Many seekers of truth have discarded their traditional spiritual practices in favor of what they consider a superior system, i.e., Buddhism, which does indeed offer concepts that are more cosmic and less repressive than the Western religions.
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Truthfully there is violence in every walk of life and every religion on earth..
Most of them are unrelated to the religious teachings or texts but are committed by so called Buddhists or so called Muslims or so call Christians or so called Hindus, who claim to be religious but have their own horrible secrets..
Just some crimes by Buddhists who are supposed to be peaceful (not giving them a bad name by just trying to express violence and man-kind go hand in hand)
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Buddhist monks who allegedly murdered people, enjoyed sex with women and, in a macabre ritual, roasted a dead baby have wreaked hell on Thai society and its saffron-robed clergy.
On Monday (October 30), police arrested a Buddhist abbot for allegedly killing a woman whose body was found a week earlier inside a septic tank at a neighbor's home.
Police seized Abbot Adhikan Arn Wattanadhammo, 46, in Petchabun town while he reportedly tried to burn bloodstained clothing and destroy a ring inscribed with the dead woman's surname.
"Buddhist leaders face major crisis of faith," warned the respected Nation newspaper in an editorial.
"There was the monk who roasted dead babies in order to collect their oil to be used in spurious magical ceremonies," the editorial added. "And then there was the monk who committed necrophilia in coffins in his temple.
"These are but two of the most bizarre incidences in recent years which have caused the monkhood to suffer a serious loss of credibility." The paper lamented, "Barely a week goes by without some kind of monastic scandal."
It demanded punishment for all monks who commit "blatant fraud and theft" by using donated funds to finance disreputable lifestyles.
The latest abbot-linked murder comes during a week of widespread media coverage showing a different abbot being arrested and disrobed for allegedly having sex with several women, while masquerading as a special forces colonel.
In that case, Abbot Thammathorn Wanchai denied committing a sex crime within the clergy, and said he was simply visiting female friends.
By coincidence, he was wearing a uniform to express respect to the military's spirits, he claimed.
"It made me happy to dress as an officer," the abbot was quoted as saying.
Thanong Khanthong, a columnist, warned such scandals are "holding the Thai faith up to ridicule."
Referring to the uniform-wearing abbot, the columnist added, "He was part of a 'Chivas Regal gang' who liked to drink the expensive Scotch whisky before giving sermons.
"At his private residence, police found pornographic material, lingerie and condoms -- apparently His Excellency Wanchai was not totally careless about AIDS," Thanong said.
On Oct. 23, the abbot was filmed driving his Mercedes out of his temple at night, stopping to don a uniform of the Special Warfare Command, with Army Signals insignia, and pulling up at a house where two women later arrived by taxi. The trio stayed overnight.
The next morning, he was filmed taking the women to a restaurant before they all returned for another overnight at the same pad.
"Get out of the car," a police officer demanded the following day, when the abbot tried to cruise away.
Police arrested him, and yanked his green uniform open to reveal his orange robe underneath -- all on nationwide on TV.
Wanchai, 43, had been in the monkhood for about 14 years, and an abbot since 1991. He had received huge donations from leading Thai officials and others.
"He often came to the house at night, and always entertained female guests," Crime Suppression Police Colonel Thawee Sodsong said. "He went out virtually every night."
Thawee said the abbot could face up to five years imprisonment for impersonating a military officer.
In an extremely rare display of ire within Thailand's Buddhist congregation, about 500 residents who lived around Wanchai's temple refused on Oct. 26 to give alms to any of his temple's monks, after seeing television coverage of the abbot being defrocked on Oct. 25.
As a result of the devotees' boycott, about 30 monks at the temple in provincial Suphan Buri town had to make do with whatever food they collected in their alms bowls earlier in the week, from their traditional morning rounds.
Thailand, meanwhile, is still reeling from the antics of yet another monk, caught on camera wearing a wig and enjoying a nightlife of loud karaoke singing, boozing and other taboo acts.
His shaved eyebrows -- de rigueur for all Thai Buddhist monks -- reportedly betrayed Abbot Pativet Viset. He also denied wrongdoing but resigned on October 20, a few days after his alleged hijinks.
Thailand's late meditation master Luang Pho Chah Supatto wrote that abstaining from sex "is the monks' biggest obstacle." One of the most unusual meditations to knock-out a monk's sex drive is "corpse contemplation."
Monks purchase crime-scene news photographs of horribly dismembered, bloated or decaying human corpses and concentrate on them.
The cheap, forensic photographs are sold in Buddhist icon shops for this meditation.
Cartoon versions depict, for example, a woman in a bikini next to her skeleton. Such technique stresses all humans will soon rot in unpleasant decay. A learned monk is supposed to perceive a sexy female's shape as merely a temporary illusion.
Angry chanting, however, is being voiced against other Buddhist abbots as well.
In September, an abbot was investigated by the Education Ministry and Religious Affairs Department for amassing a collection of expensive vintage cars instead of renouncing material possessions.
Abbot Viboon Pattanakit also faced inquiries from the aged abbots of Thailand's Sangha Council on Buddhism.
He shrugged and said he used donations to buy more than 60 cars in an altruistic plan -- to open a museum which would benefit the temple.
In 1996, Thailand's freakiest Buddhist monk roasted a dead baby to extract "magical" oil, which dripped from its charred corpse. Police arrested Harn Raksajit, popularly known as Aer, after publication of a photograph showing how he allegedly grilled the tiny victim.
Aer boasted he broiled the baby to create a much-feared babyish ghost known as Kumarn Tong, who is widely believed to possess powerfully hypnotic, manipulative abilities.
Aer insisted one of his devotees found a nine-month-old, apparently still-born baby near the temple in a black garbage bag, which was being chewed on by a dog.
The devotee brought it to Aer, asked the monk to cremate it, and paid him 20 US dollars for expenses, Aer added. The baby's mother was never found.
Aer, 35, was ultimately defrocked for committing an indecent act with a corpse, and failing to report a death.
About 95 percent of Thailand's 65 million citizens are Buddhists. Gorgeous "wat" temples shelter ornate giant statues of Buddha, and other revered icons, virtually everywhere in this devout Southeast Asian nation. More than 400,000 monks and novices live in Thailand's 40,000 temples. Most of them obey strict tenets, which for monks include never touching women or intoxicants, because they distract one's focus away from spiritual enlightenment.
Wealth must also be shunned, in an effort to achieve "detachment" from desires. In Thailand, homosexuals, criminals, handicapped people or anyone infected with disease or in debt, cannot be ordained as a monk, the clergy's rules state.
Worshippers anxious for good luck, meanwhile, are thrilled when a monk indicates a number which they hope may win an upcoming lottery.
But some monks, after receiving food donated by devotees each morning, have sacrilegiously dumped it from their alms bowls into big plastic bags, and later sold the food to street vendors.
Other priests have grown wealthy from wheeling and dealing in religious icons, good luck amulets, and magical blessings.
They dwell in chauffeured luxury.
Anonymous
Unfortunately,as has been pointed out sometimes buddhism is not as peaceful as it should be.
When monks do some of the things described above it brings buddhism into disrepute.I would like to say though that these actions are not buddhist.They run contrary to the teachings of Lord Buddha
and the people who commit them should not be called buddhist.
Ladysman.With all due respect stop talking such rubbish.Buddha was born in the conventional manner and the other stuff you wrote also shows your either-A-Ignorance of the topic or B-Your ignorance full stop.
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Though I'm an atheist, I wouldn't consider being religious to be a mental illness. Religion simply acts as an outlet for the unknown. We do the same thing with movies and books, but religion takes it to a realm that is far more terrifying than any horror novel.
Anonymous
As an Agnostic, religions like Buddhism and Taoism are the ones that make most sense to me. They just have a lot of important messages that the world could benefit from.
Fake Genius
imagine:
there was a village with a population of a few hundreds people.
These people live a way of life that:
they control their mind and body - they don't let themselves get greedy, angry and jealous - they don't let themselves appear proud, arrogant, threatening, ...
they don't kill each others and other animals - although they eat meat from dead animals and left behind by the predators like tiger...
they don't steal from each others
they don't lie to each other, not talking behind, not talking divisive speech, no gossip, not rough speech, no bad speech other than kind speech
No women go for each others' husbands and no men go for each others' wives - they don't go for others' young kids - but only live with their own husband and wife.
they don't drink, they don't use drug, they don't take any form of intoxication - as alcohol, drug and intoxication can cause and corrupt the mind to enjoy evil thought and make the body to do what should not be done
these people live loving each others, helping each others, working together to get food, clothing etc. and share together responsibly and they only take what they deserve. As they share materials, they also share duties and equal effort for the welfare of the village. They don't have any village head in particular but they only the elderly and learn from them for managing the affairs of the village. They will elect someone to take duty to do to finish a particular task.
Think would these people suffer from each others' action, speech and thought? Apart from natural pain like diseases and illnesses and insect bite , would these people suffer from each others' action, speech and corrupt mind?
Actually that way of life is naturally peaceful and make everyone comfortable. Yes, that is natural lifestyle that makes everyone moral and trustworthy. They don't suffer from each other. That is just the law of nature.
Buddhism is just a different name for the law of nature. Buddhism is the name after the Buddha who reveal the law of nature to the people of His time. You know some scientific terms are after the finders, inventors etc.; Buddhism is just like that.
I don't claim whether Buddhism is superior or not. It's just natural, logical, consistent and containing the profound information about the nature. Buddhism contains from both basic to ultimate height of peace - nirvana.
edit:
when you find something inconsistent with nature in Buddhism, then it must be not part of Buddhism or you have to make sure the information you have is written in different words not used 2500 years ago. Yes, cultural differences and language barrier are a main problem interpreting Buddhism.