{"id":226809,"date":"2022-04-28T14:56:21","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T09:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=226809"},"modified":"2022-04-28T14:56:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T09:26:21","slug":"shaming-buddha-his-teachings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaming Buddha & His Teachings"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Asoka Seneviratne<\/a> –<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Asoka Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

I was watching a group of Buddhist monks headed by a venerable Sobitha coming over the meet Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> yesterday, being driven in super luxury sedans. It is a common site to see many Buddhist monks been chauffer driven around in luxury Mercedes Benzes, becoming power brokers. A thug wearing a saffron robe, who saw seeds of ethnic hatred named Gnanasara<\/a><\/span> travels around in luxury to spread his word of hate, amply supported by the nation\u2019s president. Worse, the idiotic president we are cursed with appoints him to draft \u201cJust Laws\u201d for the nation! His biggest qualification; driving a wedge between ethnic sections and preaching hate!<\/p>\n

And again, it has now become a common site to see Buddhist monks resorting to the worst and obscene lay words in public. Some of the words they use are pure filth.<\/p>\n

One may ask \u201cwhat is wrong with Buddhist monks travelling in luxury and getting into politics? And here is why.<\/p>\n

Some 2600 years ago, Lord Buddha\u2019s mission was to seek the ultimate truth about life and our existence on earth. He was seeking answers why people suffer, get sick and die. Is there a common denominator for suffering? And upon attaining Buddhahood and being the one with supreme awareness, he preached that the reason for suffering was \u201cThanha\u201d or \u201cDesire\u201d. If one is to eliminate suffering, one has to eliminate desire, he preached. Then he went onto logically explain karma, the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Such preachings are what we commonly call Buddha Dharma, which was actually written onto Ola leaves in mid first century in none other than in Sri Lanka. Travelling through time from the 6th<\/sup> century till Buddhism was written, the story of Buddha and his teachings got somewhat distorted and the belief in venerating gods and praying for their divine intervention got mixed up into Buddha\u2019s teachings. Buddha preached that one\u2019s salvation was purely up to that person and no unseen powers could help.<\/p>\n

So if eliminating desire is the essence of Buddhism, how can we explain the luxury and power seeking life of some of our monks who after all are supposed to be the ambassadors of Buddhism? For upholding these highest Buddhist ideals and doing the noble work of spreading Buddha\u2019s word, we venerate them, offer them food, lodging, money etc. Monks\u2019 role is undisputed, which is to instill moral values along what Buddha\u2019s teachings such as not to kill, steal, indulge, and lie and to avoid intoxicating material. He went to outline a set of moral codes for the monks.<\/p>\n

No matter what religion, a society needs a moral compass, or we can easily drag ourselves into the animal world.<\/p>\n

The respects people extend o monks are directly related to their moral conduct in keeping with Buddha\u2019s teachings.<\/p>\n

Cunning and power hungry politicians often resort to hoodwinking the public using Buddhist monks and temples. They understand that the mere presence of being with a monk or in a temple can win millions of hearts and thereby votes, just like some politicians align with ethnic divisions to win votes. Remember a guy named Gotabaya playing into Sinhala Buddhist sentiments of fear and won 6.9 million votes?<\/p>\n

Just a few days ago, Sajith Premadasa visited the Kandy Temple of the Tooth to obtain blessings and guidance before embarking the long protest walk to Colombo. I remember the famous Gangaramaya temple and the chief monk being a top power broker during his father\u2019s time. Rajapaksa family frequently visited temples and offered the super-size Pooja wattiyas and gifts, all paid for with people\u2019s money. JRJ, Ranil, MR and many top leaders used the Buddhist temple to fool the public by depicting themselves as \u201cgood Buddhists\u201d while, among other things plundering our nation and driving our nation to poverty.<\/p>\n

Even the shameless power hungry and naked SLPP elopees, Wimal and Gammanpila visited a high profile Buddhist monk recently. Were they not part and parcel of bringing Rajapakshas to power and even adopting the dangerous 20th<\/sup> Amendment? Did they not jump because the SLPP and Rajapaksas were a sinking ship, nothing else?<\/p>\n

So as a nation, aren\u2019t we culpable in being fooled by 95% of the political leaders and a number of Buddhist monks? Simply put, in the modern world, Buddhist monks have absolutely no business engaging in politics let alone seeking public office. They use the venerated saffron robe to seek power while benefitting from an otherwise idling life getting freebees. Yes, they are most welcome to seek power and engage in politics. But first get out that saffron robe, earn a living, and then do whatever the heck they want, politics included.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1814,"featured_media":226810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nShaming Buddha & His Teachings - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shaming Buddha & His Teachings - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-28T09:26:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mahinda-Rajapakasa-and-Gnasara.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"302\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Asoka Seneviratne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Asoka Seneviratne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/\",\"name\":\"Shaming Buddha & His Teachings - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mahinda-Rajapakasa-and-Gnasara.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-28T09:26:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/462fe7884c108b4e9cd112c6d8f360f3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mahinda-Rajapakasa-and-Gnasara.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mahinda-Rajapakasa-and-Gnasara.jpeg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":302},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Shaming Buddha & His Teachings\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/462fe7884c108b4e9cd112c6d8f360f3\",\"name\":\"Asoka Seneviratne\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/48fb174d2c67618be0f29ef294b47e48438d675aad6e04d7bd3c757ea0b14843?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/48fb174d2c67618be0f29ef294b47e48438d675aad6e04d7bd3c757ea0b14843?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Asoka Seneviratne\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/asokaseusa\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Shaming Buddha & His Teachings - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shaming Buddha & His Teachings - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2022-04-28T09:26:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":302,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mahinda-Rajapakasa-and-Gnasara.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Asoka Seneviratne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Asoka Seneviratne","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/","name":"Shaming Buddha & His Teachings - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mahinda-Rajapakasa-and-Gnasara.jpeg","datePublished":"2022-04-28T09:26:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/462fe7884c108b4e9cd112c6d8f360f3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mahinda-Rajapakasa-and-Gnasara.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mahinda-Rajapakasa-and-Gnasara.jpeg","width":600,"height":302},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/shaming-buddha-his-teachings\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Shaming Buddha & His Teachings"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/462fe7884c108b4e9cd112c6d8f360f3","name":"Asoka Seneviratne","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/48fb174d2c67618be0f29ef294b47e48438d675aad6e04d7bd3c757ea0b14843?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/48fb174d2c67618be0f29ef294b47e48438d675aad6e04d7bd3c757ea0b14843?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Asoka Seneviratne"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/asokaseusa\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mahinda-Rajapakasa-and-Gnasara.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1814"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226811,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226809\/revisions\/226811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}