When teachings of the faith become skewed

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is facing a difficult task in trying to bring one of the country’s most powerful Buddhist monks to court for allegedly colluding in money laundering and receiving stolen wealth. The agency on Tuesday managed to secure an arrest warrant from the Criminal Court for Dhammakaya Temple abbot Phra Dhammachayo after he failed three times to appear in person before DSI investigators.

The controversial temple’s public-relations office on Saturday announced at a press conference that the abbot was too ill to leave the premises. Monks of the Dhammakaya sect and temple officials want the DSI to question the monk there. The abbot’s aides have meanwhile threatened to take legal action against the DSI for what they describe as unfair treatment.

The charges surrounding Dhammachayo are related to a case against a prominent follower of the temple, Supachai Srisupa-aksorn, who was sentenced by the Criminal Court in March to 16 years in jail for embezzlement. While serving as chairman of Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative, Supachai siphoned off billions of baht, and much of the money was donated to Dhammakaya.

Dhammakaya, based at a massive complex in Pathum Thani, is one of the wealthiest and most powerful sects in the country. It has a large network involving hundreds of monasteries and several thousand followers across Thailand.

Due to the scale of Dhammakaya’s following and influence, the authorities are finding it much harder to deal with this temple and its abbot than taking action against any other senior monk. The abbot of a temple in northeastern Amnat Charoen province was arrested recently amid little resistance after being found to have used methamphetamines. Junior monks in the temple were arrested on the same charge.

The opinion is widespread that the ongoing legal trouble facing Dhammakaya and its abbot stems directly from its habit of encouraging the faithful to donate as much as they can to the temple in order to ensure their prosperity in the next life. Supachai must have accepted this “guarantee” wholeheartedly, since he donated a vast sum. Unfortunately for him and his victims, the donations came from other people’s pockets and not just his.

Modern-day Christians shake their heads in dismay at revelations of the medieval popes and bishops exchanging “dispensations” for cash. The more the faithful gave, so the promise went, the quicker they would get to Heaven and the nearer they would sit to God’s throne. In terms of Buddhist tradition, quite apart from the absurd notion of being able to “buy” a better reincarnation, making merit by donating huge sums of money contradicts the lesson of the Middle Path. The Lord Buddha cautioned against extremes and excesses. Moderation alone leads to happiness and enlightenment, he advised. How can a modern-day Buddhist reconcile that with giving up the bulk of his possessions to a temple, let alone stealing in order to give more?

The Department of Religious Affairs should ensure that the tenets of the faith are taught in strict adherence to the original intent. Preachers and temples should be prohibited from offering interpretations that run counter to the spirit of accepted beliefs, particularly if they are deriving benefit, such as in the form of donations. And Buddhist laymen shouldn’t be accepting teachings by any monk or monastery that vary from the Buddha’s advocacy of the Middle Path.

Knowledgeable Buddhists would never consider making extravagant donations to temples in the hope of buying their way into Heaven. Common sense alone should be enough to tell us that no priest or church or monastery in this world is so close to divinity that happiness or salvation can be guaranteed in exchange for material goods.