Buddhism and its corruption

Please note I have denounced religion, politics and science, but still left with Mother Nature as my guiding principle.

This reproduction of my aberration in thinking posted many moons ago on my personal (not public domain) blog asokaplus under www.wordpress.com.

Many thanks to WordPress.

I have to make few comments before interposing another category of Buddhists.

1. I now tend to denounce all religions of war.

Christianity thrived on War.

Their first target was expanding Muslim Empire.

Lead to Bible War.

Buddhists joined in Burma (Myanmar) and lately in Ceylon.

I have no problem with Christian celebrating Christmas but they should reflect over the dinner table with fully dressed turkey, how Americans decimated Apache (including other tribes) in Americas and British the Aborigines in Australia and Belgians in Africa in the name of God.

I believe God is good at forgiving the subjects.

How can a Moral God could forgive war atrocities and peace loving priests walk along with soldiers?

I have not found an answer.

The aggression of religion was with the Rifle and not with the Bible.
Te Bible was used to downplay the atrocities (Belgian King of Leopodville, the villain-one example only).

2. I denounce all forms of politics from democracy to communism to autocracy where only a selected class enjoy the fruits of this planet (depriving all other live forms, including in the oceans) and the rest consume the spoils.

3. I denounce even science where petro-dollar technology contributing to global warming and the sixth mass extinction.

If I have denounce religion, politics and science, one might say, I have exhausted all the earthly resources of mankind.

You are WRONG.

I have "Mother Nature" and “Live and Let Live” principle as the guiding principle.

All living things have the rights of their own existence including plants in the rain forest.

Man can exist on basically 95% non animal products globally.

The critical factor is the 5% of the animal products.

With 9 billion population they will consume all animals and fish on this planet in no time.

Man had always been a hunter and a predator.

In Russia they decimated the Woolly Mammoth in the ancient history.

Ceylonese elephants were near extinction with the previous regime in full gear with the need of Baby Elephants in Religious festivals.

My conviction is that elephants belong to the natural habitat the jungle.

Violating that Rule in the name of Buddhist festivals is WRONG.

Still the Buddhist Monk and the Judge who possessed illegal Baby Elephants are not prosecuted to complete the justice to Mother Elephants.

The category I missed below was the “Enlightened Elephant Buddhists” who made money promoting Drugs.

Elephants enjoyed the Ganja (hashish) Jungles and they resorted to killing them under previous regime (under the protection of politicians).

We lost the last three Saddhantayas in Moneragla.

It was a lady minister's husband (who was looking after the women affairs) did the killing and made bucks in Monaragala.

No justice to Mother Elephants, though.

In a nutshell we have progressed from “Eggo Buddhists” to the “Elephant Buddhists in little over 60 years.

Reading the contents below is not healthy for Ceylonese Buddhists.

In conclusion, the progress and revival of (except for few of our High Priests) Buddhism in Ceylon in the 20^th Century was due to three German Jews who embraced Buddhism during World War II and Helena Blavatsky (Russian but German dissent who discovered Dhamma Pada in a prison) and Colonel Olcott from America who founded the Theosophical Society.

Buddhism and its corruption.

1. Buddhism has been corrupted and hijacked by many.

2. This probably included the modern day writings.

3. Buddhist text are enormous.

4. It is unlikely that one has time and resources to delve deep into its tenets.

5. Biggest division and argument (Vada) are Theravada and Mahayana.

6. There is no centralizing theme to home in.

7. I believe one can extract the core values, key words and concepts if one is not entangled with modern concepts.

8. Best way to master Buddhism is to learn and master Pali (interpretation is very difficult). There are very few Pali scholars left currently. 
 

It has almost become a dead language.

Sinhala has killed Pali in its entirety.

Reviving Pali is of utmost importance.

9. Untangling the tangled is my objective (This was true in Buddhas time too). 
 

Brahmajala Sutta (Bikku Bodhi) is the best if one is to discover the tangle and then to untangle oneself.

10. I feel I am less entangled or confused (even though I have kept my own interpretations based on my big / little ignorance of Pali) now that I have put them into English words.

This is for one who has never known it and wants to have some grip with it. 
 

I hope I have not confused anybody in this endeavour.

Below is how I see Buddhism evolved in this little country over the past 50 to 60 years and how it is getting corrupted by the day.

Unfortunately we now have very few erudite.

This is the Month of Wesak where universal brotherhood is talked about.

This universal friendship should be extended to animals too but I find when I classify according to current philosophical tenet there is some discrepancy and discrimination of animals especially the birds we love to be consumed on a Christmas eve.

There is a perception that Buddhists are classified according to Mahayana and Hinayana.

I believe that this was a very ancient classification and is out of touch with modernity and we need a proper and investigative classification for the modern century when some prophecies are claiming that the end of the world is near as year 2012.

If I do not do this before this May (before end of the World) I feel I am doing some injustice to Ceylonese history in record.

My period of investigation is little over 50 years and I was a little brat barely able to understand the logic’s of modern Buddhism.

According to my classification there are about 10 to 20 varieties of Buddhists in this country.

I will list the first 10 that come to my mind and a good reader may add the last 10 with atuwa-tika.

1. Eggo (eggs and not ego-there is no ego in true Buddhism) Buddhists

This is something as a little brat not even going to nursery school I have heard and seen at first hand.

There was an intense debate over eating eggs before and during 1956 (2550 celebrations ) and the Eggo Buddhists won the day.

Their argument was that we Buddhists can eat eggs as long as we eat the eggs not fertilized by a cock.

This is where cock’s right to sex is violated; not any cock but the bird’s variety.

We are cock sure that every egg we eat is not fertilized before our consumption and we can see it through the shell with penetrative mind cultivated by meditation and some cultured meditative instincts.

This is where cocks rights are violated by default and cocks are not allowed to screw since if they do that we Buddhists won’t be able eat eggs.

This is the cork screw solution we extend to non-Buddhist rearing animals (for our consumption and if we Buddhist are not there to consume the products they lose a livelihood) and birds for food.

The logic of it pops out like a cork screw of a campaign bottle.

With this point of confirmation we Buddhist over the next 50 years evolved the modern Buddhism to even kill fellow beings in the name of a Nation and Nation Building.

2. Then came the Mujja Pama Dharshaya which culminated during the period of Mrs. Kumaranatunge where the highest amount of alcohol was on sale and produced except wine.

This is coming out of the 5 precepts where one takes intoxicating beverages and depends on one’s liver’s powerful enough biochemical mechanisms to detoxify them and as long as one does not show signs of intoxication it is not a bad thing (corollary is little bit is OK).

The rationale here is one must train the liver to identify alcohol early enough ideally during pregnancy and then when the big match (cricket the national game) comes one must train the teenagers to indulge on it. 
 

If the training is done early one can consume alcohol even on the Dalada Perehara (except elephants on 4 legs) and specially on May Day Perehara.

3. The third one is the most powerful economic wise.

Arogyasala Lottery or the Hospital Lottery introduced around 1956 and this has now progressed in 50 years to Lotto Game (Universal National Game of the poor) and extend even up to World Cup and I.P.L Cricket and bidding of players.

4. Then come the Casino. 
The owner can be a Buddhist as long as the players are not Buddhists.

All the above are for the powerful Buddhist in the Colombo 7 and around.

5. Sri-Lankan Ego Buddhists with copyright to Thera-Vada.
Now that the sole authority (copyright) on Buddhism is on Sinhalayas and there is a category of Buddhists who protect the copyright of Buddhism (without practicing precepts and principles) and Theravada, come what it may and promote practises exclusively mentioned below and resistant to spread of Buddhism to other nations and countries and monopolizes the Theravada (spreading Vada or argument for this monopoly for commercial consumption).

The rest of the five are for the followers.

6. Bodhi Puja Variety and is the most popular one.
This is the category who get round the Bodhi or the sacred pipal tree (not papal or pupal or phallus) chanting and pouring milk on it roots (which leads to rotting of the aeriel roots and the tree prefers dry or arid soil with roots growing very deep in search of underground water).
This chanting is done without understanding the difference of water and milk to a living tree.

7. The Chicken Buddhists
The next variety is the most common.

If you ask them do you eat meat. They say no, no and not for beef but if you prompt and what about fish and chicken, they come out with the circular theory and logic that broilers live for 42 days and if it was killed on the 41st day and we actually contribute to its well being and it’s misery terminated and helps them to evolve into better life next time (one day earlier) by making a hungry human being happy at meal time.

This was the best philosophical tenet that evolved from Eggo-Buddhists to modern Tech and Computer Buddhists.

The answer for fish is fodder for another fish in the food chain and Man is the last in that chain because we are terrestrial and the fish on a muddy pool is saved from cranes and they have no business to be on our soil or terrestrial footing anyway.

8. The next is the Confused Buddhist like me where part of me is ancient Buddhist thinking and the other part is modern but with age catching up with my intellectual interpretations, I am becoming more and more of an ancient Buddhist good for an ornamented coffin, in few years time.

The last two if I try to explain fully I will be expelled from this blessed country like the Buddhist monk who wrote poems instead of Gatha in ancient times, the Vidhagama Rahula Thera who ended up as a saint in Mumbai (Goa).

9. Political Buddhists in the Parliament

10. National Buddhists in the Army

11. International Buddhists

12. and above are the emerging Buddhists from ashes (of ruined practises) of Phoenix, some of whom are already in Parliament and devising various means to make Buddhism more and more difficult to understand and is good only for foreigners (International Buddhism but not for simple practice-practicing Buddhists) with various cults.