Buddha Boy arrested for rape, kidnapping

Binaj Gurubacharya, Associated Press (ap.org, apnews.com), Jan. 19, 2024; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A spiritual leader in Nepal known as ‘Buddha Boy’ arrested on charges of rape and kidnapping

Freak Street shops, Kathmandu, Nepal

KATHMANDU, Nepal — A controversial Nepalese Buddhist spiritual leader known as “Buddha Boy” was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a minor and involvement in the disappearance of at least four of his followers from his camps, police said today.

Ram Bahadur Bamjan (aka Ram Bahadur Bomjon, Tapaswi Palden Dorje, Dorje Rinpoche) is believed by many Nepalese to be the reincarnation rebirth of Siddhartha Gautama a significant lama (tulku) reborn in Nepal, unlike the historical Buddha, who was born in southwestern Nepal Gandhara, Scythia (modern Afghanistan, Central Asia) some 2,600 years ago and became revered as the Buddha or the "Awakened One."

• 

  Remember was I was able to do as a kid?

  The highest goal of Buddhism, as taught by the historical Shakyamuni Buddha Gautama is to make an end of all suffering and all rebirth, so it could never be that a supreme buddha, having entered final nirvana, could reemerge and be reborn. If that were so, Buddhism would make no sense as ultimate liberation from suffering. What does happen, however, is there are other buddhas. Ram Bahadur Bomjon was never a buddha of any kind but could be or have been a bodhisattva, a "being bent on supreme enlightenment," an aspiring "future buddha," Maitreya (a kind of Buddhist messiah). This is not the same being reborn but rather another person aspiring to be a supremely awakened teacher who establishes the Dharma in a world where it no longer exists. These are very rare beings, perhaps the rarest of all. Because of similarities to historical accounts of the Buddha (almost certainly mistaken popular conceptions) and Bomjon -- birth in Nepal, a mother named Maya, a innate penchant and ability to meditate, retiring to the forest, practicing under a tree, fasting, and his general appearance made the world sure this must be the same figure come again. Neither Bomjon nor anyone who understands Buddhism in more than a superficial way was claiming that, but that oversimplification is what set the world on fire that here was a great man, a great meditator, a great teacher to come. That never seems to have manifested. And if Bomjon was practicing the meditative absorptions of "right concentration stillness" (samma-samadhi), it is likely he lost them for lack of an experienced teacher to establish him in the foundational practice. The subsequent practice of developing liberating insight or vipassana would be missing, and he would gain no distinction in knowledge-and-vision (characteristic of the noble ones, the Ariyans) beyond mundane attainments of ordinary worldlings. So even if he had gained the magical powers (iddhi, siddhis, abhinna), with the power to sit still and not move, eat, drink, or breathe, that would not make him a Buddhist "saint" (arhat, arahant), even if the whole world worshiped him for his holiness, which is gained by suppressing all of the mental defilements by samadhi. The meditative absorptions impart temporary purity of heart/mind. But the defilements are still latent until they are uprooted by insight. Meditation is only a preliminary requirement. Practicing Dependent Origination (paticcasamuppada) is essential for breaking free. Many Indian gurus, Hindu saints, indeed gain mystical powers through samadhi and are reckoned "enlightened" in the Hindu scheme of things, but this is not the Buddhist way. This is not what the Buddha taught. And anyone who thinks he did -- such as some Mahayana and Vajrayana thinkers -- what reason would there have been for the Buddha to teach if the Vedas and the later development of the catchall "Indus-ism"(Hinduism as an organized religion formalized by Sri Shankara) were enough to gain moksha (final liberation, emancipation, salvation, deliverance from all rebirth and suffering)? He would not. Two buddhas do not arise at the same time, in accordance with the niyamas or regularities of dhamma as taught by the Buddha.]
• Is Buddha Boy innocent? We hope so! If he is not, that's no surprise. One who develops and masters only samadhi -- stillness, coherence of mind, concentration, serenity, withdrawal -- is temporarily ahead but in great danger of falling back. Only the stream enterer, the first stage of enlightenment, assures one of final deliverance, but even this type of person is capable of anything other than the Five Heinous Crimes, terrible karma.
• In accordance with the Ratana Sutta ("Jewel Discourse"), a stream enterer or once returner might do anything of an immoral nature, but it will not entail an eight rebirth. The great thing about making it to stream entry is that, according to the Buddha, one has finally for the first time in all of samsara put a limit on suffering, made an end of all misery in no more than seven rebirths at the maximum.
• An arhat or fully enlightened person, now established in virtue (sila) might still break some Monastic Disciplinary Code rules. Apparently, the ones even an arhat might break are listed as such. So it is, of course, not true that a stream enterer has "perfect morality" forever and ever. Maybe such a person does at that moment leading up to realization or just after realization. Maybe everything is clear, what is "path" and "non-path," how much further one has to go, what is fruitful to practice and what is useless. But, indeed, some of the defilements are still there, only weakened. As one evolves towards full enlightenment, arahantship, more and more of the fetters, defilements, and taints are abandoned for good. See The Path of Freedom for a description of the various kinds of stream enterers and once returners.
• Of all the defilements that corrupt living beings here in the Sensual Sphere, it is sensuality, craving for five-strand sense pleasures. So it would be no surprise that lust overcame someone emerging from the previous practice of the meditative absorptions. Sexual desire and craving of all kinds reassert themselves; they have not yet been uprooted. LUST, Lust, lust
• One needs to take great care not to overestimate one's achievements. An experienced teacher is essential. If only we could bring Buddha Boy to just such a teacher so he might realized any shortcomings before final emancipation.

Back up, everyone. Saint coming through. We finally got him. We always told him we would.

.

Buddhist scholars have been skeptical of Bamjan’s claims. Bamjan was arrested late Tuesday (1/9/24) from his house in a suburb of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, according to Nabaraj Adhikari of the Central Investigation Bureau.

Police brought paraded him before the media in handcuffs on Wednesday and said that he had tried to flee by jumping two floors from a window [of his home] when the officers arrived but was unsuccessful and was taken into custody.

Officials also displayed a stack of Nepalese banknotes they said was equivalent to $227,000 and other foreign currencies amounting to $23,000 seized from the house at the time of the arrest.

Bamjan is expected to be taken to a court in southern Nepal, where the alleged crimes occurred, to appear before a judge there.

Several dozen of his followers gathered later Wednesday outside the Central Investigation Bureau offices in Katmandu, where Bamjan was being held but were pushed back by riot police.

He'll recover from this ignominious predicament.

Bamjan, also known as "Buddha Boy," became famous in southern Nepal in 2005, when many believed he was able to meditate without moving for months while sitting beneath a tree with no food or water.

He has remained popular despite accusations of sexually and physically assaulting his followers. His popularity has since declined, but he still maintains camps in southern Nepal, where thousands of his followers come to live and worship him or to visit.

Buddhism -- founded in proto-India (in what is now Bihar state, in and around ancient Magadha and Varanasi) around 500 BCE -- is considered the world’s fourth third-largest religious tradition [as long as a billion Chinese Buddhists are not listed as communist atheists as official CCP records list them] after Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Source