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PussyLover 69
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Report from Bangkok Post dated Wednesday 28 June 2006 :-
The Sangha and sex scandals : Something is seriously wrong with the administration of Thailand's Buddhist monastic council
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On the morning of June 22, 2006, the people of Thailand woke up to shocking headlines in the tabloid newspapers. A well-known Phra Khru abbot from the province of Phatthalung had been caught on film engaging in illicit sexual acts. In several of the more than 60 photographs, his partner appeared to be a young girl, probably under age, while the abbot himself is in his late 60s or early 70s. Even more horrifying was the image of the monk having sexual intercourse with a dog.
The photos had allegedly been taken in secret by laymen living near the temple who were fed up with the abbot's behaviour and wanted to reveal his actions to the public. They took the evidence to his senior monks and to the police, but by the time the police arrived, the abbot had fled. He is still at large.
Sex scandals involving monks are nothing new in Thailand and in most Theravada Buddhist countries. Each year newspapers in Thailand publish stories of monks caught red-handed in sexual activity, most of which are reported by concerned lay people.
However, this recent news is the first published report of bestiality among the Buddhist clergy in Thailand. It is the worst form of sexual scandal to shake the faith of Buddhists in Thailand.
Most of the scandals are not related to newly-ordained junior members of the Sangha; instead, the perpetrators tend to be monks of high ranking and prestige, most commonly temple abbots.
It is time that Buddhists should ask themselves: what is the matter with Thai Buddhism that high-ranking monks should commit such horrible, perverse offences? Does the immorality come from within the system of the Buddhist monastic code, or the Vinaya? Or, does the root of the problem lie within the administration of the Sangha or monastic council?
To understand this, one needs some basic knowledge of the Buddhist monastic code. Historically, it is one of the oldest systems of monasticism ever known to the world as created by the Lord Buddha. This watertight system, with its code of well-spelled out rules and practices, governs all aspects of the lives of monks and nuns. Under this model, the Sangha is a family composed of monks and nuns who act as brothers and sisters; members of the community are to honour each other according to their seniority of ordination. Teachers and preceptors serve as fathers or mothers to their students. Each member of the Sangha is bound to their commitment of training and education, and each monitors one another's health, education and spiritual growth.
Nevertheless, the system takes for granted that no member of the Sangha is perfect, both in terms of one's knowledge of Buddhism and moral conduct. For this reason, each monk and nun is obliged to openly receive advice and criticism, and to support the advancement of others in spiritual training and education.
In Thailand, corruption of this system occurs at various levels. The delicate relationship among members of the Buddhist monastic community has long been broken by the establishment of a feudal hierarchy.
Under the Ecclesiastical Act of 2505 BE (AD 1962), the abbot of a monastery serves as an officer of the state. He is the authority for decision-making in his administration, and the position is life-long. Unlike the system of ecclesiastical control of the Catholic Church, abbots in Thai Buddhism have no rotation of power. In practice, abbots in Thailand are like kings of their temples.
One clear impact of the Ecclesiastical Act is the erosion of community in Buddhist monasticism. The word ''sangha'', which means ''community'' in Pali and Sanskrit, currently means ''a monk'' in the Thai language.
The inherent sense of brotherhood and family within the Sangha has been sadly lost. At present, a Buddhist monastery in Thailand is no longer a community whose members are bound to each other for the common good; a temple is now populated with individuals who share a common residence as sanctioned and regulated by the abbot.
Worse is the imposed feudal system of promotion, which has promoted some undeserving monks to the rank of a Chao Khun (the Right Venerable, a rank requiring royal appointment).
This corruption has serious consequences. When the abbot or senior monk in a monastery is promoted within the ecclesiastical hierarchy, he becomes a special monk, like a noble, exempt from the rules and regulations of the monastic code, and is therefore immune to criticism from his junior fellows.
The healthy relationship based on reciprocity between senior and junior members of the Sangha has been eclipsed by the law, and the communications in the Thai Sangha have been reduced to a one-way direction, from the top on downward.
Moreover, the Tripitaka, (the main canonical literature of Buddhism) is not included in any of the nine levels of Pali studies in Thailand. This makes it almost impossible for Thai monks to realise the true message of the teaching of the Lord Buddha for themselves; instead, they receive a second-hand version, written in Sri Lanka over a thousand years after the Lord Buddha.
Bad news about the sex scandals is just the tip of a massive, looming iceberg. Monastic communities are plagued with sexual misconduct and bestiality, and the system requires urgent reform. If undeserving and questionable individuals continue to be promoted within the Sangha, then abuse of power is inevitable.
The current system of promotion and corruption is not what the Lord Buddha would have intended, nor was it how he designed the sacred Sangha.
Mettanando Bhikkhu is a Thai Buddhist monk and a former physician. He is special adviser on Buddhist affairs to the secretary-general of the World Conference of Religions for Peace.
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Tyfon
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All organized religion is inherently corrupt, being based up the authority claimed by individuals from, in one form or other, an imaginary friend.
It is inevitable that fallible individuals attempting to lord-it over the rest of society - from the heady-heights of a house of cards built on pretend foundations - eventually will be caught-out in their bigotry; be they bishops buggering choirboys, rabbis mutilating infants or monks doing it 'doggy-style'.
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ringthebells
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pix that are not blocked??
rtb.
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jack attack
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It figures RTB is looking for the fotos!!! You are a dog!!!
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issanking
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i got sent the pics, the dog seems quite aroused, and in all positions, the best dog on back and legs in the air,
was it ST or Lt,
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