By Kuo Yong Kooi Malaysiakini Mar 3, 2015

COMMENT If someone handed me a copy of the Quran, I am happy to accept it with no ill will in my heart. I have concluded long ago that all religious texts in this world are guidelines to improve human behaviours.

The unfortunate part is many people misinterpreted religious text all the time. If someone has got it right, then it does not matter what religion you are from, their action shows.

In my opinion, the rules that the fundamentalists Muslims want every Muslim to follow are not that much different from the monastic rules for the Buddhist monks and nuns. The only big difference is their approach.

Buddhists see the rules as a path for their followers to practice if and only if they want to attain Nibanna (enlightenment). The themes that Buddhism carried all through a persons religious life are basically an invitation to explore and the gradual training. It is a personal inward journey. No amount of compulsion can facilitate a personal journey.

If a Buddhist decides to go to the beer festivals and have vice activities, that is his or her Karma. It is as simple as that. That is their business. If you want Nibanna, the monastic codes are much stricter than the rules imposed by the Taliban or IS.

A Buddhist monastic cannot have sex, drugs/intoxicants or entertainment. The Taliban can have up to four wives.

I have tried two years as a monk in 1997/98. I left the monastery and prefer to live a lay life; that is to follow the basic Buddhist rules ala Taliban. No, I did not take four wives, but I am married and live a simple Buddhist Talibanistic lifestyle as a Yoga and Qi Gong teacher.

Familiar rules

Here are the basic five precepts for a general practitioner of the Buddhist faith to follow; I undertake the training not to kill, steal, lie, commit sexual misconduct and not to use intoxicants (drugs or alcohol). Sounds familiar to Christians and Muslims?

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Comment on I would accept a copy of the Quran by lbn