Tales of a Buddhist monk in America:

Venerable Lee’s predicament

Ven Dr. Walpola Piyananda Thera

TALES OF A BUDDHIST MONK: One sunny morning I got up earlier than usual and checked my e-mail. To my surprise, there was an ugly message that undermined the reputation of Venerable Lee, a monk who had lived at my temple when he first arrived from Vietnam.

He was humble, innocent, energetic and virtuous. He was excited about his arrival in the US and was eager to start his own temple.

Within about six months after his arrival he gained enough support from the members of his community to be able to establish his own temple in central California. He appointed me as an Advisor, and we kept in close contact.

I knew his congregation quite well since I had participated in many of his religious ceremonies. In fact, I was proud of what he had achieved in the two years since he opened his temple.

The contents of the e-mail, which was from Venerable Lee’s Board Secretary, puzzled me.

It said, “Vietnamese monks are vegetarians. Therefore, no fish or meat is brought to the temple. We found chicken fried rice in the refrigerator. In addition, a bottle of wine was on his nightstand. We must remove this type of monk from our temple. There will be a meeting on June 05, 2005 at 3.00 p.m. As Advisor, your presence is of utmost importance.”

I telephoned Venerable Lee at once, and he immediately came to Los Angeles to see me.

“Is there any truth in what your Board Secretary wrote in the e-mail?” I asked.

“Bhante, it’s a complete misunderstanding. A group of Thai devotees brought dana when they visited my temple for the first time.

They were unaware of our vegetarian tradition, and brought food that had meat in it. I had my lunch, avoiding the dishes that contained any meat, and went to my room after chanting for the Thai people. Afterwards, they had their lunch, and then put the leftovers in the refrigerator,” he sadly replied.

“Honestly, I didn’t even notice the food was in there. In the evening Nett, a daily visitor to the temple, saw the leftover food, and without even asking me about it, went home and told his wife about it - who told everyone else.”

“Then, a few days later a bottle of apple cider was presented to me by an American friend. It was the kind with bubbles in it and the bottle looks just like a wine bottle. After counselling the American, he left, and I took the bottle to my room.

I had a glass before I went to bed, and left the bottle on my bedside table. Duc, who helps me clean up around the temple, saw the cider bottle, and immediately started spreading the rumour that I am an alcoholic.”

“You won’t believe this; one morning I went to the neighbourhood convenience store to purchase a gallon of milk, and the rumour that I buy my own liquor spread like wild fire. I am fed up with all of this. I just want to disrobe and disappear,” he said in utter frustration.

I listened to Venerable Lee patiently and completely understood his unhappy situation; in my many years in the Buddhist clergy I have seen countless examples of such misunderstandings concerning monks by lay people.

“Lee, I know you are a virtuous monk. You have been wrongly accused without the benefit of a hearing. I advise you to please be patient because the truth, like oil, will always rise to the top of the water.

As you know, even the Buddha had to face this type of accusation, and he was the Buddha! Perhaps you know the story of Sundari, but I want to tell it as a reminder to both of us, because what has happened to you could happen to any good monk.

“Sundari, an unfortunate prostitute, was killed by a group whose aim was to discredit the Buddha. Her body was hidden in the grove where Buddha and his retinue of monks were staying. When her body was discovered the townspeople accused the Buddha of her murder. They made his stay in their district very uncomfortable.

“Venerable Ananda suggested, ‘Lord, we should go to another city.’

“Ananda, if we get the same treatment in the next city, what will we do then?’ asked the Buddha.

“We can move on to another city,’ replied Venerable Ananda.

“Ananda, an elephant trained to fight in a war will never retreat even though arrows come at him from all directions. We monks should be like such an elephant and go forth with our mission, unconcerned.”

Venerable Lee seemed to relax a bit, having heard this example from the Buddha’s time.

Noticing that my talk seemed to comfort him, I continued.

“Let me tell you another story about human nature from the time of the Buddha, Venerable Lee.”

“One day Atula, a lay disciple, went with his followers to hear Venerable Revata deliver a Dhamma talk. He did not know that being a solitary recluse Venerable Revata would not say anything.

Atula then went to Venerable Sariputta who expounded the Dhamma at great length. Atula felt it was much too long to comprehend. Then he went to Venerable Ananda who explained the essence of the Dhamma in a nutshell. Atula, however, was disappointed because he felt the explanation was too short.

Finally, in frustration, Atula went to the Buddha and complained, ‘Lord, I went to three venerables to try to understand the Dhamma. One was silent, one gave a very lengthy discourse, and the last one said only a few words to explain your teaching. How am I to understand?

“The Buddha replied, ‘There is an ancient saying, Atula: They blame you for being silent, they blame you when you talk too much and when you talk too little. Whatever you do, they blame you.

This seemed to console Venerable Lee. “Furthermore, the Buddha said, ‘Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm, even so, the wise are not affected by praise or blame. This reminds me of another story from the Zen tradition that also fits your present predicament.

“There was a Zen master who was virtuous, a highly respected monk. The beautiful daughter of a merchant who lived nearly was discovered to be with child and her parents, understandably upset, tried to find out who the father of the child was. The girl would not say. Finally after much harassment she named the monk.

“The angry parents went to the monk. ‘Is that so?’ was all he would say. Months later, when the baby was born, the girl’s parents took the baby to the monk, handed it to him, and told him to take care of it since he was the father.

The monk calmly accepted the baby in his arms, and replied, ‘Is that so?’ From then on he took on the responsibility of caring for the baby. He had lost his good reputation, but this did not matter to the Zen master.

“A year later the young girl could no longer bear her guilt for lying about the virtuous monk, so she told her parents the truth; the father of the baby was a young man working at the nearby fish market.

The parents immediately went to the monk and begged his forgiveness. They asked for the baby and the monk handed over the baby saying, ‘Is that so?’

When Venerable Lee left the Vihara, I noticed that he seemed somewhat relieved.

The date arrived for the special meeting scheduled by Venerable Lee’s Board of Directors. As an Advisor I attended, as requested.

The meeting started off with a barrage of accusations against Venerable Lee, who countered by explaining the events as they really happened in an effort to prove his innocence. I noticed, however, that the people did not believe him.

I asked for permission to speak, and took the opportunity to explain the misunderstanding using a story from the Pancatantra, a collection of Indian fables similar to Aesop’s fables.

“In India, there lived a Brahmin with his wife and he had a pet mongoose. When the woman gave birth to a son she became wary of the mongoose, fearing that it would harm her baby. The mongoose was in the habit of staying near the baby. The woman, however, always felt that it wasn’t safe to leave the infant alone with the animal.

“One day she told her husband to look after the baby so she could go to the market. Upon her return, she saw the mongoose approaching her with a bloody mouth. Shocked, she instantly concluded that the mongoose had killed her baby, and she hit it with her packages, killing it.

She screamed and ran into the house. At that very moment her husband arrived, and both rushed to the cradle. The baby was in the cradle sleeping, but a huge black snake had been torn to shreds and scattered around the room.

“The woman was heartbroken when she realised she had killed her son’s saviour. She blamed her husband for being irresponsible and leaving the baby alone.

“The lesson from this story is: if we project imagined possibilities without any factual basis, we can also end up in the same situation as these unfortunate parents.

“Dear members of the Board, I would like to mention at this point that it is a fundamental human weakeness to enjoy spicy gossip. Unfortunately, some people enjoy spreading gossip, and sometimes they even add made-up details to make it juicier.

Little do they realise that they are actually encouraging and harbouring unwholesome thoughts that are detrimental to their own spiritual growth. I recollect my mother reprimanding me by saying, ‘Son, if you can’t say anything nice about someone, then say nothing at all.’

“Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher, had a wonderful test for gossip. One day an acquaintance ran up to him and excitedly said, ‘Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?’

“Wait a moment,’ Socrates replied. ‘Before you tell me, I’d like you to take a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.’

“Triple Filter?’ asked the man.

“Yes, that’s right,’ continued Socrates. ‘Before you tell me about my student, let’s take a moment to filter what you’re going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?’

“No,’ said the man, ‘actually I just heard about this and...’

“All right, so you don’t really know if it’s true,’ said Socrates. ‘Next, let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?’

“No, on the contrary....’ the man started to say.

“So, you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you are not certain that it is even true.’ The man shrugged, looking down, embarrassed.

“Well, you may still pass the test,’ Socrates said. ‘There is still the third filter - the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?’

“No, not really...’ mumbled the man.

“Well, if what you want to tell me is neither TRUE no GOOD nor USEFUL, why tell it to me at all?’ asked Socrates.

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Ven. Dr. Walpola Piyananda is the Chief Sangha Nayaka of the United States of America and President of Sri Lanka Sangha Council of the US and Canada.

Born in 1943, in Walpola, a village in Matara district, he was ordained as a novice monk at the age of twelve. He received Upasampada (higher ordination) in 1970 and completed his education in Sri Lanka with BA honours from University of Kelaniya.

Later he obtained his first M. A. from the University of Calcutta and the second MA from University of California in Los Angeles and PHD from College of Buddhist Studies, Los Angeles. Currently he is the abbot of Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara, Los Angeles, one of the oldest Theravada temples in the US.

In addition to his responsibilities as the abbot of Dharma Vijaya Vihara Ven. Dr. Piyananda Thera has been a teacher of Dhamma and Meditation; he has been a counsellor to a wide range of people, the disenfranchised of society, couples dealing with relationship issues, American Buddhists trying to reconcile their practices with their Western lifestyles and immigrants struggling to assimilate while trying to maintain their traditional values. He has written several books on Dhamma and a book on his experiences in the US.

“Saffron Days in LA - Tales of a Buddhist Monk in America” was a great success. Now, in a sequel, he has written his second book of his experiences of life in America.” More saffron Days in LA-Further Tales of a Buddhist Monk in America,” with a foreword by Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

The Ven. writer has given his gracious and compassionate permission to publish excerpts from the book in Buddhist Spectrum, for which we are much thankful.

Today we publish the first episode of More Saffron Days, where he relates his encounter with a Vietnamese monk, who wanted to leave robes, after facing many trying incidents. The Ven. writer succeeds in persuading the monk to retain in robes by showing many examples from buddhist scriptures and anecdotes.

Ven. Dr. Piyananda Thera is Advisor to President Mahinda Rajapakse on Religious Affairs.

MG

Next week:

Dealing with anger

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Alleviation of ‘Fear’ through meditation

Sarath HEWAGAMA

FEAR: There is a general belief that there exists six basic ‘Fears’ amongst humanity. They have been described as the ‘fear’ of (a) poverty, (b) old age, (c) criticism (d) loss of some one dear to you, (e) ill-health and (f) death. Further ‘fear’ states that (a) you can’t do it (b) you are afraid to try and (c) you are afraid that you do not have the ability etc.

If you examine the above list carefully you can inventorise your own fears and clarify under which of the six you could be classified. Every individual who has reached the age of understanding is bound to some extent by one or more of these six basic fears.

By practising one’s religion and participating in meditation etc. diligently one could overcome these fears to a very great extent. One could overcome fear by disciplining oneself by thinking and developing self-confidence.

‘Thought’ is the most highly organized form of energy known to mankind. In this age of modern technology and research much has been discovered about the human mind to know that one can get rid of the accumulated effects of thousands of generations of fear in various forms.

It has also been proved that an individual who masters fear can practically succeed in any undertaking despite efforts to defeat him/her.

What could be of great assistance to any individual who is seeking redress in these aspects is to live, think and act with an emphasis laid on meditation.

It should also be stated that although technology evolves, traditions should also continue. Further, while we upgrade our systems, we should also retain our values etc.

I believe that the concept and philosophy of Sarvodaya first taught in India by Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave and later developed in Sri Lanka by Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne could be a code of ethics rather than a form of religion that would be beneficial to humanity.

It should be emphasized that I do not indicate that the concept of Sarvodaya could function as an alternative to well-established religions. Instead it certainly could help all concerned in their daily lives to overcome these fears at least to a very great extent as it lays emphasis on meditation.

All material developmental activities which result in visible external changes are given a spiritual interpretation by the Sarvodaya concept and its philosophy.

For instance at a Shramadhana Camp when the road is cleared of rocks and other obstacles simultaneously the participants engaged in a process of cleansing their minds of fear, hatred and greed that may be lying as obstacles to their spiritual development.

The literal translation of Sarvodaya is the “Awakening of All”. Through its developmental activities in thousands of villages Sarvodaya attempts to awaken people and communities in terms of Economics, Social, Political, spiritual, cultural and moral dimensions of their lives.

It is a Universal movement open to everyone who believes in the unity of mankind and the inter-dependence of life. It should be stated that for the last five decades the Concept/Philosophy of Sarvodaya has risen like a cool fountain springing without much effort whilst meandering through the past and present into the future like a massive river flowing across mountain ranges and valleys without ever running dry.

It should be emphasized that the strength and acceptance of Sarvodaya as a ‘National Movement’ is evidenced at the Peace Meditation Programmes held at the various districts wherein the People’s participation has been of the highest order.

It should be stated that the meditation programmes conducted at the various districts were a complete success. As Sarvodaya actualises hope it should be emphasised that Sarvodaya is not only the past nor the present but the future as well.

‘May there be rains in due season

And render the fields fertile

May all hearts be well contended

May all beings be at peace

May the rulers be just and the world benefit.’