Should we ‘celebrate’ Vesak?

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Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Buddhism is the most environment-friendly religion on Earth, and Vesak is the most important day for the Buddhists. How should we spend this day? Every year this topic is discussed, written about over and over again, and after Vesak till the next year, we forget about it. This article is an attempt to look at all the issues once more, but from a different angle.

Among all the teachings of the Buddha, we cannot find a single word that goes against nature, that would hurt or harm any living thing on Earth, or that would cause any disruption of the natural ecosystem. Today our people call themselves Eco-Buddhists - an unnecessary prefix - as Buddhist naturally cannot be eco-enemies but eco-friendly since they are a prominent part of that very eco-system.

A person who observes the Five Precepts is the most eco-friendly person among us. The first precept ensures that no living creatures are hurt or killed. The person who observes the first precept will not spray pesticides and insecticides on plants. This would save ecosystem including lives of animals big and small as well as indirectly stop poisoning the people who consume such food. When we do not kill or consume meat, we become more peaceful and kind.

The second precept ensures that we do not take what does not belong to us. Then no wars will be fought to grab other peoples’ land, or to defend lands that we live in. Man out of greed will not destroy the forests or block waterways – the natural resources that do not belong to individuals but to all lives on Earth. People would be safe from robbery and violence. Corruption will disappear.

The third precept ensures our abstention from sexual misconduct. When we follow it, our women and children will be safe from abuse, molestation and AIDS. Then including those and other STDs will disappear from the face of the Earth.

The fourth precept ensures our refraining from incorrect speech. Due to correct speech, no one will mislead us telling us lies for their personal gain. No hate-speech occurs any more to put brother against brother. When we follow the first three precepts, we automatically follow the fourth precept.

The fifth precept ensures peace at home and in the village. The first four precepts are usually violated by those who violate the fifth, and those who keep to the other four precepts never violate the fifth.

If all our Buddhists follow Five Precepts that they recite day in and day out, the government does not have to ban selling meat and alcohol on Vesak and other Poya days. Both these businesses would never open in such a situation, except to serve the few non-Buddhists in the country. Likewise, if all employers follow the second and the fourth precepts, no need arises to hold May Day rallies.

If all of us could keep our promises, as we recite the Five Precepts, what a beautiful and wonderful country this could be, and what an inheritance to leave for our children! Re-reading the Tripitaka, specially Aggana Sutta and Cakkavatti Sutta, trying to understand how man’s greed led to his own destruction over the ages, is a need of our time. To make this more feasible, it is high time to translate the Tripitaka into modern day Sinhala so that all lay people could read and understand what the Buddha said.

Today most of us cannot understand easily the officially available Sinhala translation of the Tripitaka published 56 years ago on the Buddha Jayanthi unless we have a good knowledge of Pali and old Sinhala. Because of this handicap, ‘Evam Me Sutam’ we have to hear from third or fourth persons, and we are hampered with “Ehipassiko”.

Today our country has achieved such a high literacy rate and therefore, our people are highly educated and very intelligent. Really, they do not need to hear bana day and night to understand what is right. Instead of preaching bana, people should be encouraged from their young age to start reading and learning the Buddha Dhamma themselves. Enough books are available now both in Sinhala and English languages including pioneer books such as Ven. Walpola Rahula Thera’s ‘What the Buddha Taught’ (Budun Vadala Dharmaya).

It is the only way to educate our people. We cannot blame them today for going after meaningless practices, which we have borrowed from other cultures and religions alien to us. They are also so harmful to our environment.

Vesak Pandals: Environmental friendly? >>

The most environmentally damaging act we find on Vesak day is the illuminations all over the country. A Vesak pandal would have around 50,000 bulbs. Around the country we have several hundred such pandals on a Vesak day. This is in addition to the illumination of buildings and streets. Whether the power is drawn from the national grid or from private power generators, we consume fossil fuel. We are burning money, polluting the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. A really pathetic report in a recent news item was that the CEB expects power piracy to increase during Vesak, Does it mean our Buddhists, after reciting the second precept, are stealing more on Vesak Day?!

If we need illumination we could light just one clay lamp, because what is we should do on this great day is not to illuminate the surroundings but to illuminate our innerself. Pandals were a necessity when most people were illiterate, when they could not read and understand the teachings of the Buddha. Then they had to be shown the Narakadiya and enacted Jataka stories. Most of the Jataka stories depicted in the pandals today are very familiar to almost all the people in the country. Is there any need to spend colossal sums to show them repetitively things that they already know?

Giving Dansala by the road side everywhere in the country is another act we should rethink. There was a time when people traveled on foot or by cart from villages to the city to see the pandals and Vesak decorations. It would have been a meritorious deed to provide food and drink to these people. Today the Dansala has become a mere farce. Sometimes it only reminds us of NGO’s distributing food to people in Ethiopia. Though there are a few misguided people among us who would want our country to become an Ethiopia, we are a fortunate country where people have not reached and would never reach starvation levels.

Instead of spending money on Vesak Dansala, if we forego a meal from a high class restaurant at least once a month, we can feed a needy family for a whole month. Instead of spending millions on wedding receptions to feed people who are already overfed and overweight, we can offer a simple meal to the wedding guests and feed a whole village for one month.

I would like someone to explain to me and to all the readers how the serving of manioc, ice cream, coffee or a fruit drink could earn us merit, or appease the thirst and hunger of a starving child. My understanding is that offering of alms is to be made to those who are in need, and it has to be with good intentions, with a loving heart and without expecting anything in return.

We also offer flowers in millions and make aloka puja by lighting millions of lamps. By the time we collect one million flowers, most of them are withered. In addition, we have deprived nature of most of the flowers on trees. How much coconut oil is burned on these lamps need to be considered too. Do we earn merit million times more by this act? Can’t we light just one lamp and offer one flower instead?

Let us all live in harmony with the nature. Let us be satisfied with what we have and not to have lust for what others have or enjoy. Let us open our eyes to realize that ‘Small is Beautiful’, not because Schumacher reminded us about it, but because it is a lesson we have learnt from the Buddha. Let us be peaceful and useful for all lives on Earth.

Vesak is not a day for ‘celebrations’. It is a day for contemplation, for meditation.

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Buddhist monks filmed smoking, drinking, playing poker

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Seoul, South Korea -- Eight monks of the Korean Buddhist Jogye sect were secretly filmed drinking, smoking and gambling in their hotel suite. The hidden surveillance camera recorded them playing a game of high stakes poker in which $875,000 was won.

According to Reuters, the scandal erupted a few days before Korea's national holiday to celebrate the birth of Buddha, the holiest day of the religious calender.

According to the Daily Mail, six of the monks, leaders of the Korean Jogye Order, have quit.

Korea Bang reports the incident was allegedly filmed April 23. The eight monks spent the night gambling, smoking and drinking at a hotel suite in Yaksu-ri Buka-myeon Jangseong District in South Jeolla Province, close to the Baegyang Temple.

South Korean television showed footage of the monks who were at the luxury lakeside hotel for a colleague's memorial service. According to Herald Sun, the dead colleague was the Zen Master at Baekyang Temple.

The monks gambled all night and continued playing until well after eight in the morning. Korea Bang reports that among the gambling monks were high-profile members of the Jogye Order, including a member of the Jogye committee, a former member of the memorial service committee, and a chief monk of a temple branch.

Seoul District Public Prosecutor's Office said that Seong-ho, a former member of the order, lodged a complaint and accused eight monks of gambling $875,0000 from 8 p.m. on April 23 to 9 a.m. the next day. The monk wrote: "They have violated good customs and social order, and I therefore request them to be punished severely." The monk handed over the videos showing the monks gambling to the authorities. According to Daily Mail, Seongho said he obtained a USB drive containing a video clip taken by a camera hidden in the hotel room, but did not give information about the source of the clip.

The Daily Mail reports that gambling outside of licensed casinos and horse racing tracks is illegal in South Korea and is a social taboo even for those who are not of the religious order. According to Daily Mail, Seongho said: "Basically, Buddhist rules say don't steal. Look at what they did, they abused money from Buddhists for gambling."

Korea Bang reports Monk Jin-je, the highest ranking monk of the Jogye Order, said, "any monk who gambles does not deserve to eat the offering meal or wear Indian ink clothes [the grey clothes that Korean Buddhist monks wear]. Someone who has left home and joined the Buddhist priesthood should not commit an unscrupulous act."

Herald Sun reports that Jin-je made a public apology vowing "self-repentance." He said "Basically, Buddhist rules say don’t steal... they abused money from Buddhists for gambling."

Jin-je also announced an investigation into the installation of the camera, which he said violated the law.

Daily Mail reports the episode has led to speculation of a power split within the order with observers saying the camera was installed by opponents to bring down the monks.

Reuters reports the civic group, Buddhist Solidarity for Reform, said:" A group of monks who gamble, drink and smoke in a hotel room is tainted in the eyes of all people in the nation."

There are about 25 Buddhist orders in South Korea, and the Jogye Order is the largest with about ten million followers, about a fifth of South Korea's population.

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South Korea Buddhist leaders resign over gambling scandal

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Seoul, South Korea -- The leadership of the South Korea's largest Buddhist order resigned en masse after video footage of junior monks playing poker with thousands of dollars at stake emerged.

Prosecutors launched a probe after the footage came to light this week of eight monks from the Jogye Order gambling at a hotel room in southern Jangseong County.

Gambling is illegal in South Korea, except for in special areas such as casinos for foreign tourists, and is also a breach of the Buddhist order's code of discipline.

The gambling, which took place last month, was filmed by another monk and the video footage was given as evidence to the police. The eight monks were also allegedly drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes in breach of Buddhist rules.

"All the six members of the executive committee of the Jogye Order have tendered their resignations, holding themselves responsible for the incident," a Jogye Order spokesman told Agence France Presse (AFP).

Jaseung, head of the order, said that the monks would face tough punishment and would be required to make an apology to the nation as early as on Friday, Yonhap news agency said.

The gambling controversy is the latest incident in a long-running feud between supporters of the Jogye Order's current administration and its opponents, as the footage was secretly recorded by an opponent and then made public.

One of the opponents, known by his Buddhist name Seongho, sued his eight fellow monks for gambling and betting "hundreds of millions of won."

The Jogye Order, which claims 10 million followers among South Korea's 50 million population, has been plagued by factional feuds. Dozens of monks were injured when rival factions clashed in 1999.

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The Passing of Daehaeng Kun Sunim

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Seoul, South Korea -- Hanmaum Seon Center announces the passing of their teacher, Venerable Daehaeng, on Monday, May 21, 2012. She was 85 years old. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, May 26th, with more details to follow as they become available.

<< Daehaeng Kun Sunim 1927 - 2012

Ordained as a Buddhist nun 63 years ago, Daehaeng Kun Sunim* was a rare teacher in Korea. She was a female seon(zen) master, a nun who also taught monks, and a teacher who helped revitalize Korean Buddhism by dramatically increasing the participation of young people and men.

She made laypeople a particular focus of her efforts, and broke out of traditional models of spiritual practice to teach in such a way that anyone could practice and awaken. At the same time, she was a major force for the advancement of Bhikkunis (nuns), heavily supporting traditional nuns’ colleges, as well as the modern Bhikkuni council of Korea.

Born in Seoul, Korea, in 1927, she awakened when she was around 7 years old, and spent the years afterwards learning to put her understanding into practice. She would wander the mountains of Korea, wearing a ragged set of clothes and eating only what was at hand. Years later, she said that she wasn’t pursuing some type of asceticism; rather she was just completely absorbed in returning everything to her fundamental Buddha essence, and seeing how that affected what she entrusted.

This greatly affected her teaching style later, for she could clearly see the great potential, energy, and wisdom inherent within each of us, but saw that people suffered because they don’t know about this, and instead were looking outside of themselves. Clearly seeing the great light we each have, she taught people to rely upon this inherent foundation, and refused to teach anything that distracted people from that.

Her deep compassion made her a legend in Korea long before she formally started teaching people. She was known for having the spiritual power to help people in all circumstances with every kind of problem. She compared compassion to freeing a fish from a drying puddle, putting a homeless family into a home, or providing the school fees that would allow a student to finish high school. And when she did things like this, and much more, few knew that she was behind it.

She supported many social welfare projects, founded centers in 11 countries around the world (15 centers in Korea, and 10 in other countries), and her teachings have been translated from Korean into English, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, French, and Vietnamese.

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*Kun Sunim is the Korean Buddhist title of respect for a senior nun or monk.

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Europe's biggest Buddhist temple to open

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BUSSY-SAINT-GEORGES, France -- The final touches are being put on what will be Europe's largest Buddhist temple, complete with a 16-foot, 8-ton Buddha statue, officials says.

The $20 million temple and cultural center at Bussy-Saint-Georges, France, near Paris, is to officially open June 22, Radio France Internationale reported Monday.

Along with space for 1,000 worshipers, the complex will have about 40 bedrooms for people on spiritual retreats, prayer rooms, space for meditation sessions, calligraphy workshops and other activities, and a vegetarian restaurant.

Designed by the Frederic Rolland architectural firm, the structure doesn't have the traditional pagoda-style most often-associated with Buddhist temples. Set on a large parcel filled with fruit trees, it is built mostly of glass, wood and unrefined concrete accented by roof gardens. In the main area is the massive Buddha made of white jade from a mountain in Myanmar.

"The statue was hewn directly into a mountain in Burma and then transported to the port of Marseilles, which at the time was on strike," architect Polly Rolland told RFI. "We had to organize a special convoy, and arrange cranes to position the Buddha inside the temple, before finishing the roof, because the statue wouldn't fit through the doors."

Rolland said the project was notable for harmony during its construction.

"Usually there are always arguments on a site, but this time, everything was managed in a spirit of total zen," the architect said.

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Buddhist monk accused of Alabama temple killing

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Grand Bay, AL (USA) -- Police have charged a Buddhist monk with fatally bludgeoning a temple leader in Grand Bay, AL.

<< At the Buddhist temple in Grand Bay where the Rev. Chaiwat Molechee was killed on Friday, fellow Buddhist monks gathered on Saturday from throughout the Southeast to receive prayers on behalf of the late monk. Buddhists from Jackson, Mississippi; Jacksonville, Florida; and New Orleans were among those who traveled to Grand Bay to honor the memory of the beloved monk. (Press-Register/Roy Hoffman)

Vern Phdsamay was arrested Friday and charged with the murder of 45-year-old Chaiwat Moleechate, who was found beaten to death. It was not clear whether Phdsamay had a lawyer.

Sgt. Paul Burch of the Mobile County Sheriff's Office said the killing happened at the Wat Buddharaksa Temple, which primarily serves Thai and Laotian immigrants.

Burch told The Mobile Press-Register that investigators found a witness. Police are seeking a Laotian interpreter to help interview that witness. Temple member Sasikant Noreross said the killing left her in disbelief.

She said Phdsamay had recently refused to talk to others and locked himself in his room for months, except when he would leave briefly to get food.

On Saturday morning, Buddhists began to gather from throughout the Southeast to mourn temple leader Chaiwat Moleechate, 45, who died Friday.
Moleechate was found beaten to death inside the temple, according to Mobile County Sheriff’s Office investigators. Vern Phdsamay, 32, a monk who lived at the temple, has been arrested and charged with murder, officials said.

“People are here to pay respects,” said Somprasong Songcharoen, a native of Bangkok who works as a plastic surgeon in Jackson, Mississippi, and helped fund the building of the temple.

With others from Jackson, Songcharoen mingled and visited with Buddhists from temples far and wide as cars pulled into the 5-acre religious site off a rural highway of cornfields, farmhouses, and small, Christian churches.

Among visitors were monks from Jackson; New Orleans; Jacksonville, Florida, and other cities, that had gathered to pray and receive offerings for the late monk.

Before the altar, with figures of the Buddha, a shrine was set up to Moleechate, with photos of the monk, a plate with apples, day lilies, and a candle.
The apples and other fruits, said Songcharoen, were symbolic of feeding the spirit of the monk.

Mourners approached the shrine and lit incense.

The temple, said Visanou Khamphouy, president of the congregation, planned a prayer service Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m.

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The Philosophy behind the Buddhist ethic of Ahimsa

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Colombo, Sri Lanka -- The concept of ‘ Ahimsa ‘ had its origins in the movement to oppose Animal Sacrifice initiated by the Buddha and Mahavira (also known as Nigganta Natha Putta ) the founder of Jainism, in the 6th Century B.C.

We reproduce below an article by Professor Mahinda Palihawadana, President of the Sri Lanka Vegetarian Society and Founder Member of the Society for the Protection of Animal Rights (SPAR), on this subject:

During the time of the Buddha, many kinds of sacrifices were practised by Brahmins who were the priests of the Vedic religion professed by the upper castes of contemporary Indian society. The Buddha did not see any value in these sacrifices, primarily because they were entirely external rites. If one could speak of a ‘right sacrifice’, it had to be something that was internal or ‘spiritual’.

“I lay no wood, Brahmin, for fire on altars Only within burneth the fire I kindle” – says the Buddha, mindful of the Brahmins’ practice of tending a regular ‘sacred fire’ and pouring oblations into it for the various gods of the Vedic pantheon.

This however was only a relatively harmless, albeit in the eyes of the Buddha useless, activity. The Vedic priests also advocated and performed several types of cruel animal sacrifice such as “The sacrifices called the Horse, the Man, The Peg-thrown Site, the Drink of Victory, The Bolt Withdrawn – and all the mighty fuss- Where divers goats and sheep and kine are slain”.

The Buddha rejected all these sacrifices in no uncertain terms. For example, when he was told of a ‘great sacrifice’ that the king of Kosala was about to perform, where 2500 cattle, goats and rams were to be immolated, he declared: “Never to such a rite as that repair The noble seers who walk the perfect way.”

And, in one of the Jataka stories (Bhuridatta), the future Buddha is reported to have said: “If he who kills is counted innocent, Let Brahmins Brahmins kill.

We see no cattle asking to be slain that they a new and better life may gain; Rather they go unwilling to their death And in vain struggles yield their final breath.

To veil the post, the victim and the blow, The Brahmins let their choicest rhetoric flow”.

Many times in his discourses the Buddha speaks of four kind of persons – those who (1) torture themselves, (2) torture others, (3) torture both self and others and (4) who do not torture themselves or others.

The first are the strict ascetics and the second the butchers, trappers, fishers and robbers. It is however the third group that is of special interest in our context. It includes kings and powerful priests who, on such occasions as the opening of a public building, hold a great ritual, “with the sacrifice of many cattle, goats and rams, with wood-cutting and grass-strewing and with much bullying and hustling of servants and slaves, working in fear of chastisement.”

The Buddha does not approve of the conduct of these three classes. It is the last kind, who do not torture themselves or others, that he admires and they are none other than those who follow a compassionate ethic such as the one the Buddha himself advocated.

A particularly touching discourse of the Buddha on animal sacrifice comes in one of the most ancient Buddhist texts, the Sutta Nipata. Here in a discourse on the ethical conduct fit for a Brahmin (Brahmana-dhammika Sutta), the Buddha speaks respectfully of ancient Brahmins who spurned the taking of life and never allowed their religious rites to be tainted by the killing of animals. But corruption set in and they started the practice of animal sacrifice. When the knife was laid on the neck of cattle, the gods themselves cried out in horror of that crime of ingratitude and insensitivity perpetrated on an animal that was to humans such a faithful worker, such a sustainer of life.

In the piece known as the Discourse with Kutadanta we come across a king’s Brahmin counsellor who is preparing a great animal sacrifice, concerning the right procedures of which he consults the wisdom of the Buddha. T. W. Rhys Davids, the distinguished translator of this text, alerts us to the fact that this would be the last thing that an eminent Brahmin is likely to do – to seek the Buddha’s opinion on how to conduct a sacrifice. So he describes the discourse as a “deliberate fiction full of ironical humour”.

The Buddha tells Kutadanta of a worthy sacrifice held in ancient times under the guidance of a certain enlightened Brahmin counsellor. In this sacrifice no living thing is injured; all the labour is voluntary and the sacrifice is offered not only on behalf of the king, but of all the good.

The Buddha then tells Kutadanta of even better forms of sacrifice. In the course of this discourse, as Mrs C. A. F. Rhys Davids points out (Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, article on Sacrifice/ Buddhist), the stations in the road to the good life – the perfect lay life and the perfect religious life – are set forth as so many degrees of sacrifice, each better than the other. Thus the highest sacrifice is that insight and wisdom which signifies the abandonment of the sense of self – i.e., the sacrifice of ego-centredness .

It is not a matter for surprise that the Buddhism along with Jainism, the other great religion of Ahimsa, as well as several sects of Hinduism, rejected animal sacrifice, although many other religions approved of it to some extent or another.

The Buddha in fact was outspoken in His criticism of such entrenched features of the contemporary religious and social scene as sacrificial rituals and the caste system. (His ‘detachment’ was not indifference or withdrawal of judgement, as has been often misunderstood. Consider his reply to Potaliya who told him that the best person was one who neither praised the praise-worthy nor blamed the blame-worthy: Far better is the person who speaks in dispraise of the unworthy and in praise of the worthy, saying in due time what is factual and truthful. (Anguttara ii 100)

In the modern world, there is a powerful movement which seeks to reduce and eliminate the crimes that are perpetrated on animals and to introduce to the social ethic an element of justice to other sentient beings who share the planet with us, humans. This movement is all the more remarkable in that it reflects an attitudinal shift in the predominantly Christian West which is beginning to see the true nature of the moral evil that the abuse and exploitation of animals is.

The fundamental thrust of this movement stems from the realisation that animals are like us when it comes to suffering, pain and the prospect of the deprivation of life. It is this very sympathy with the suffering of animals and other sentient beings that is at the core of Buddhist compassion or loving kindness (mettaa). Says a verse in the Dhammapada, the most popular of Buddhist texts:

“All fear the rod of death are all scared.

(Understanding others) from one’s own example, One should neither kill nor cause to kill.”

In the very next verse much the same is said with this addition: ‘For all is life dear’. Here in simple terms is the ‘philosophy’ behind the Buddhist ethic of Ahimsa: other living beings are like us; we should treat them the way we want to be treated ourselves. This is the spirit behind the first precept which enjoins us neither to kill, nor to encourage killing as clearly explained in the Dhammika Sutta.

This is the spirit that prompts the Noble Eightfold Path to forbid the trade in flesh and engaging in fishing, hunting etc. for those who profess to follow that Path. It is the same spirit that projected an ideal of kingship in which the ruler provided defence and protection (rakkhavarana-guttim) not only to the different classes of the human population, but also to birds of the air and beasts of the land (miga-pakkhisu).

The natural corollary of such a teaching in modern parlance is that animals have the same right to life which we humans claim for ourselves. And it is the sensitivity to this right that made Emperor Asoka, whose life was abundantly inspired by the teachings of the Buddha, to promulgate, in the well known Rock Edict I: “Here no animal shall be killed or sacrificed”. This is an outstanding example of an ethical teaching being made the basis for a legal pronouncement.

The tradition of royal decrees based on the ethic of respect for animal life was also followed in Sri Lanka prior to the advent of colonialism. Consider the Maaghaata (Do not kill) proclamations of five kings of Lanka from the first to the eighth century, beginning with Amandagamani Abhaya, which forbade the killing of any living being within the realm. King Vijayabahu I in the 11th century and Parakramabahu the Great in the 12th also made proclamations of protection of wildlife and fishes in the forests and lakes of Sri Lanka.

Kirti Sri Nissankamalla, one of the kings who came after Parakramabahu, promulgated a remarkable decree, which he publicised in six of his famous inscriptions, forbidding the killing of all living beings in the irrigation lakes of the entire country. In his Anuradhapura inscription he decreed that no animals should be killed within seven leagues of the city and induced a certain group of hunters to desist from the trapping of birds. These few instances suffice to give us an idea of the pervasive influence of the Buddhist attitude to animal life in the social and legal history of Sri Lanka.

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The writer is the President, Sri Lanka Vegetarian Society.

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