By Pakada | Monday, 20 February 2012 | Mizzima
(Commentary) – As the military prepares to bring Ashin Gambira back into
criminal court, it’s time to reexamine the relationship between the
State-sanctioned Sangha Council and the military-dominated government of
Burma.
In the traditional Buddhist Pāli language, a single monk is called Puggala, an individual. Two to three monks are called in Sanskrit Gana, a circle of devotees, and four or more monks constitute a Sangha or Samgha.
From the time of Buddha, Buddhist monks have always lived in
communities of Sangha and will continue to do so for ages to come.
Throughout
history, ordained monks and nuns were not obligated to join additional
organizations outside of the Sangha. According to the Pāli Canon, there
are no other organizations to represent Buddhist monks besides the
Sangha.
Buddhism recognizes all ordained monks as members of the
Sangha as long as they adhere to the moral discipline outlined in the
Vinaya Pitaka of the Buddhist scripture. There is no requirement to
register with any government authority to prove one’s identity of
monkhood. Monks have always lived a simple and meditative life by
paying respect to the senior monks and by fostering harmonious relations
among the monastic members. No monk can be involuntarily expelled from a
Sangha, except when the Buddhist monastic code of conduct, called “the
four Parajika Dharma,” has been violated.
Even if the monk’s
robe is forcibly removed, the person’s monkhood still remains. One can
only ordain or disrobe a monk by following strict rules of the Buddhist
Canon. Disrobing cannot take place without a proper ceremony, but those
who are “Buddhists” in name only incorrectly assume that removing the
robe will reduce a monk to a layperson.
In 1980-81 the Maha
Nayaka, the government sanctioned Sangha Council in Burma, was formed
with 47 monks under the rule of the BSPP (Burma Socialist Program
Party). Many prominent monks denounced the government’s use of a
registration system to control Burma’s Sangha. Even at the height of the
BSPP dictatorship, monks bitterly resisted the government’s intrusion
into Buddhism. They believed that by requiring the monks to register
with the authority, Ne Win’s government was putting collaborating monks
in charge of the Sangha community to control religious freedom inside
Burma.
Some senior monks candidly told Sein Lwin, a
government recruiter, that they would rather not become part of an
instrument to tyrannize the monks. When more and more monks began
speaking out against the government’s attempt to undermine the religion,
some were arrested under false charges of violating the most serious
Parajika-Dharma, the monks’ moral code of conduct. After accusing those
monks as “fakes,” the Central State Sangha Council was formed amidst
criticism by the prominent monks in Burma. Again, in 1991 and in 2007,
activist’s monks were arrested under false charges of being “fake” monks
when they refused to receive alms from the members of the military
because of their failure to help the people in dire poverty.
At
the founding of the Maha Nayaka or Mahana, the BSPP raised enormous
amounts of funds by partnering with popular entertainers. They brought
in large amount of alms offerings, telephones, cars, land, and above
all, power and influence, to the Mahana monks who collaborated with the
authorities. From time to time some monks were even suspected of
offering bribes for lucrative Sangha Council positions, causing
conflicts within the previously harmonious monks’ communities.
Profits
from bribery and kickbacks have become a big business for the justices
and middlemen at the Ka-bar-aye office of the State Sangha Council,
where monastic disputes over lands, buildings and violations of the
monks’ Parajika-Dharma code of conduct are settled. Regardless, it is
still the responsibility of the Nayaka council to protect and promote
the humanitarian and religious efforts of the Burmese monks. Together
with local authorities, the Nayaka Council should try to clean up the
unethical behaviors of a few monks—such as gaming, gambling, panhandling
at bus depots, consumption of alcohol, and eating after noon.
Though
the Mahana was founded to preserve the growth and integrity of the
Buddhist institutions in Burma, monks with true convictions were
powerless against the regime’s handpicked Nayaka Council members.
Although a number of new Pariyatti Buddhist institutes for higher
learning were opened in the past, young Burmese monks were still not
able to practice religion freely.
Young intellectual monks with
true convictions were prohibited from openly discussing their views and
were often threatened with expulsion and failed grades. Following the
downfall of the BSPP, under the SPDC (The State Peace and Development
Council), the Nayaka Council continued to harass these monks over
trivial offenses while it routinely offered the preferred seats at the
religious seminaries to monks who collaborated with the regime.
Additionally,
the government’s Na-pa-tha Buddhist universities have not been able to
promote Burmese Buddhism abroad because of the shortage of talent,
inadequate supplies, and the dictatorial tendency of the Nayaka Council.
Burmese Theravada Buddhism was brought to other countries only
by those monks who were supported by private donations. Except for a
brief period, religious freedom and Buddhism study came to a standstill
under the present leadership of the Nayaka Council in Burma.
While there were ecclesiastic Vinichaya
courts available to handle charges brought against Burmese monks,
without the help from the Mahana Sangha Council, Burmese monks were
instead tried in military-controlled criminal courts during the Saffron
Revolution. Monks were forcibly disrobed and sentenced to years in
prison. In order to preserve their own privileges, the
government-sponsored Mahana monks usually comply with the orders from
the authority without weighing the moral consequences of their actions.
As
witnessed during the 2007 Saffron Revolution, a weak and ineffectual
Maha Nayaka State Sangha did not try to stop the nighttime raids on
monasteries and the brutality against the monks by the military regime
bent on crushing the freedom of the young monks.
Buddhism is a
path of enlightenment from future sufferings, as well as the sufferings
of the present life. According to Buddha’s teachings, Burmese monks are
expected to contribute toward the wellbeing of those around them, in
healthcare, education and many other ways all across Burma.
Historically, monasteries have been the bastions of intellectual
studies; and their contributions to the quality of life have earned them
religious merits and recognition as champions of the oppressed. Since
ancient time, monks have acted as pillars of the community, and their
efforts and advice were kept in high esteem throughout Burmese society,
where accepted etiquette and codes of conduct taught by the monks
provided guidance to rulers and lay people alike on how to live in peace
and harmony.
Burma, where Buddhism has flourished for
centuries, deserves a much better Sangha Council, one which is unafraid
to tell the truth, and which can remain independent of outside
influences. It must be able to resist the temptation of the four
offenses of Buddhism, and be able to provide proper guidance to the
monastic communities across Burma.
To create an independent
Sangha Council, the monks must be allowed to make free choices, and
while the authorities and lay people can offer support, religious
matters must be left only in the hands of the monks.
As long as the present Sangha Council remains in place there is no hope for the preservation of Buddhism in Burma.
First,
the Council collaborated with the BSPP, and then with the SPDC. And now
under Thein Sein’s government, the Maha Nayaka Council is still serving
the interests of the authorities instead of the people. While the
Burmese military is moving toward political reform, the State-sponsored
Mahana is stuck in the authoritarian past. Indeed it is time now to
replace the old and corrupt authoritarian Maha Nayaka Council
permanently, with a new, democratic, just, kind, and truthful Sangha
Council, according to the teachings of the Buddhist Canon.
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