As Suanie Sees It

Faith is a funny thing. Alas it’s seldom a funny ha-ha but more a peculiarity that makes some of us go, what the… . The stories you’ve heard (and will continue to hear) just seem weirder and out-of-place everyday. This be the time to quote Mark Twain, “truth is stranger than fiction” — words that are often the subject line of mass-forwarded e-mails. When you receive such e-mails, you automatically brace yourself to read extraordinary (true or fake) accounts of… uh, I don’t know… grown elephant steps on boy and he miraculously lives or something along those lines.

I slightly digress, but that was what’s on my mind when I read today’s The Star report on fake monks. Surely you know what I’m talking about. ‘Buddhist monks’ in robes going around town with an alms bowl asking for money donations. In return for your (misguided) generosity, you’d get a threaded bracelet, a bookmark or an amulet. Then you go on your way, gleefully patting yourself on the back for having done a good, karma-redeeming deed.

Dude, you’ve just been conned.

First off, I understand that not everyone knows everything about Buddhism and its followers’ way of life. You were probably an out-of-towner, most likely a tourist from another country, not wanting to offend the sensibilities of local customs. I am like that as well, especially if the place I’m visiting is, for lack of a better word, exotic. My reasoning is more selfish — as someone who partially believes in black magic and the supernatural, I don’t want to slight anyone for fear of having evil charms placed on me. When I was in Bangkok, I was especially aware and mindful of my surroundings. You know, stories…

Or you could be a non-practising Buddhist/ Taoist, probably born into a Buddhist/ Taoist family and your grandparents/ parents offer daily incense to ze gods. You have no understand, knowledge or interest in the religion, but subconsciously you feel somewhat bad because of your upbringing. Maybe something is missing and by doing a small but good deed, Lady Luck might have sex with you. I feel that way sometimes (but not the sex part).

Or a myriad other reasons. I don’t know, maybe it’s just a small amount of money and it doesn’t matter to you in the grand scheme of things. Well, it does. As long as people continue to give money to these fake Buddhist monks, they unwittingly encourage the growth and expansion of the scam. When it comes to charities that you are not sure about, you could always give the excuse that you’d contact the charity directly should you wish to donate, then not feel too bad about it. Religion clouds people’s minds because that’s the nature of religion. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, sometimes it doesn’t matter to me as long as it’s not in my face.

In this case it does matter to me, at least a little. Enough to upset me for a short while and to write this blog post. I don’t like it that something I believe in (philosophically at least) gets twisted like that. When I was old enough to make my own decisions, I voluntarily joined the Batu Pahat Young Buddhist Fellowship and became a rather active member, even holding certain positions in the society. Honestly it was more of a social thing — I participated because I had friends there and it was a great excuse to get out of the house. A big part of my teenage years involved a lot of YBF activities.

Of course it wasn’t all fun and games. We learned the basics of Buddhism, its history, the Buddha’s teachings and so on. I even sat for a a basic exam on Buddhism and I have no idea where the certificate is now. I consider myself lucky to have been surrounded by mentors and peers who are liberal-minded and taught me a lot of things. Imagine if I was in an environment where you have to follow everything they say to the dot and you can’t think or choose for yourself! True that there’s a lot of tolerance in Buddhism, but I know and have heard of people going to the extremes. Different interpretations, personalities and cultures it seems.

That was when I learned that the Buddhist monk’s alms bowl is only meant for food and not money. Back in the days, the Buddha’s disciples would go around town and country and people would give them food. At first they did this three times a day, then the Buddha limited it to two — once in the morning and the second at noon so the people would not be too burdened by the offerings. Even today, Buddhist monks partake in only two meals a day. When I asked my friend-turned-monk Bhante Sumana how he managed it, he said that it was difficult at first because you are so used to having three meals a day. At night if he got hungry, he’d make himself a cup of Milo. Then you gradually adjust yourself to a life of two meals a day and it ceases to be a problem. Dude lost a lot of weight too.

Point One: Genuine Buddhist monks will never ask you for money in lieu of food to be placed in their alms bowl.

I have a vague recollection about monks’ robes. In order not to misinform you who may still be reading this long blog post, I called up Bhante Sumana for reaffirmation. He said that at any one time, the Buddhist monk is allowed two saffron robes and a sarong in his possession. It used to be that the monks would have to make their own robes out of donated cloths, but these days worshippers would just buy ready-made robes. This self-tailoring vs ready-made topic is only cultural and has nil to do with the practise of Buddhism. The market price for each robe is RM 100 - RM 150, depending on the quality of the cloth. Once a year at the end of a retreat session after the rainy season (July - October), a new set of robes will be given to the monk who displayed exceptional qualities during the retreat as a reward. When Bhante Sumana entered monasticism, we presented him with a couple sets of robes as dana.

Point Two: Genuine Buddhist monks will never ask you for money for new robes. If you want them to have new robes, you buy it for them and not give them the money to buy it.

These days (in our country at least), life is a lot easier for monks and nuns. There are numerous temples, monasteries and nunneries with resident monks and nuns. A couple of years after becoming a monk, Bhante Sumana set up his own association above a shop lot near my house in Batu Pahat. He along with his committee members would organise activities — prayer sessions, talks, retreats etc. Maintenance of the place as well as him (monks need to eat too) are via donations from individuals and other associations. It’s doing very well actually, and I attribute it to the fact that Bhante Sumana is liberal-minded and well-liked and his gentle and witty humour often catches people off-guard. Reasonable, moderate and applicable — maybe that’s why my mom prefer his talks over others.

Point Three: Genuine Buddhist monks will not go out in public and ask for donations to maintain their temples, monasteries and such. If you encounter anyone doing this, get the address of the place/ building and call them up and verify the authenticity of the monk. If the story was real, then give them a piece of your mind and tell them that this is not the Buddhist way of doing things.

I suppose I have lots to go on about, but this blog post is a tad too long, even for my liking. Points I missed out are karma-redeeming, no time to visit temples hence the donation to bogus monks, amulets and bookmarks (often with an image of the Buddha or other Bodhisattvas) and threaded bracelet in exchange for money donation etc. Maybe another time.

So THE Reverend passed away, right? Was rather sad and all, but then that’s the cycle of life.

A few people (thanks people) sent me a link to a Buddhist website which is quite informative, got lots of news and articles, all the Buddhism-buddhism stuff. Good on them for propagating the Dharma using the Internet.

But then there was this series of photographs of the Reverend’s funeral, which was supposedly not altered in any way. And one of the focus of the series was ‘balls of light’ surrounding the funeral, particularly at the cremation site. Fuwah, damn miracle all these balls of light, suddenly coming out of nowhere, must be associated with the Reverend ‘cos he was so enlightened and all, will enhance your faith in Buddhism with these miraculous sightings etc.

Some supposedly even saw the Reverend’s spirit being ‘taken to the havens’ by other Bodhisattvas. Their eyesight must have been damn on.

Right, I know it’s a case of wanting to believe what you want to believe. I suppose it doesn’t do any harm, little things like this, as long as you don’t take them too seriously in your path to learning Buddhism. But one thing lah… if the Reverend was still alive, he would have told you to shove it [voluntarily censored by Suanie]. Well maybe in a nicer way.

Back to basics — what is a Buddhist? Someone who take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Senang je aku nak cakap ‘cos in conventional manners, I am the least Buddhist of all Buddhists. Oddly enough, Buddhism saved me (insert teenage wayward sob story here). So I consider myself a Buddhist. Some people won’t because judging by this blog, nay even this very blog entry, I consciously did not observe the Eight Noble Paths (right speech lah, what else).

But I am confident enough to know what to believe and what not to believe. For instance, I don’t really believe that when Gautama Buddha was born, he walked 7 steps, each step blossoming into a full bloom lotus after him. Sure, I studied all that when I was younger, you can’t miss this chapter if you are reading about the Buddha’s life. But it seems that miracles are all it takes to convince the layman that yes, this religion works, that religion works, bla bla. I do believe in miracles, as there are many unexplainable things in this world, but not to the extent of pacifying the layman, to strengthen your faith, etc. Even Jesus got fed up with healing the sick because he knew that it was a cheap way to ask people to believe in you, your teachings. You do get a lot of half-past-six faithfuls everywhere, but who am I to judge, I am probably no better than them in other aspects, so as I was saying…

Buddhists. As a Buddhist (in the Theravada tradition) do not allow these things to influence your faith. Again I would like to quote Venerable Sujiva (whom I quoted in an earlier blog entry) from his book ‘Funny Monk’s Tales’:

So one day I asked the Venerable Dr K Sri Dhammananda what he thought of relic claims. He gave me a distant look and with bulging eyes said, “These are things concerning the devotional aspects of Buddhism. We do not need all these to study and practise the Dhamma.”

That jolted me up a bit. So it’s not so important after all. It’s true, as the Buddha himself said: “He who sees my teachings sees me.” What is important is that we follow the Buddha’s exhortation and practise the Dhamma. So the Venerable Dhammananda’s answer was a good one but I wonder how I can get the message across to those people who still get frenzied over relics. Ah, faith, good faith, you should always come with wisdom, otherwise it can be dangerous.

Change the ‘relics’ to ‘balls of light’ and you get the same context. I recently met up with my friend-turned-Buddhist-monk Bhante Sumana and discussed this with him. Well, more like 5 lines, 3 of which were, “we don’t believe in these things, we dont’ need to believe in these things”, “maybe ‘cos it was going to rain” and “I was there at the funeral, didn’t see no deity!!!”. You get the idea.

But then, I understand that faith works differently for everyone. The Reverend was a great, selfless man, some people may choose to glorify him slightly more than others. Fine. But I just hope that with all his contributions to society at large, all his hard work and efforts in emphasizing the importance of racial harmony, all his publications that stated the same thing over and over again that the Buddha is within you… would be a damn waste to have all that overshadowed by ‘balls of light’.

Om Mani Padme Hung Chant by Universal Wisdom Foundation (’Science & Buddhism’ -1998)

I’ve been so out of touch with what’s happening around the country (that’s what happens when you are cut off from the Internet — I don’t know how I managed to survive years ago), and didn’t know that the Venerable Dr K. Sri Dhammananda Nayaka Maha Thera had sadly passed away :(

The first time I met the Chief Reverend was back in 1996. He had stopped by Batu Pahat, probably at the invitation of the Kg. Merdeka temple, and delivered a talk in English which was translated to Mandarin for there were many non-English speaking people present. He was quite funny — cracked several jokes which was unfortunately lost upon those who couldn’t understand English. Luckily I could, and I thoroughly enjoyed his talk and his light-hearted mannerisms. Quite a nice change from some of the other monks we had listened to.

I didn’t know who he was then, until my seniors informed me that he was THE Chief Reverend for both Malaysia and Singapore. He sure didn’t act like it — you would expect someone of such significance to be serious and uptight and all. Well I was young, and thankfully that view of mine was proven wrong, not just by the Chief Reverend but also by a couple other monks I would later meet and get to know.

A few years later, the Chief Reverend’s pictorial autobiography was published. I bought a copy, and had the good fortune to have the Chief Reverend sign my book when we paid him a visit at the Brickfields temple. In the meantime I had read up about the Chief Reverend. From what I learnt, he was instrumental in preaching religious tolerance and harmony, especially in Malaysia when we faced so much troubles before (and still do, but a slightly different set of troubles now, I think).

The Chief Reverend himself wrote many books; I believe the most popular one is What Buddhists Believe‘. There are a couple of others that I also enjoyed, such as “Why Religious Tolerance?”, “The Buddhist Concept of Heaven and Hell” and “Life in Uncertain, Death is Certain”. You can download his free publications here.

I particularly like his logical approach to certain issues that I seek answers to, and his works were very helpful during the ‘finding-myself’ days. He was one of the reasons why I believe that Buddhism is the one religion I could most understand and relate to. I don’t claim to be a very good Buddhist; really I am far far far from it but imagine — if there wasn’t Buddhism, I could turn out worse?

Sad day for Malaysians and all of humanity indeed.

May the Chief Reverend attain parinirvana. If not this life, then surely the next.

So there was this dude who lived in Nepal/India 2,500 years ago. He was born into a family of great power, wealth, status and respect. Like Britney Spears before she got married, he had it all.

Then year before his 30th birthday, he sneaked out of his palace in search of the Truth to suffering. For 6 years he laboured and tortured his body by not eating, beating himself etc (as was the practise that time that extreme asceticism would lead to the truth). He probably couldn’t take it anymore, drank some milk offered by a cowgirl, sat under a tree and meditated and arrived at Enlightenment.

That is why we have Wesak Day (aka Vesak Day). If I remember correctly, it wasn’t the exact date of the Gautama Buddha’s birth, but it is now celebrated as such, as well as to commemorate Him reaching Enlightenment and His death. You can say that it is also to renew your commitment and vows as a Buddhist.

Last Friday, me and Fireangel went to snoop around the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur. It was established in 1895 as a place of Theravadian worship for Sinhalese from Sri Lanka in Tanah Melayu (now known as Malaysia ) and today you get all sorts of people — black yellow white orange brown all congregated in this place to celebrate Wesak.

It was my first Wesak away from home (and in 5 years). Ever since the management of a small town temple I used to go got their heads all swelled up from pride and feelings of self-importance, I sort of became detached. Plus the Young Buddhist Fellowship gang that I used to hang out with everyday dispersed due to personal commitments. It just isn’t fun singing Buddhist hymns at the top of your lungs with strangers who may think your behaviour way out of line. I don’t know, I’m just saying based on what I’ve heard from very reliable sources…

Anyway we got up bright and early (haha) and made our way to Brickfields. We had to park quite a distance away and got squeezed out of RM5 by those illegal ‘parking people’ who really didn’t help much. That’s daylight robbery for you.

There were lots of people walking up and down the road leading to the temple. There were lots of stalls selling flowers, books, vegetarian fare, ice cream and so on. There was even a makeshift booth for a major bank’s credit card services. There were plenty of beggars by the roadside, some healthy and some severely crippled.

At the Brickfields Maha Vihara Sanchi Gate

We made it to the main gate, also known as the Sanchi Gate. Lots of people. Lots and lots of people. Claustrophobic tendencies setting in. But for someone who generally dislikes people and hates kids, I did pretty well

We walked around and started snapping photos.

The Bodhi Tree

The Bodhi Tree, aka Ficus religiosa is so named because Gautama Buddha achieved Enlightenment meditating under this tree species. Of course it isn’t the exact same one you see in the photo above — apparently the two Bodhi trees in the Maha Vihara were saplings from a 2000 year old Bodhi tree in Sri Lanka. Devotees like to clasp their hands in prayer walking around the tree, maybe because it’s sacred, or they believe the tree would bless them or something, I don’t know. Hopefully it is just a reminder of the Buddha’s enlightenment for them — damn wrong for a Buddhist to be asking for blessing from a tree.

Offerings of flowers, light and incense

Flowers are offered as a reminder of impermanence. That’s one of the most important things the Buddha taught — that is to let go because sooner or later everything would come to an end. By letting go, you are freeing your mind of earthly burdens and worries and thus could see things more clearly. Of course this is not to be a form of escapism from the daily grind, monetary worries and such. I suppose it has more to do with death, the loss of a loved one, etc. The flowers bloom so beautifully today but they will wilt in a short span of time. This is a reminder that things change and you too will die. Something like that. Kind of gloomy isn’t it? Though you can take solace in this verse of a hymn (Life Never Dies) that I loved a lot:

“There is no death” all nature cries.
The rose will reappear.
Its petal will more perfect be.
After the winter drear.

Light represents wisdom, in this case the Buddha’s wisdom. It is also meant to dispel the darkness of ignorance. Reminder: burning a candle and burning a forest (those paper offering stuff) are different things. Buddhism is not Taoism, at least the one I (sort of) practise anyway.

Incense is another important offering for the Buddha’s altar. I can’t really describe its significance all too well, so I’ll just quote from a couple of sources.

From this site,

When incense is lit, it fragrance fills the air. This is like the spreading of the purifying effect of wholesome conduct. So offering incense, a Buddhist not only express his veneration for the Triple Gem but also reminds himself of the practice of Good Conduct.

… and from ‘Good Questions, Good Answers’ by Venerable Dhammika,

Incense: Aromatic incense purifies the atmosphere as well as the mind. Just as its fragrance travels afar, so do good deeds extend to the benefit of all. Burning incense also embodies the transience and dissolution of phenomena.

You don’t see a single incense in the photo above, do you? I suppose they were all being used inside the main shrine, maybe because it is not financially viable to purchase incense in bulk this way, but I can tell you that this deal is rather dangerous. I was very nearly burnt by some lady who had a whole bunch of joss sticks and didn’t see where she was going.

People and other things

One of the two beggars I saw within the temple compounds (the rest were outside). I was observing him for a while; he was sitting by the steps of the main shrine, looking dejected while muttering to himself and praying a little (I think). I had wanted to take a photo of him looking up the steps to the main shrine, but there was stuff blocking my view and too many people were walking around. Also:

1) Other devotees may give me the evil eye for invading the privacy of the beggar.
2) The beggar may just suddenly stand up and hit me with his maggi in cup used as his alms bowl.

This being a holy place, the latter is more likely to happen than the former.

The lady above was making sure that the flames on your RM10 oil lamps do not go out..

I have no idea who the n00bs above are.

We waited 2 hours for an audience with the Chief High Priest of Malaysia and Singapore Venerable Dr K Sri Dhammananda which in the end turned to naught. It was just to see him, really. I mean, what are you going to say to this guy? He has done more for Buddhism than Keanu Reeves in ‘Little Buddha’; written so many books on the logical and practical aspects of Buddhism (What Buddhists Believe, Why Worry etc) and was instrumental in preaching religious tolerance in Malaysia and beyond.

The first time I saw him was in 1996 when he gave a talk at the temple I used to attend. He is 87 years old now, quite frail in health, when we saw him as he was assisted for lunch danna (offering) we were rather shocked by how ill he looked. That’s old age for you (The First Sight). The two previous times when I saw him, he looked so serene, for reasons I can’t explain I felt peaceful just looking at him. Must be some level 25 meditation aftermath going on.

Remind me to expand the wiki stub on the venerable.

Cute kid at the lotus fountain, used as a wishing well by many people.

Devotees offering robes to a resident Sinhalese monk. One of those costs around RM100 - RM120. When our friend Chen Zhong was ordained and became Bhante Sumana, we offered him two of the robes as danna. That’s what he wore the entire year I guess

Why these simplistic robes? Well, Gautama Buddha is said to have worn something like that made of patched pieces of donated cloth ALL HIS LIFE. If members of the Sangha community wear something elaborate and outrageous, that wouldn’t do at all, would it? Though as Buddhism spread throughout the world, the designs and style becomes different due to the climate conditioning of the country. And of course, belonging to different sects would twist the styles a little.

As we leave the temple for lunch, we noticed a bare-footed fake monk asking for donations from one of the stall keepers. Why was he fake? How would we know? Maybe because the fact is that Buddhist monks are not supposed to go around asking people for money, regardless of the different orthodox sects. Traditionally Buddhist monks are only allowed to beg for food. However in Malaysia and most places, Buddhist monks are quite well-taken care of by the level 20 devotees who would cook for them or offer them food twice a day (because they only eat breakfast and lunch, no dinner). So if you see one of those fake monks going around dinner/clubbing places with a begging bowl, please do not contribute to their scam. More importantly, please do not think that this is typical Buddhist monks’ behaviour. They have more integrity than that.

*calms down*

I’ll end this post with another one of my favourite hymns. It was one of the first songs I learnt to play using the guitar (5 basic chords) and never failed to make us sing gaily during our hymns sessions. Times like these I remember Shan Chong. Wesak has never been the same without him.

Wesak Dawn

Wesak dawn has paced in softly
Tip-toed thro’ the moonlit night
Breathed the flowers and incense smoking
Laughed thro’ bars of purple light

Bids you now to waken gently
Lift your troubled eyes of sleep
Tend’ring thoughts of homage holy
cross Samsara’s Ocean deep

To the One who taught the Dhamma
Of the Noble Eightfold Way
To the Buddha, dearest sister
Lift your tender mind today!

Entire Flickr set here.