at Eötvös Collegium, 2006–2007.

• Reading Theravada/Pali Buddhism in German: seminar, one term (autumn 2006), on behalf of Dharma Gate Buddhist College, Budapest.

• Buddhism on a daily basis for foreign volunteers at ThaBarWa Taya Yeiktha Centre in Thanlyin, Burma, 2017.

• English for Burmese monks, all levels, at Mettānanda Sāsana College of Nga Kyan Pyan Thathana Yeiktha, Rangoon/Yangon, Burma, 2017.

• English for Indian and Sri Lankan monks and novices at Dharmāyatana, the training centre of Nā Uyana Forest Monastery and Meditation Centre, Sri Lanka, 2019.

Scientific work

• Compilation and publication of a handbook of Icelandic declensions under the title Izlandi alaktan / Íslensk beygingardæmi, 1994, along with a textbook of Modern Icelandic for university use (Sæmundur á selnum, ’S. on the Seal’), distributed in photocopies.

• Icelandic university thesis as a work of basic research on Icelandic folk legends; an abbreviated version in German appeared in: „swer sînen vriunt behaltet, daz ist lobelîch“ – Festschrift für András Vizkelety zum 70. Geburtstag, 2001.

• Scientific article Isländisch, in German, covering the system of Icelandic, synchronic and diachronic, in: Roelcke, Thorsten (ed.), Variationstypologie / Variation Typology. Ein sprachtypologisches Handbuch der europäischen Sprachen in Geschichte und Gegenwart / A Typological Handbook of European Languages, 149-182. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2003.

• A new, enormously enlarged version of the above-mentioned Icelandic textbook Sæmundur á selnum – ’S. on the Seal’ –, in Word format: appr. 1,000 pages (A4) in print, about three million characters one third of which are commentaries on grammar and language usage in Hungarian. This is the most detailed textbook of Icelandic ever written (2005–2009). Unpublished manuscript.

• Work on an Icelandic–Hungarian Dictionary started as early as 1975. By 2009, appr. 20,000 entries. Unfinished – and unpublished. One of the altogether two printed copies was presented to Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, then president of Iceland, at a reception on the occasion of his official visit to Hungary in March 2003.

Translation work

English

— The short story Text by Iain Bamorth in Hungarian, 1980.

— Sayadaw U Pandita’s In This Very Life as Dhammadāna, 2010. Reprint: 2017.

— Richard F. Gombrich’s What the Buddha Thought, on behalf of Dharma Gate Buddhist College, 2016; main text finished.

Icelandic

— Nine short stories of Gyrðir Elíasson, translated within the framework of a translation workshop (see further above), published in the literary monthly Nagyvilág, 2003.

— Halldór Laxness’ Kristnihald undir Jökli, published 2004.

— Occasional translations both from and into Icelandic for OFFI, the Hungarian Office for Translation and Attestation, Ltd.

Other activities

• Guided sightseeing tours in Japanese and interpreting for the (then) National Council of Trade Unions, SZOT, between 1974 and 1982.

• Proof-reading and copy preparation in English for Corvina Publishing House as a part-time job between 1979 and 1983.

• Guided sightseeing tours in German and English, and, sporadically, in Hungarian and Japanese, resp., employed by the Board of Tourism of the City of Stuttgart, Germany, 1984–1990.

• Escorting groups of tourists from Iceland in Hungary in the 1990s.