Uncategorized

When Monks Go Bad… (Speak Up!)

| arun

The Phnom Penh Postreports that “Buddhist intellectuals and civil society groups have called on the government to address a recent outbreak of offences ranging from drunkenness to rape and a deadly beating all allegedly committed by monks.”

Tep Vong, supreme patriarch of Cambodia, said he was aware a monk had been charged with killing a nun earlier this week in Banteay Meanchey province and welcomed the legal action.

“I do not have any particular advice on the issue because Buddhism already takes a clear position against killing animals and human beings,” he said, adding that anyone who committed a crime should be brought before the courts. 

He also insisted that his adviser, Kiet Chan Thouch, chief monk of Wat Leu in Preah Sihanouk province, was not guilty of getting drunk and attacking fellow monks in his pagoda, as was recently alleged. 

“I already investigated [Kiet Chan Thouch’s] case, and the accusations against him are untrue,” he said. The supreme patriarch is now pursuing legal action against Kiet Chan Thouch’s accusers, who he said had deliberately set out to damage the man’s reputation.

A previous post here cited a UPI article, which addresses this very case. It’s important to understand the context surrounding these episodes—not just regarding the near annihilation of the Khmer sangha in the late 70’s, but also regarding who exactly today’s saffron-robed perpetrators are. Erik W. Davis wrote a thoughtful piece on this topic at his (former) blog.Nevertheless, a little more enforcement of the Vinaya might be overdue.

Unaffiliated Buddhist

| arun

Tynette Deveaux announces that the upcoming Spring 2010 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly will be devoted to “unaffiliated Buddhists.”

Do you have a meditation practice and follow the Buddhist teachings but don’t belong to a Buddhist community, or sangha, and don’t have a Buddhist teacher? If so, you’re part of a growing community of unaffiliated Buddhists in North America. In the Spring 2010 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly we’ll be focusing on unaffiliated Buddhists and we’d like to hear from you.

I’ve crossed paths with quite a few bloggers who identify themselves as go-it-alone Buddhists or denizens of regions nearly devoid of Buddhism, so this upcoming issue should receive some welcome. I’m interested, at the very least!

Khmer Krom Buddhists

| arun

Here’s an issue very dear to my heart, but I’ve very few minutes to write about it. From my Buddhist Channel feed, I saw a link to an article about Khmer language classes at a village in Vietnam. (You can check out the source link here.) For those who know little about Vietnam and Vietnamese history, the Khmer Krom are one of the persecuted Buddhist minorities of Vietnam. The region of South Vietnam was originally part of the Khmer empire, which the Vietnamese began annexing piecemeal from around 1700. (For comparison, the Vietnamese colonization of South Vietnam is along roughly the same timeline as European colonization of North America.) Cambodians still refer to Ho Chi Minh City (Sài Gòn) by its Khmer name: Prey Nokor. Ethnic Khmers constitute a significant minority in Vietnam, but their historical claims to the land are completely glossed over. The Khmer Krom still speak Khmer and still maintain Theravada Khmer temples—but they also face significant cultural, economic and political repression as non-Vietnamese. I’ve obliquely referred to the situation of Khmer Krom a couple times before (as in this post). More on this after I get back. It’s a Kathina weekend!

Twheet: A Bay Area Meditation Conference

| arun

Not sure if I’ll be able to attend Turning Wheel Talks 2009 — Twheet! Examining Meditation in 21st Century America, but if you are, I certainly encourage you to check it out.

Meditation helps us connect to reality and discover profound peace in what’s really there. This event is intended to support and strengthen the meditation community in the Bay Area. Twheet is for folks who have been meditating for years and want to deepen their practice. Twheet is for those who have never tried meditating, but want to. Twheet is for the people who’ve dabbled in meditation and seek to establish a stronger habit and practice. It’s for “closet meditators” who wonder what else is out there. It’s for those who identify as Buddhists. It’s for those who don’t. It’s for anyone who wants to be part of the younger-adult community in the Bay Area! In other words, Twheet is for you.

They have a Facebook page too.

An Opportunity to Lead

| arun

The Wall Street Journal hosts an opinion piece by Thich Chan Phap Dung on the situation of monks and nuns at Bat Nha monastery in Vietnam.

The government of Vietnam now must respond. Will it disband a peaceful Buddhist organization, or move to fully protect religious freedom as required by international covenants and treaties to which Vietnam is a party, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and as Vietnamese citizens demand? Vietnam is currently serving as president of the U.N. Security Council and chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2010. There is no better time to show the world its leadership on these important issues of human rights.

The monks and nuns still wish to return home to Bat Nha monastery. If this is not possible, the government, through its established Buddhist church, could at least reaffirm the monks’ and nuns’ legal right to practice together as a religious community at another location. These young monks and nuns want nothing more than to serve their country and humanity and are fine examples of the true beauty and determined spirit of the Vietnamese people.

Thay Dung provides some context on the situation that I hadn’t seen elsewhere (such as Hoang Hung’s petition, also in English). Hopefully this piece on the WSJ will spark enough interest to pressure Hanoi to finally fulfill its self-proclaimed commitments to religious freedom.

Buddhifying the Military

| arun

At the Upaya Zen Center Newsletter, Rev. Alan Senauke responds to a sticky question posed to him regarding the Buddhist chapel at the Air Force Academy (via LT Jeanette Shin at Buddhist Military Sangha):

I’m of course concerned about its impact on CO [conscientious objector] clients for whom Buddhism is their route to their beliefs against participation in war in any form. The more deeply Buddhism becomes entrenched in military life, the harder it is for that to be the accepted religious source of a CO applicant’s beliefs. It is already such an uphill battle for Christians – I can see that happening how for those who articulate Buddhist values or beliefs in support of their CO applications. “Soldier, the Air Force has a Buddhist Chaplain and a Buddhist Chapel. How can you sit here and say to me that Buddhism is against participation in war in any form?”

Check out his full response. Earlier this year there was some heated back-and-forth on a coupleof posts on the issue of Buddhism and the military. I don’t think it’s wrong to disagree with the notion of Buddhists serving in the military—but I will speak out loud and clear against those who would have the community turn our backs on our own.

Returning to Thich Nhat Hanh

| arun

Over on Wikipedia, user YellowMonkey has changed the page Nhat Hanhback to Thich Nhat Hanh. Thank you! Thank you! Cam on!* The whole discussion around “Thich” is one of my major pet peeves. As written by Thich Nhu Minh (former librarian at the university cofounded by TNH):

Regarding Buddhist names in Vietnamese tradition; because all monastics take the word “Thich”, a shortened form of “Thich Ca” which means “Sakya”, as their surname to indicate that they are “sons of Sakyamuni the Buddha”, and belong to the same family clan named “Thich”, we have to honor this practice. That is to accept “Thich” as a surname and record as such in the cataloguing process.

The confusion over Thich Nhat Hanh’s appellations are rooted in his ambiguous identity as a Western/Asian teacher. He uses his name in the West as he would in Vietnam, whereupon unworldly Western Buddhists impose their Eurolinguistic assumptions on a 1600 year old Asian convention… and voilà! Thich is recast from an ancient Buddhist name to a modern Buddhist title. The West has already colonized Vietnam and bombed it halfway to being a tropical parking lot. Please, at least let us have our language. (*Xin loi la van ban nay khong co dau!)

If You Know the Vinaya You Can Kill a Chicken

| arun

As I sit here waiting, I’ve had the opportunity to start stepping through Sects and Sectarianism: the Origins of Buddhist Schools, and loved this quote on the Vinaya.

Actually, for those of us who live the Vinaya every day, it is obvious that much of it operates as guidelines. There are countless situations that crop up constantly which are not explicitly dealt with in the Vinaya. The Vinaya itself includes principles for how to apply precedents in new situations. Very often, the rules of Vinaya are phrased in a legalistic manner which makes them quite easy to get around in practice, if one is so inclined. And so in Myanmar they say: ‘If you know the Vinaya you can kill a chicken’. It is, perhaps, only in the minds of academics that the Vinaya minutely governs every facet of a monk’s life. In real life this is simply impossible. This has nothing to do with the question of whether one takes a rigorist or laxist approach to the rules, emphasizing the letter or the spirit. It is simply to acknowledge the plain fact that the rules only cover a limited amount of contexts, and beyond that we must use our best judgement.

You will hear this quite a bit from monks. This reminds me of some thoughts from Ven. Dhammika in response to Ven. Ming Yi’s trial a couple months ago. Back to waiting…

Advancing Justice

| arun

This post is really for the Asian American Buddhist activists in the audience—an old friend gave me a heads up about the Advancing Justice Conference(subtitled “Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Building New Foundations for Civil Rights”).

The Advancing Justice Conference is an inaugural national civil rights and social justice conference, expected to draw several hundred individuals from across the country. The conference aims to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders in one place to address a broad range of issues facing the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. It serves as a unique forum where researchers, advocates, direct service providers and other leaders can meet face-to-face, talk about their common challenges and find ways to work collaboratively.

Taking place over two days, the conference covers a variety of issues including: immigration reform and enforcement, immigrant integration, human rights, civil rights and national security, health care, Census 2010, redistricting, low-wage workers, hate crimes, and LGBT rights. It also includes presentations on corporate and foundation fundraising, new media, community organizing, board and commission participation, capacity building, and intergroup collaboration.

You can still register for the conference, which runs this Thursday and Friday.

The Danger of Ethnic Buddhism

| arun

A friend recently pointed me to Ethnic Buddhism and Other Obstacles to the Dhamma in the West by Dr V. A. Gunasekara.

When ethnic Buddhism is introduced into a Western country it tends to shunt the particular manifestation of Buddhism into an ethnic ghetto. The danger here is that many people will perceive Buddhism as a ghetto religion. Indeed the mass media in Western countries have made it a fine art to present Buddhism as an ethnic religion and not a universal message of liberation. The activities of ethnic Buddhists in the West lend support to this propaganda of the mass media to the great detriment of the cause of Buddhism in the West.

The piece is riddled with patent falsehoods presented as fact, not to mention that I have a ton of issues with the way he structured his argument and examples. But there’s some interesting food for thought too.