The Nation Wednesday 25th February, 2015

Dhammakaya is one among many temples giving priority to amassing wealth by encouraging worshippers to donate large sums. Followers are told that, by doing so, they improve their chance of securing a place in Heaven. This is a damaging distortion of the Lord Buddha's teachings.

We are dismayed that the Sangha Supreme Council, the monkhood's governing body, has failed to act on a decision made by the late Supreme Patriarch in 1999 that Phra Dhammachayo be defrocked for embezzlement and distorting Buddhist teachings.

Members of the National Reform Council's committee for religious reform have called for the 1962 Monastic Act to be amended so that it better reflects the Thailand of today. Their push for reform includes proposed changes to the Sangha Supreme Council's structure. However, this has drawn the ire of the Network of Buddhists, a group of monks and lay people who insist that moves to overhaul the Sangha Council would lead to division and severe conflict among the clergy.

Monks practise the dharma as taught by the Buddha in order to seek the enlightenment that brings liberation from the cycle of rebirth and suffering.

However, there are other, more earthly incentives for entering the Thai monkhood. Monasteries offer free food, lodging and a refuge from the daily struggle to m...

Read the full story at The Nation

The rest is here:
Its time to reform Thai Buddhism

The warning came up after Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha has yet to respond to the network's demand that the National Reform Council committee on the protection of Buddhism be abolished.

Led by NRC member Paiboon Nititawan, this committee has shifted the public spotlight to the controversy surrounding Dhammakaya Temple, its abbot Phra Dhammachayo, and the decision of the Sangha Supreme Council (SSC) to let him stay on as a monk.

Phra Dhammachayo was accused of many wrongdoings, including embezzlement of temple properties. Because he returned those properties, the SSC ruled in 2006 that he would not be defrocked.

"Why doesn't the government have a discussion with the NRC chairman over the problems this committee has caused?" Phra Methi Dhammajahn, an assistant abbot of Mahathat Yuwaratrangsarit Temple and a vice rector at Mahachulalongkornra-javidyalaya University, asked yesterday.

He was speaking in his capacity as an adviser to the Association of Academics for Buddhism. Earlier this week, he led his supporters in submitting a petition to Prayut via a government complaint-receiving centre. Phra Methi Dhammajahn felt Paiboon's recent activities constituted intimidation against the SSC.

Meanwhile, high-profile monk Phra Buddha Isara vowed to monitor today's SSC meeting closely in anticipation that the council might do something about Phra Dhammachayo's case.

"I will visit the SSC every day if it does not find Phra Dhammachayo guilty," he said.

Phra Buddha Isara, the abbot of Or Noi Temple, yesterday called on the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate public prosecutors' 2006 decision to drop the embezzlement case against Phra Dhammachayo. The same year, the SSC cited this decision in concluding that Phra Dhammachayo did not need to lose his status as a monk.

"An investigation should be launched to make it clear why the public prosecutors changed their minds," Phra Buddha Isara said.

He said he had heard that the first team of prosecutors handling this case in fact went ahead with the arraignment but the attorney-general at that time intervened, removed the first group and established a new team to handle the case.

See the rest here:
Network of top Buddhists warns of uprising against NRC panel

Now free to buy a diamond-encrusted bass guitar, treat her axolotl to a life of luxury and convert to Buddhism, Olivia Mead says she is happy to be Perth's newest multimillionaire.

The third and youngest daughter of the late mining heir Michael Wright learnt on Thursday she had successfully challenged his will after a WA Supreme Court judge agreed she had not been left enough.

On Friday, clearly weary of intense media attention, she issued a brief statement.

"I am happy with the court's decision, and that I've finally been heard.

"While I understand the public's interest in my case, for now I'd just appreciate some privacy to come to grips with everything."

Ms Mead is the product of Mr Wright's relationship with Elizabeth Anne Mead after he divorced three earlier wives.

Her half-sisters were bequeathed $400 million each, but the 19-year-old was only in line for up to $3 million when she turned 30, and could have even wound up with nothing.

The will was worded so Ms Mead could be deemed an "excluded person" if she, for instance, incurred a drink-driving conviction or took a deep interest in Buddhism or perhaps Islam, Master Craig Sanderson found.

He also found she had received the bare minimum of financial support from Mr Wright during her youth.

And while a wish-list she had to provide of her expected future needs included some extravagant items - including the bass guitar and upkeep for her pet axolotl - she was not "a gold digger" and had just let her imagination run wild the same way most teens would if posed the same question.

Excerpt from:
Soon-to-be-millionaire Mead seeks privacy

In England of the distant past, the word doom was a legal term, referring to a judgment imposing a punishment. Some etymological sources suggest it has common roots with the Sanskrit dharma, a deeply complex word that can refer to customary social duties or divine law, depending upon the religious context.

When Buddhism was brought from India to Japan via China around 1,500 years ago, dharma was translated using the character (h), a word that now means law, but which served as a religious term for much longer. Around the same time Buddhism was being introduced from the Asian mainland, so were Confucian models of law and governance set forth in ritsury (, the ancient Chinese code). The ritsu () were the rules of crime and punishment. Ry (, a character that is now usually pronounced rei) were the rules of government, such as how courtiers had to dress while in mourning for a dead emperor.

The ritsury are long gone and today h is the generic term for law, though it is typically used in combination with ritsu to form hritsu (, statutes), which is a generic term meaning law, but one that also has a more specific meaning. It refers to the statutes passed by the kokkai (, the National Diet), which, under the Constitution, is the sole law-making organ of the state. In reality, however, a lot of laws are drafted not by Diet members but by bureaucrats who tend to delegate to themselves and their ministries the authority to fill in the details with regulations that dont go through the Diet.

The term hrei () is both more technical but also broader than hritsu, encompassing statutes passed by the Diet as well as the vast pantheon of secondary legislations. A related term is hki (), which can be used in a broader sense than hrei (including the rules of local government bodies, for example), but in the field of public law it refers to rules affecting the rights and duties of the people, which, in a democracy, should only be passed by the legislature.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, as of Jan. 1, 2015, Japans national government had a total of 8,079 hrei. These can be listed in a hierarchy with the nations single kenp (, constitution) at the top, followed by 1,933 hritsu.

One of these statues is special, in that it is not called a hritsu; this is the kshitsu tenpan (, Imperial House Law), which sets forth the special rules governing the Imperial family and the now-sensitive subject of succession to the throne.

The kshitsu tenpan was once co-equal to the Constitution and could not be amended by the Diet, hence its different appellation. Article 2 of the current Constitution clearly subverts the Imperial House Law to the Diets legislative power, though the difference in terminology is only apparent in the Japanese version.

Below hritsu there are some 2,079 seirei (, Cabinet orders). Under the constitution the naikaku (, Cabinet) acting as a whole may issue such orders to implement the Constitution or statutes, but may only provide for criminal penalties if authorized by statute. Although the Emperor no longer has the power to issue them, a small number (75) of chokurei (, old Imperial decrees) still remain in force, including one from 1895 declaring central standard time to be the nations official time, (though this is no longer really the case since nations now keep time based on atomic clocks).

Next come 3,648 furei () and shrei (), regulations taking the form of orders issued by the heads of individual sh (, ministries) represented in the Cabinet, or by the prime minister representing the naikakufu (, Cabinet office). There are also a small number of kakurei (, orders issued by the prime minister under the prewar constitutional system), including one issued on July 30, 1912 the day Emperor Meiji died directing how flags should be flown during periods of national mourning.

Finally there are 335 sets of kisoku (), which are rules that are issued by a national government institution that is not headed by a minister. These may include the regulations of parts of the government not represented in the Cabinet, such as the jinjiin (, National Personnel Agency), or detailed regulations created by specific bureaus or agencies of a particular ministry. Some kisoku are special because they are specifically anticipated in the constitution: the rules issued by the Supreme Court governing the details of court procedure and administration, and the rules passed by each of the Diets two chambers to govern their own affairs (though some of these administrative details are actually set forth in a statute, the Diet Act).

See the original post here:
Any attempt to scale Japans mountain of rules is doomed

Many of us get stressed and cant let go of our problems. Buddhism teaches the concept of non-attachment to allow us to move on from whats bothering us. Giving up a few material possessions with intention might jump-start the process.

Photo by Colin Dunn

WikiHow gives some steps on how to learn non-attachment. The first step is small and easy:

The best way to practice this concept is by starting small, even at a minute level. Learn to let go of something that you dont hold a strong bond to first; then snowball from there. If you keep old clothes in your closets that youve never worn due to wrong sizes, or shoes with large holes in them that youll never wear again youll be familiar with clinging to things that dont enhance your life.

Weve explained the value of decluttering each day. When you get rid of that stuff ( whether you donate it to charity or trade it in), do it with a non-attachment mindset. Remember you are in charge of your life and can choose to get rid of things (or feelings) that no longer serve a purpose.

Check out the link for the rest of the steps.

How to Live in a State of Non Attachment [WikiHow]

View post:
Learn Non-Attachment By Getting Rid Of One Small Thing Each Day