A Look Inside The Besieged Wat Dhammakaya

[webfact]

A Look Inside The Besieged Wat Dhammakaya

By Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer -

 

Phra Dantamano at the Maha Dhammakaya Cetiya on Friday at Wat Dhammakaya.

 

PATHUM THANI — Wat Dhammakaya is arguably the most controversial and largest Buddhist temple in Thailand. Some consider it a cult which has deviated from the core teaching of Buddhism and stresses donations as the path to heaven.

 

Today, the 46-year-old order and its leader, finds itself wanted by the military regime and loathed by much of the domestic media, which has been barred entry to its sprawling complex north of Bangkok.

 

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2016/12/18/look-inside-dhammakayas-besieged-temple/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2016-12-19

[Thaiwrath]

A reporter can take a 3 hour tour, but the powers that be cannot gain access, just about sums it up.

[NongKhaiKid]

A guided tour, was an entry fee required ?

Maybe the junta should offer to pay to allow the DSI and seven companies of police to enter.

[PatOngo]

...........stresses donations as the path to heaven.

 

Nirvana for sale.

[blowin]

The flight of the lemmings springs to mind but that goes for all religions some just happen to be worse than others .

[colinneil]

The reporter was only taken to see the stage managed frugal areas.

If everything is above board as they claim why was he not allowed unlimited access ?

Inside a so-called temple, areas inside locked/guarded gates why?

[ezzra]

Empires has risen and fell in the name of gods, prophets and other deities,

heaven and hell promises have been made  by all those who took religion

and made it  a tool to gain wealth, power and position, and this temple

is no different, it, too, will fall if it will continue the way it dose now.....

[Kasset Tak]

The Dhammakaya cult is like a Buddhist version of Scientology!

 

 

 

[Srikcir]

prosecution or persecution of the temple will, in the words of another page of PR materials given to me by Dantamano, “be the beginning of the destruction of Buddhism in Thailand.”

Whatever .... if the alleged criminal actions of abbot Dhammakaya cannot be distinguished from the teachings and principles of Dhamma Buddhism, karma is broken. Dhamma no longer serves its followers.

The Supreme Sangha Council itself needs to physically eject abbot Dhammakaya from the wat and let karma be restored to the wat and to the Thai people. 

[Emster23]

Looks just like east Aleppo....

[licka]

4 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

A reporter can take a 3 hour tour, but the powers that be cannot gain access, just about sums it up.

A 3 hour tour

Sounds like Gilligans Island, maybe it is 

[Songlaw]

If in this day and age a body still somehow manages to convince himself or herself that there is a heaven (and a hell other than this one), being fleeced for passage would seem to be the logical outcome. Classic case of 'som na na.'

[Cuchulainn]

............ stresses donations as the path to heaven. ................

 

That's it.  Be a complete kunnt and arrsehole all your life, but when your time's up, pay your way through the pearly turnstiles.

[connda]

I'm Buddhist and my teaching come out of the Theravada forest tradition. 

People peddling nirvana for cash are so far off the path that they simply make a mockery of Buddhism.  And the fact that traditional Buddhism has devolved into something that more resembles the worst of Christian tele-evangalism pretty much says it all.  How unfortunate.  Religious pay-for-play where those engaged in the practice become so wealthy and politically connected that they become above-the-law and untouchable. 
That's a sad pronouncement for both the Buddhist religion and Thai society.  But the Dharma becomes corrupted over time.  It's just the way of it.  It's the cyclical nature of things.
Sorry to watch it happen in my life-time, but happy I lived during the last period of the forest monasteries and the last vestiges of the forest masters.  But like so much of the forest here in Thailand, that era is rapidly disappearing and for the most part is gone.  What remains is a Sangha more attached to wealth than they are in finding freedom from the suffering that material possessions bring.  But this too will change.

In the mean time, ain't we got fun as we watch this ongoing spectacle of the absurd. 

 

Edited December 19, 2016 by connda

[Lord Lucan]

This cult have hijacked Buddhism for their own means.

A few years ago before the full theme park had been completed my wife and myself were invited as VIP guests, given a full tour, we were assigned our own photographer and shown every courtesy and a separate eating area for lunch.

An impressive place but very worrying, reminded me of Nureburg before the 2nd War with its long draping banners. We're were directed at the end to the payments office with its full size cutout cardboard figure with its pointing finger.

The disciples we met seemed genuine people if not totally brainwashed.

i said to my wife never again, she still visit every time in Bangkok as she is under its spell.

[Songlaw]

I'm still expecting 'lift-off' at any moment. Alpha Centauri or bust! Freaking space cadets.

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, PatOngo said:

...........stresses donations as the path to heaven.

 

Nirvana for sale.

Nirvana is the here and now. Fill your self up. 

[harrry]

As far as temple architecture is concerned it is outstanding,...different but they said that about the cathedral at Cologne. s far as being a true religious practice I doubt it.

[tartempion]

I have seen it many times landing in Bangkok.
That's the closest I will ever see the place.

[dinsdale]

I was told by a Thai friend the starting price for ascending was 1 million baht. The more you pay the more likely your chance. Fools and their money .....

[dinsdale]

I was told by a Thai friend the starting price for ascending was 1 million baht. The more you pay the more likely your chance. Fools and their money .....

[Johnniey]

3 of the first 5 posters are the usual suspects, jumping on anything Buddhist on this forum, except, ironically on the Buddhism sub-forum. One wonders what their motives are, if they have any, or just pure self-righteous judgement. 

 

[Johnniey]

6 hours ago, connda said:

I'm Buddhist and my teaching come out of the Theravada forest tradition. 

People peddling nirvana for cash are so far off the path that they simply make a mockery of Buddhism.  And the fact that traditional Buddhism has devolved into something that more resembles the worst of Christian tele-evangalism pretty much says it all.  How unfortunate.  Religious pay-for-play where those engaged in the practice become so wealthy and politically connected that they become above-the-law and untouchable. 
That's a sad pronouncement for both the Buddhist religion and Thai society.  But the Dharma becomes corrupted over time.  It's just the way of it.  It's the cyclical nature of things.
Sorry to watch it happen in my life-time, but happy I lived during the last period of the forest monasteries and the last vestiges of the forest masters.  But like so much of the forest here in Thailand, that era is rapidly disappearing and for the most part is gone.  What remains is a Sangha more attached to wealth than they are in finding freedom from the suffering that material possessions bring.  But this too will change.

In the mean time, ain't we got fun as we watch this ongoing spectacle of the absurd. 

 

Although I'm not a Buddhist, I agree with all you say and was fortunate to have spent time at Ajarn Buddadhassa's forest temple in Chaiya in the mid 90's.  

[connda]

On 12/19/2016 at 10:44 AM, Lord Lucan said:

This cult have hijacked Buddhism for their own means.

A few years ago before the full theme park had been completed my wife and myself were invited as VIP guests, given a full tour, we were assigned our own photographer and shown every courtesy and a separate eating area for lunch.

An impressive place but very worrying, reminded me of Nureburg before the 2nd War with its long draping banners. We're were directed at the end to the payments office with its full size cutout cardboard figure with its pointing finger.

The disciples we met seemed genuine people if not totally brainwashed.

i said to my wife never again, she still visit every time in Bangkok as she is under its spell.

 

[BuckBee]

This eyesore needs bulldozing. Religion is for the weak who can't cope with reality or absorb scientific fact .

This temple is nothing more than a massive scam and money laundering ring. You can see how high they are in crime ring by fact police, dsi, army and mighty buck banana man can't touch them by legal means or verbal means . Another festering boil on thailand, no wonder the worlds tourists and investors have slowly moved on ...

[DM07]

Just watch the DMC-channel!
It sends chills down my spine- and not the good ones!


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[WhizBang]

16 hours ago, BuckBee said:

This eyesore needs bulldozing. Religion is for the weak who can't cope with reality or absorb scientific fact .

This temple is nothing more than a massive scam and money laundering ring. You can see how high they are in crime ring by fact police, dsi, army and mighty buck banana man can't touch them by legal means or verbal means . Another festering boil on thailand, no wonder the worlds tourists and investors have slowly moved on ...

 

And yet, this is just the TIP of the iceberg that is corruption in Thailand.
 

[fruitman]

On 19-12-2016 at 4:54 AM, Thaiwrath said:

A reporter can take a 3 hour tour, but the powers that be cannot gain access, just about sums it up.

Names and fingerprints on donation markers on temple ground at Dhammakaya Cetiya ground.

 

Maybe they don't want the taxmen to see this part??