Radical monk calls for boycott of the Sangha
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Buddha Isara urges Buddhists to deny alms over decision not to defrock Dhammachayo
OUTSPOKEN Buddhist monk Buddha Isara yesterday called for a boycott of the Sangha Supreme Council following its decision on Friday not to defrock the controversial abbot of the Dhammakaya Temple.
Buddha Isara led a group of some 200 followers to the Pak Nam Phasi Charoen Temple to lodge a complaint. His petition was addressed to Wat Pak Nam abbot Somdej Phra Maha Rajamanglajahn, who heads the monastic committee performing the duties of the Supreme Patriarch.
The outspoken Buddha Isara, who is abbot of Wat Or Noi in Nakhon Pathom, urged the public to boycott the Sangha Supreme Council by refusing to offer its members alms and other donations until it reverses its decision not to defrock Phra Dhammachayo.
“This may help change their behaviour. In fact, it is not a sin to boycott monks. Lord Buddha once taught this as a way to reform wayward monks. If they don’t change their behaviour and if they continue to ignore Lord Buddha’s monastic code, they should be allowed to starve to death,” Buddha Isara said.
The monk said that the monastic council members had apparently ignored Lord Buddha’s monastic code when they made their decision in the Phra Dhammachayo case.
He said that the council also ignored the written judgement by the late Supreme Patriarch in 2006 that stated Dhammachayo’s acts should warrant his expulsion from the monkhood.
The council’s spokesman, Phra Phrom Methi, said on Friday that Dhammachayo seemed to have acted with no ill intent and that the issue was old news, while Thailand was now undergoing a reconciliation process.
Council ‘is a tool for a sect’
“The disciplines of Buddhist monks according to the Tripitaka canon are based on actual intent,” he said.
Buddha Isara said it seemed the council was not working for the benefit of Buddhism and was being used as a tool by a certain sect.
“It’s clear that Buddhism cannot rely on the current Sangha Supreme Council, so there should be a new set of members of replace them,” he said.
Buddha Isara was a leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, which staged more than six months of street protests against the Yingluck Shinawatra government before the military coup last May.
At Wat Pak Nam yesterday, Buddha Isara met with the temple’s deputy abbot Phra Phrom Molee, who received his complaint on behalf of the abbot.
There were dozens of police |and military officers inside the |temple’s compound to keep law and order.
Meanwhile, National Legislative Assembly member Poomsawan Seniwong na Ayutthaya yesterday called on the Sangha Supreme Council to follow the late Supreme Patriarch’s judgement on Phra Dhammachayo.
He urged the National Council for Peace and Order to help reform Thai Buddhism so it better complies with Lord Buddha’s original teachings.
