Monastic Community: Huge Money Means Materialistic Or Self-sustainable
Author: Nano-organic Elixir
Date: 1st October 2019
Keywords: #materialistic, #fund-raising, #money, #donation, #sustainable
Length: 1348 words
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We all know that there are people who said Dhammakaya temple is all about materialism and vanity, I decided to write the topic on this controversial temple but not with an effort to shift to change that image? That is the image from some people and a lot of people see it differently and I think often that people do not really know what they are talking about when they start criticizing someone or something else.
Talking to the Temple’s people about all of the messy issues displaying in the public, they said what they know is they get up every day with appreciation and love and a work ethics. They are sure that what they have been doing benefit people greatly and many like it, of course there are also numbers of them do not, like 90% give a good feedback about them and 10% do not think it that way but that 10% make a lot of loud noise. Dhammakya temple represents the new style of Thai Buddhist monastery which is quite refreshing in many ways, certainly people may not agree with everything the Temple says or does.
What can be seen at present are Dhammakaya temple has developed various religious programs and moral activities to welcome people to come to the Temple and join their meritorious works. It shows proof the potential both manpower and financial resource in keeping the Temple’s regular moral events and religious ceremonial schedules intact even during the period of being declared as a ‘controlled zone’ by the government agency.
To get a correct picture of Dhammakaya temple, it is essential to understand first the general aspect of a Thai Theravada Buddhist temple, in which it is a monastery-centered type, where monks and novices live in temples, whereas lay believers are pilgrims or spiritual clients. And because the monks are permanent trustees, the power structure of the temple remains monk-centered. However, Dhammakaya temple demonstrates a bit different in that male and female lay eight-precept observers’ participation in administration and decision-making are established and have increased over time.
The inclusiveness of the two degree-graduated lay communities into the monastic structure enables the Temple to have a greater human resources to not only launch and push forward all the designed religious missions but also implement their creative and innovative energy into the details. Numbers of adaptation seen as a showcase in a variety of moral teaching programs and youth training activities are made to the response to the very same question asked today by Buddhists of all stripes: how do we adapt these 2,600-year-old Teachings to make them relevant here and now for the millennium audience?
Dhammakaya temple realizes that when mainstream religious organizations can no longer meet the spiritual needs of a modern fragmented society with diverse needs, the up-to-date adaptation is common, and should be accepted as such. It should learn that the best way to survive in the current strong social disruption is to make good use of the Teachings. It is necessary to present the Teachings and the practice relevant to the present society in such a way that people can make use of them and transform themselves. Certainly, all of the mentioned are not easy; it required effort, time and money.
Another aspect that Dhammakaya temple and other Thai temples shares in common is the interdependence of lay practitioners and the monastic Sangha and the ways in which both groups support and illuminate the path to awakening. Buddhist monastics is sustained through donations; they are deeply dependent on the generosity of lay community support as Theravadin monks cannot handle money, cook, or even store food. In this way, monastics and lay practitioners alike cultivate the ‘Parami’ of Dana, which is translated as generosity, giving, or charity. Dana is not simply a financial or economic practice but rather a way of cultivating the heart, and cultivating communities, through an ethos of mutual interdependence and responsibility.
Dhammakaya temple is often seen as intensively focusing on Dhammakaya meditation practice. Coming to the Temple, visitors cannot expect to enjoy any kind of festive entertainments such as folk music, concert, ‘Lam Tad’, ‘Mou Lam’, etc. as they can see in other Thai monasteries elsewhere. In truth, meditation is one aspect of the tradition, which also includes important components, such as: the cultivation of generosity alongside moral precepts and ethical training; an understanding of Karma and its laws; study of the Pali Canon, a range of community services, including outreach and social welfare programs; and much more.
Dhammakaya temple and other Thai temples throughout the country alike emphasize orthodox yet accessible approaches to practice and textual study. This model of teaching is fundamental to the traditional Theravadin framework which literally means they see the Dhamma as priceless; therefore, there can be no cost associated with it. Thus monastics freely support the community with the teaching of the Doctrines, generally all the teaching effort gears toward understanding the Buddha’s teachings of the Four Noble Truths, the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, and the Noble Eightfold Path, with the goal of liberating the heart and mind. Students on the other hand understand that everything they receive is from those who previously sat courses and they, in turn, have the opportunity to donate so others can receive the same benefits in future classes.
Given what mentioned above, it implies that Buddhism and money have always coexisted inside the Buddhist tradition, and Buddhism has always needed money to survive and thrive even though, often within Buddhist communities: both Theravada and Mahayana, some feels that discussing the money issue is still taboo perhaps because the people who are in charge of these institutions whether it is the press, Buddhist magazines, or monastic institutions are usually Gen-Xers or Baby Boomers who are uncomfortable ‘tainting’ the purity of Buddhism with anything perceived to be capitalism.
Apparently, Thai society is no difference, many Buddhists also find it gauche to talk about money in connection with the Dhamma and often brand the way Dhammakaya temple running itself as materialistic or consumerism judging from the Temple’s consistency of fund-raising schemes and various forms of donation; which is obvious that some Thai Buddhists are blind to the fact that Buddhist communities do not exist in some ideal universe but rather in the real world. And this real world requires money. Temple needs to pay for the educational programs of the novices, the upkeep of the property, the salaries of the workers; and most importantly, the monastic members and volunteers need food and health care. It is essential for Buddhists to realize that Thai temples are not subsidized by the government’s budget but standing on their own.
While all the activities organized inside Dhammakaya temple which include residencies and in-monastic retreats are offered free of charge and the monastic community maintenance and all of which operate solely based on Dana, hosting different events with popular cultural expression linked with public appeal, often seen as religious marketing, represents a different fund-raising model for its religious community, an innovative strategy to help support the Temple and maintain its financial health, enabling this organizational-styled Temple to continue keeping the lights on and the tap-water running so that future generations of Dhammakaya’s followers can return again and again to the meditation hall and pointing the way to long-term stability of the Tradition.
Still, at a time when numbers of Temple’s goers is in sharp decline, instead of lamenting their absence or acting as a crybaby by endlessly demanding state help which definitely will not do the Temple any good, but rather open chance for other religious groups to step in to take the cake, the Temple’s administration looks for more innovative ways to pay the bills so they can keep their temple doors open. These are moments of struggle the permanent monastics have to wrestle with but unaware to the general public.
With all the invested effort and contribution, Dhammakaya temple wants to be remembered as being an organization which can do something a little different from the more traditional Theravada Buddhist temple in the aspect of social responsibility by proactively working in bettering the moral standard through their hard work of meditation teaching and energize people in Buddhism. Yet every single achievement always has a price to pay. The Temple own huge running expenses and the Temple’s kitchen hefty cost of catering for the living inhabitants of five thousands monks, novices, male and female laypeople only drain away the Temple’s coffer and the structure donation pouring in through each campaign only replenishes and makes its congregation stand self-sustainable, not being an all-time rich.
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