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.’ |