Thai Buddhism today

[frequent]

I recall vividly the comments a Thai who had lived in the West for some time but who returned recently to live in Thailand: “if you think Catholic priests are bad, they are nothing compared to Thai monks”. I’m always intrigued by those who assert that Buddhism is somehow superior to Christianity. They assert (wrongly) that Buddhism does not have a sense of guilt (I have a Thai friend who constantly moans about how guilty he is feeling about something or other) and has no hang-ups about same-sex activity (wrong; the Dalai Lama has condemned it). In any case, no mainstream religion supports promiscuous sex, or sex with prostitutes, which are largely the preoccupations of this Forum. For those of us with some knowledge of late medieval Christianity, Thai Buddhist monks selling “lucky” lottery numbers, or the dancers at the Erewan Shrine performing for good luck, resemble European monks selling Indulgences. Spirit houses are everywhere, but represent nothing in the Buddhist tradition whatsoever – the sort of rank superstition that permeated Christianity as practised by the European peasantry

So it wasn’t any great surprise to me to see naughty monks exposed in the press recently, nor to read an opinion piece in Khaosod English on the corruption and excesses of Thai Buddhism. The story about the naughty monk who fled to Germany and then claimed political asylum is pure joy on so many levels

Over to the dewy-eyed brigade

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