12.7.11

The Sleeping Buddhists

Where is Richard Gere now, and the Dalai Lama? A Nepali Buddhist nun who was gang-raped will be stripped of her religious habit and thrown out of the nunnery. Is it her fault that five men sexually assaulted her in a bus?

Buddhist organisations have said she had lost her religion and in a shocking statement the Nepal Buddhist Federation declared:

“Such a thing never happened in Buddha’s lifetime. So he did not leave instructions about how to deal with it. Buddhists all over the world adhere to what he had laid down: that a person can’t be considered ordained in case of having a physical relationship. It’s applicable to men and women.”

The Buddha chose a certain path – do all Buddhists adhere to it? There is a difference between the utterings and rituals of a given time and what happens later. Not everyone who chooses Buddhism comes from a background similar to the Buddha or follows every idea embedded in the faith. Most people are fascinated by the Buddhist credo mainly because it propagates a free-form kind of belief that is not stringently organised. There is a denial of godliness itself. Has that remained so? No. Not only has there been a denial of what Buddhism stands for, but the Buddha has himself become part of iconography with statues everywhere. Besides, there are the living gods. Therefore, it is obvious that the religion has evolved tangentially into different sects.

We regularly see how religious places abuse people and the abusers are the keepers of the faith. It is a power game and even more disgusting because supposedly hallowed places are misused.

The raped nun did not have a “physical relationship”. Five men forced themselves on her. She is just 21 and has been in the nunnery for ten years. This has been her chosen life. It would do the authorities some good if they realised that, like other faiths, the Buddhist places too have their aberrants who take advantage of the female nuns. Instead of trying to help her heal, they are discarding her for a crime she did not commit.

Has the Dalai Lama formulated a profound tweet on the nun’s misfortune?

Moreover, since she is an ordinary nun and from a tribal community – some more introspection regarding the egalitarian, non-hierarchical nature of the faith - and not a well-known publicly-acclaimed Buddhist, she will have to suffer in silence. Why? Because the Buddha did not “leave instructions” for such an eventuality? Did the Buddha leave instructions on how to glorify Hollywood stars who have ‘embraced’ Buddhism and go around with halos and trip on spirituality during their time out from their Beverly Hills mansions and occasional scandals?

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“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” 
- Gautama Buddha

7 comments:

  1. Pathetic. First she's raped and then they want to rape her again by taking away the familiarity of her surroundings and routine. Hope she can continue to find comfort in her faith wherever she ends up. Bichari :/

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  2. organized religion have always had eternal enmity towards common sense. may be that is why Buddha didn't want his statues raised and temples built. He wanted Sangha (voluntary congregation) for the practice.

    May be this is how it died in India?

    Historic Siddhartha would be revolted by such travesty of humanity.

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  3. FV
    Whatttt? NOooo, just sayy that youuu areee just kiddinggggg???

    By stripping the Buddha Nun off of Buddhism just because the poor girl was raped makes any one puke at the face of Dalai Lama who is hypocritical to any extreme and who has made this religion just a mockery to itself.

    I was seriously considering of converting in to Buddhism but this incident is enough to put me off of this jack ass religion. I am done with it.

    I thought Buddhism is the only sensible religion left at the face of this earth. I guess we can not fall in to the trap of any organized religion. Just believe in God (the supreme) and practice whatever suits your spiritual side.

    fck all these religions which are unable to serve humanity and are hurting all the humans in just injurious ways.

    I found out that the actual starters of all the religions were some genius humans(Prophets) with full of common sense, but, all the organized religions got screwed by their stupid predecessors.

    Prophet Mohd(pbuh), Prophet Buddha, Prophet Maryam and Prophet Jesus Christ all were full of wisdom and they worked for the betterment of humans and now ironically their religions are working to injure the humans.

    circle

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  4. Meriam, Hitesh, Circle:

    Indeed, it is a horrible incident and the silence of the authorities is even more disturbing.

    Organised religion is extremely patriarchal as well as ritualistic, and if the rituals demand blood then so be it seems to be the attitude of the 'believers'.

    The middlemen have different ways of interpreting. I also believe that we do tend to see contemporary Buddhism as some kind of pop spiritualism and do not understand that it can have the failings that other faiths do.

    Anyhow, here is an interesting piece that mentions sexuality in Buddhism:

    http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-169176308.html

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  5. >>> contemporary Buddhism as some kind of pop spiritualism and do not understand that it can have the failings that other faiths do.

    Sure. But, it has seen revival in the west is because it comes into least conflict with modern science (if you can ignore the whole Karma and reincarnation bit). Also, it puts very few demands on the follower in terms of rituals and social restrictions.

    As for the women in Buddhism,

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Buddhism

    According to Peter Harvey "The Buddha's apparent hesitation on this matter is reminiscent of his hesitation on whether to teach at all"

    That is what I remember from reading this story of Kisa Gautami.

    http://www.vloggerheads.com/profiles/blogs/kisa-gautami-and-the-mustard

    We Asians really have a knack for transposing events and personalities across different millenniums.

    I find this attitude of interpreting everything literally reminds me of famous Zen koan where the master is pointing to the moon and disciple keeps looking at the finger.

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  6. FV
    I for myself do not find Bhuddism as some sorts of pop spiritualism. I find it simple, straightforward, logical and more closer to human nature with less hurdles, yet powerfully spritual.

    circle

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hitesh, Circle:

    Most religions become what people make them. Pop spiritualism is with reference to its being made into a cult due to its celeb devotees.

    I agree with the inherent merits, but humaneness does not need a belief system.

    Hitesh, re. the Zen koan, sometimes the finger is more than an indicator and not to be ignored.

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