Govt working with all sides to promote Buddhism

 

 

BANGKOK, 29th January 2018 (NNT) – The Thai government is working with allies in all sectors to perpetuate Buddhist teachings in Thailand. 

Giving his lecture before a group of Buddhist preceptors at Sam Phraya Worawiharn Temple, Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, Minister attached to the Prime Minister Office, said the government has been collaborating with all related agencies to push for the reform of Buddhism, while supporting Buddhist principles and religious activities in Thailand. 

Suwaphan said the promotion of Buddhism and related undertakings are far more difficult than administrative tasks due to the fact that the success is rather subjective and intangible. Unlike administrative reform, the reform of Buddhism doesn’t have an indicator or a scale to measure its success. 

Like other problems, he said religious conflicts need constructive solutions that are based on cooperation and understanding.

 

-- nnt 2018-01-29

Supporting of Buddhism is absolutely nothing wrong. First, though, a control must be made to take away the many people that enlist in temples as monks just to hide from their past.

Yellowish/orange Buddhism (Dhammayuttika Nikaya), it probably goes without saying.

 

 

30 minutes ago, Get Real said:

Supporting of Buddhism is absolutely nothing wrong. First, though, a control must be made to take away the many people that enlist in temples as monks just to hide from their past.

Sadly, that is just so true.

Being a forgiving religion/culture it does encourage wrong-doers/criminals to try and hide behind a religion in an attempt to throw others off their scent and also in order to re-invent themselves.

Edited January 29, 20188 yr by bluesofa
misprit

Karl Marx had it right..."opium of the people".

4 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Karl Marx had it right..."opium of the people".

Yeah. Mind you, you'd get fined for smoking it here...

Promoting buddhism to foreigners means warning us not to buy images of buddha on great big billboards near the airport.
Well, stop selling them to us!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

unfortunately in Thailand religion is a total joke and involves just as much corruption as the govt itself, if money is involved no one can be trusted as has been shown in recent years with all the crap happening inside the temples. The monks do not follow their teachings at the best of times, it has become a total sham over the years and the good ones are becoming far and few between. Then you have the thais themselves, most have no idea what it means to be buddhist and they do not follow their teachings, its whatever suits them at the time that is important, screw their fellow thai

Will they promote the Wat Dhammakaya model?

19 minutes ago, seajae said:

unfortunately in Thailand religion is a total joke and involves just as much corruption as the govt itself, if money is involved no one can be trusted as has been shown in recent years with all the crap happening inside the temples. The monks do not follow their teachings at the best of times, it has become a total sham over the years and the good ones are becoming far and few between. Then you have the thais themselves, most have no idea what it means to be buddhist and they do not follow their teachings, its whatever suits them at the time that is important, screw their fellow thai

So True !

thailands Buddhism/Superstitionism...

3 hours ago, Get Real said:

Supporting of Buddhism is absolutely nothing wrong.

Unless a government does it which is supposed to represent the people of who are not all buddhists.

 

Keep promoting buddhism and risk having conflicts like in the most southern provinces.

 

Maybe the government should stay out of religious matters (which is hard given the consitution clearly preferring buddhism).

Edited January 29, 20188 yr by Bob12345

I can't imagine that becoming a monk needs much promotion. Just learn to say a few words that no one understands, have a shave, don some robes and it's the good life from there on in. No work, nice fancy phones, money and what ever else the people decide to give. And you don't actually have to give up all the things that you say you will, drugs, alcohol, sex etc. 

Edited January 29, 20188 yr by ZeVonderBearz

Is Buddhism the official state religion of Thailand? I get conflicting results on google (no surprise there....). If it is I suppose promoting Buddhism might be okay... but IMO not so wise. How about promoting Islam, Hinduism, etc etc as many Thai citizens have those faiths? Seems they already get the short end of the stick, having to support various Buddhist practices, temples etc they don't believe in

Thai Buddhism and Thai democracy. What's next- a Thai math reform and 1+1 = 3?

6 hours ago, webfact said:

the promotion of Buddhism and related undertakings are far more difficult than administrative tasks due to the fact that the success is rather subjective and intangible.

As the Thai Buddhist government has experienced in the southern provinces where 95% of the population is Muslim. Yet it cannot understand why there has been a decades Muslim insurgency in the south.

I think the Gov should promote tolerance and harmony between all religions in Thailand as not all Thai are Buddhists. ?

6 hours ago, Emster23 said:

Is Buddhism the official state religion of Thailand? I get conflicting results on google (no surprise there....). If it is I suppose promoting Buddhism might be okay... but IMO not so wise. How about promoting Islam, Hinduism, etc etc as many Thai citizens have those faiths? Seems they already get the short end of the stick, having to support various Buddhist practices, temples etc they don't believe in

I think there an attempt by the Buddhist hierarchy to make Buddhism the state religion,  presumably to give them more power but I don't think it has happened so far.

5 minutes ago, kimamey said:

I think there an attempt by the Buddhist hierarchy to make Buddhism the state religion,  presumably to give them more power but I don't think it has happened so far.

A lot of pressure was brought on the NCPO-appointed Constitutional Draft Committee in 2016 to declare in the draft that Buddhism is the state religion. The CDC ultimately rejected the demand. The rejection was consistent since 1997 wherein Thai constitutions have always mentioned the state’s duty to protect and promote Buddhism and other religions.

 

But the manner in which Buddhism has been incorporated into every day Thai lives within society, government funding and education system Thailand is a de facto Buddhist state.

http://www.newmandala.org/buddhist-politics-and-thailands-dangerous-path/

 

9 hours ago, seajae said:

unfortunately in Thailand religion is a total joke and involves just as much corruption as the govt itself, if money is involved no one can be trusted as has been shown in recent years with all the crap happening inside the temples. The monks do not follow their teachings at the best of times, it has become a total sham over the years and the good ones are becoming far and few between. Then you have the thais themselves, most have no idea what it means to be buddhist and they do not follow their teachings, its whatever suits them at the time that is important, screw their fellow thai

Well said....I have heard the monks being referred to as the "Orange Mafia"...and the giving of money both small and large amounts to the temples as the "stupid tax"...and those two references I have heard from both Thais and Foreigners..I kidd you not..!!

12 hours ago, webfact said:

Govt working with all sides to promote Buddhism

Every big promotion needs a mascot. I know just the guy.

 

The B word is that a new word for criminals, because 99% of them are just that

The Buddhist clergy here need to get a grip on things here...much corruption and decadence has taken hold and they risk trivializing the faith for the locals as they become more cynical towards the monastic collective over a constant stream of misdeeds exposed in the media. To me, seems like it's only the old folks that really believe these days and when they are gone.....well, who knows. It is definitely in crisis but I don't think the old abbots and bigwig monks realise it. 

Edited January 29, 20188 yr by Sir Dude

5 hours ago, KIWIBATCH said:

Well said....I have heard the monks being referred to as the "Orange Mafia"...and the giving of money both small and large amounts to the temples as the "stupid tax"...and those two references I have heard from both Thais and Foreigners..I kidd you not..!!

Orange is BOTH red and yellow, they satisfy both sides of Thai politics.