Sex, drugs, money, murder: Thai monks

Sex, drugs, money, and murder in Thailand’s monkhood | Foreign Correspondent

(ABC News In-depth) ABC is an Australian public broadcast service. Aug. 8, 2024: THAILAND In Thailand, Theravada Buddhism and the monks that lead the religion are deeply revered and hold a special place in Thai society.

But a series of scandals involving corruption, adultery, drug use, and even murder have undermined the religion’s moral authority.

If only Cartman were a Monk Cop

This week on Foreign Correspondent the ABC’s South-East Asia Correspondent Lauren Day reports on the ever-growing number of scandals engulfing the religion.

She talks to the Thai police who are going undercover to hunt down badly behaving monks and she heads out on patrol with the MONK POLICE whose aim is to catch wayward monks and drag them into line.

Why would Wisdom Quarterly cover this scandal, which could make Buddhism look bad?

• 

  Be like the Pope and hide corrupt clerical crimes.

  Wouldn't it be better to hide our dirty laundry like Mahayana Buddhism makes members vow to do?
• The best disinfection method is moonlight?
• We should only expose Christian corruption?
• The good news is that Thai Theravada Buddhism is NOT a monolith. There are two schools, the Maha Nikaya ("Great Order") is 90%, and the renewal back-to-basics movement is 10%. The smaller one known as the Thai Forest Tradition, which is the tradition famous meditating monks like Ajahn Chah (who kept a foot in both schools) come from (since they are not in the cities or large monasteries) as well as their many successful Western students (Ajahn Brahm, Sumedho, Jack Kornfield, Ajahn Sucitto, and others).
• All of these broken rules, long before they would rise to the attention of the legal system (violations of the Monastic Disciplinary Code, the 227 basic rules, laid down by the Buddha with meticulous descriptions and correctives), have remedies.
• Fortunately or unfortunately, the democratic court (monastic legal system) set up by the Buddha is the responsibility of the Monastic Sangha "Spiritual Community") to administer.
• The rules, court procedures, and consequences are all in place; that they are not pulled out to do their job of purifying the Sangha of corruption is the fault of the Sangha itself.
• It is charged to police itself, and it does not police itself, so this happens.
• One school does not set up administrative control of another, so the "purer" and much smaller Thai Forest Tradition Sangha cannot go tell the more corrupt and much larger Maha Nikaya to clean up its act.
• In fact, the Thai Sangha has generally been a corrupt "religious" institution (rather than an avenue for authentic spirituality) for a long time, so long that in following the custom of every Thai male spending some time temporarily ordaining before being deemed fit to marry and become a Buddhist adult, a royal wanted to ordain but could not stomach the idea of entering a corrupt sect.
• The solution was for the royal house to set up a new sect, a purer, back-to-basics monastic institution fit for a king.
• That he was a king or prince or from the royal family made it possible to institute and fund, but it did not make it a legitimate vehicle according to monastic rules. One cannot simply set up a new Buddhist tradition.
• The Buddha instituted the Sangha and laid down the rules for how that is done, so without him or without following the procedures set forth in the beginning of the Sangha, other institutions calling themselves "Buddhist" (such as the new Nuns Sangha) cannot be viewed as real except that they meet the rules previously laid down, which can be done by working with a preexisting school or sect, such as a Mahayana school.
• There are many kinds of Buddhism, some unrecognizable to one another, but they are divided into just two traditions, Theravada (10%) and Mahayana (90%).
• Thai Buddhism is Theravada (with a tiny Mahayana monastic presence), and as has already been stated, it also divides into two separate monastic institutions.
• The Thai Forest Tradition is very much about the Monastic Disciplinary Code (Vinaya) and its strict implementation, for this the Buddha said is what will preserve Buddhism for a long time in the world.
• In fact, there are three main Theravada Buddhist countries, and each took one third of the "Three Baskets" (Tipitaka) to focus on: Sri Lanka takes special care of preserving the sutras (suttas). Burma is focused on the Abhidhamma ("Higher Doctrine"). And Thailand is in charge of preserving the collection of vinaya texts (Collection of Monastic Rules). If the country in charge of the rules lets them lapse to this degree, what hope is there?
• Of course, each country has its own Sangha (as do other Theravada nations like Cambodia and Laos, which were severely damaged by covert illegal U.S. mass bombings, CIA destabilization, and other war crimes during the US War on Vietnam).
• Moreover, each monastery conducts its own business, so one monastery or abbot within a Sangha may be corrupt while the others are not or vice versa.
• As the Sanghas do not interfere with one another, things can get pretty bad for a long time before anything is done.
• Amazingly, Buddhist laypeople tend to stay completely out of the affairs of their monks and priests, which has been to the detriment of the tradition because if Buddhist laypeople knew WHAT THE RULES ARE, they would know when they were being broken. And by not supporting monks who violate the rules the Buddha set down, that would chasten them into behaving and having their Sangha implement the procedures of disciplinary correction that preserves the Dharma.
• The standard texts on the Rules for Monks were translated by American monk Thanissaro Bhikkhu (aka Geoffrey DeGraff, Ajaan Geoff, Tan Jeff), abbot of Metta Forest Monastery (watmetta.org) in San Diego. Get a free volume of the full Vinaya translation.
• Without pressure from supporters -- afraid to speak out against revered monks (viewed as a holy institution or "monkhood" rather than as flawed individuals among well-behaved monks), ignorant of the rules and remedies governing the lives of monastics, unable to exert influence on temples or access any recourse other than the civilian police (who are made up of many Buddhists also afraid and ignorant of monastic affairs) to find relief.
• If a monk is engaging in sex, stealing, killing, or falsely claiming supernormal attainments, these are "defeat" (parajika) offenses, which instantaneously make that person not a monk and never again (in this lifetime) able to become a monk.
• In addition, to these four defeat offenses, there are more than 1,000 other major and minor rules, many of them concerned with etiquette and appearances. But a core set of the rules governs every aspect of the life of an aspirant (anagarika), novice (samanera), nun (bhikkhuni), and monk (bhikkhu or samana, wandering ascetic).
• The rules are for self-restraint as well as imposed restraint by the Sangha (Community) one enters, so it should not be viewed as a hopeless situation, for any monk, abbot, monastery, or governing board of a monastery board can start implementing the rules and procedures they previously ignored to set things straight if they wish to.
• Sunlight is the best disinfectant, not moonlight and not darkness, so bringing it out into the open -- even if it is painful for the Buddhist community in general or embarrassing for the Thai Buddhist community in particular -- is the best thing. If, for example, there is child molestation in your household, should you (A) ignore it, (B) hide it at all costs, (C) confront it, or (D) call it out so that it can be confronted? The answer is C or D, and confronting it is very unlikely and not likely to be successful even if attempted. What does that leave us? Looking away or doing something effective. And that means bringing it out into the open, no matter how painful or embarrassing. If Catholic/Protestant Christianity did this, imagine how many rapes, violations, and molestations could be avoided. But it's just too easy to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, and give cover and delight to the corrupt heads of the Church collecting dues and engaging in all the evil the world has to offer with an extra big helping of hypocrisy on top.

ABOUT: Foreign Correspondent is the prime-time international public affairs program on Australia's national broadcaster, ABC-TV. It produces half-hour in-depth reports for broadcast across ABC's television channels and digital platforms. Since 1992, its teams have journeyed to more than 170 countries to report on war, natural calamity, and social and political upheaval – through the eyes of the people at the heart of it all. Watch more ABC News content ad-free on ABC iView: ab.co/2OB7Mk1 For more from ABC News: ab.co/2kxYCZY. Get breaking news and livestreams from ABC News channel: newsonabc, Facebook: abcnews.au, Instagram: abcnews_au, Twitter: abcnews. Contributions may be removed if they violate ABC’s Online Terms of Use abc.net.au/conditions.htm (Section 3). This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation YouTube channel

• Foreign Correspondent, ABC News, Australia, Aug. 8, 2024; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly