Sangha

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!

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…

Like Teaching Basketball Online

| arun

Brad Warner insists “Zen cannot be taught via the Internet or on a blog.”

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I don’t keep this blog as a way of teaching Zen. Zen cannot be taught via the Internet or on a blog. Same as you couldn’t teach someone how to play basketball via the Internet or on a blog.

Sure you could teach a lot about basketball via the Internet, its history, its major players, statistics, descriptions of playing techniques. You could even put up some helpful videos or give advice to people who emailed questions. But you couldn’t really teach basketball that way. You would need to be face-to-face in the same gymnasium. No two ways about it.

Not a Zen practitioner myself, I have no honest opinion on the Zen-to-basketball comparison. But I would say it applies to the Theravada—if you’ve never place rice in a monk’s bowl before, you might want to add a new line to your spiritual checklist.

Bat Nha Back and Forth

| arun

Ven. Kobutsu Malone writes on the Buddhist Channel to offer another perspective on the events at Bat Nha monastery.

It appears the “Buddhist world” is getting behind the Thich Nhat Hanh followers without question. There are however, a lot of questions: It is obvious that the Thich Nhat Hanh people have a well-oiled propaganda machine going. The http://helpbatnha.org/ site purported to represent the monastery only represents the voice of the Thich Nhat Hanh clergy at the Bat Nha Monastery. The site is registered to Deer Park Monastery, Thich Nhat Hanh’s facility in Escondido, California. Is it possible that this perhaps inflames the local residents who may feel that the Thich Nhat Hanh followers had taken over their temple?

His thoughts drew a quick reply from Visakha Kawasaki.

Cracking down on Thich Nhat Hanh and his followers might just prove that his work for human rights and community development is proving too successful for the Communist party to tolerate. If the monks and nuns who look to Thich Nhat Hanh as their leader are being beaten and humiliated by police and mobs, does it make sense to blame them rather than see them as victims whose human rights are being violated? Perhaps the rulers of Vietnam regret loosening the rules and allowing Thich Nhat Hanh to return at all. Perhaps they just want to reassert their control and remind everyone who is really the boss.

The discussion over the situation at tu vien Bat Nha involves local, national and global issues and relationships. I am personally most concerned with the individual rights of monks and nuns. I’m much less concerned about the political exchanges between Thich Nhat Hanh and the Vietnamese authorities. But I need to have a grasp of both situations (and more) to have a better understanding of what exactly is going on at this monastery in central Vietnam—especially if I’m only reading news reports in English.

Korea for Bhikkhunis

| arun

The Korea Times reports on an interview with Ven. Myoeom, discussing the situation of Korean Buddhist nuns.

Although discrimination can be found in nearly all countries, the head bhikkhuni at Bongnyeongsa Temple, a Suwon branch of the Jogye Order in South Korea, said such extreme cases of prejudice is rarely found here.

There are no gender differences in Buddhism, said the Ven. Myoeom in an interview with The Korea Times, which minimizes the number of cases of discrimination in temples. In fact, age is also not recognized because what matters most is the “maturity of one’s soul”

It is well-known that sanghas in the Mahayana tradition are much more welcoming than those in the Theravada tradition, although the past fifteen years have also seen the emergence of a growing bhikkhuni movement.

Teaching Imperfections

| arun

A post by Brad Warner touches on the notion of imperfect teachers, including his experiences with his own teacher.

I guess it had to do with trust. I knew the old man wouldn’t steer me wrong. By then I knew full well he was no saint. I saw the old man’s students bickering with each other. I saw the old man himself do things I didn’t entirely approve of. I heard him express opinions I could not agree with. I was there when he burped and when he farted. I knew he sometimes – gasp! — fell asleep on his cushion during early morning zazen.

But I trusted him. I knew that whatever else he did, he always told me the truth. And that’s what counted. I knew him more than as a teacher. I knew him as a friend.

On the Dangerous Harvests blog, Nathan expounds on these thoughts with some of his own experience. I’ve touched on this topic before, and it’s one that’s important to reflect on in any and all Buddhist groups. Odds are that our teachers are not perfect, most especially if they claim to be. So how do we practice with imperfect teachers? If you do your due diligence, you’ll find that there are already a good many answers out there.

Supreme Hypocrisy

| arun

In a UPI piece, Chak Sopheap speaks frankly about Grand Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong and his apparent attitudes towards morality in the Khmer sangha.

Several reports of monks having sex, watching pornographic materials and other social misconduct have largely gone unnoticed by the supreme patriarch. Recently a chief monk reportedly got drunk and beat some of his followers, who did not file a complaint out of fear for their safety.

Unlike the case of Tim Sakhorn – a monk who was charged with misconduct and defrocked in 2007 for allegedly destabilizing relations between Cambodia and Vietnam – the supreme patriarch has not reacted to the recent issue involving the drunken monk. This shows that the decision to defrock Sakhorn was politically motivated, and that the Buddhist leader is unconcerned about the decline of morality among the monks under his charge.

Behind this article are complex stories of epic proportions, such as what does it mean to be a supreme patriarch of Cambodia? (There are three!) Or where in the world is Tim Sakhorn?

Bat Nha Perspectives

| arun

Not long after my previous post, Dr. Scott Mitchell relayed a comment he received in an email, which presents another side to the events at Bat Nha monastery.

The criticism is, in short, that there may be more going on here than meets the eye or that we are only getting one side of the story. This person suggests that the monks and nuns in Vietnam may be “making nuisances of themselves” and that the locals had had enough, driving off the “elitist followers” of Thich Nhat Hanh.

The government press releases that I’ve seen don’t exactly piece together an alternative narrative. But it’s important to understand that this situation can be viewed from multiple perspectives, and they’re all worth honestly discussing. My real concern here is that the monks and nuns—regardless of their affiliation—should be entitled to due process under the law, which is apparently not an option being afforded to them. I have never been all too enthusiastic about Thich Nhat Hanh or the Order of Interbeing (another story for another time), but this situation really hits home for me. For some reason, I cannot silently condone the breach of human rights against the monks and nuns at Bat Nha monastery. It’s them today, but who’s next?

TÌNH HÌNH CÁC THẦY CÔ HẾT SỨC KHÓ KHĂN

| arun

The teachers’ situation is extremely difficult. This headline—the translation of the post title—is what drew me into a post on Pháp nạn Bát Nhã, which alerted me to current actions by the Vietnamese government to forcibly remove monks and nuns from Bát Nhã monastery. At the bottom of the page was a link to a list of YouTube videos that report directly on recent events.

Monks sitting in the rain after being forced outside by thugs.

Monks being forced outside by thugs.

Another video of monks being forced outside by thugs.Regardless of what you think of Thích Nhất Hạnh or Vietnamese people or Angry Asian Buddhists, this situation involves basic violations of human rights on many levels. Qui tacet consentit—if we do not speak out about this situation, we are effectively condoning the oppressive actions by the government in Vietnam, and by extension, those of governments elsewhere.

You can learn more about the situation of Bát Nhã monastery at the Help Bat Nha Monastery website, and also through recent posts on Shambhala Sun Space, The Buddhist Blog and Barbara’s Buddhism blog.