Time for a rethink of Buddhism's values

I am touched with this article but i believed many are raged with it.

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Time for a rethink of Buddhism's values
Published on Dec 12, 2001
Although the Buddha never made his religion subject to any king or any state in India, Buddhism in every country in Southeast Asia is under state regulation. For hundreds of years, the hierarchies of monks in these countries have long been integrated into a feudal system, following the example set by Emperor Asoka, Buddhism's great patron who saved it from heretic monks and initiated its world mission. In Theravada countries, most Buddhists believe that Buddhism cannot be independent of state support. Buddhist monasteries are entitled to special status and most high-ranking monks receive salaries as government officers. Unsurprisingly, abbots take the role of community leaders who support local government projects, some not associated with Buddhism. Kammatic Buddhism endorses the status of political authorities, and supports public donations for individual monks, especially those at the top of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. In this system, attention is paid to the top and not to the people at the lowest level of society; change is allowed to come top-down. In a monastery in Thailand, the abbot makes absolute decisions. This imbalance and unchecked power of senior monks is the breeding ground for corruption and embezzlement.It is striking that the Sangha administrations of Sri Lanka and Thailand have no interest in the changing world. Their only concern is the purification of their monastic jurisdiction. In a close parallel to globalisation embraced by the secular government, it is interesting that much more attention is paid by the Thai Buddhist administration to Buddhist missionary work in the West than to improve the education and social welfare of the people in this country.But monks themselves have little knowledge of the outside world. Traditional education, which emphasises memorisation and ritual, often is a breeding ground for prejudice and discrimination. Sadly, in most monastic training there are no subjects like science, mathematics, history or critical analysis. Foreign languages, such as English, are often seen as worldly taboos. The traditionalists regard modernisation of education as a threat from the West and the decay of the profane.It's unfortunate that although it would be easier for Buddhists to accept science and modern education, there is little of modern education within the Buddhist context for monks, novices and lay persons to provide a key to the promotion of human rights. If anything, the 10 Buddhist principles for independent investigation and the doctrine of causality and morality should remind them that systematic analysis and investigative discussion played a significant part of the Buddhist doctrine from its earliest age, just as in modern scientific thinking.On a different level, Buddhists of different countries would need more dialogue among themselves before taking the bold step to dialogue with other religions. By actively engaging in intra-Buddhist dialogue, mutual respect and understanding would grow and foster further relationships rather than create more barriers of distrust and indifference to each other. Apart from this, research into social anthropology, philosophy and ontology and the rights of human beings should be included into the various Buddhist institutes. This would open up another dimension of dialogue with other religions, focusing on the values that every religion and sect share about the common nature of the human race (eg, the oneness of the human family) and the common challenge facing us in modern times, such as the threat of a global epidemic, the possibility of global terrorism, etc. Such research will foster religious pluralism and civil society for the whole humankind.Women's rights: never quite equal to menThere is another form of discrimination deeply rooted in Buddhism: gender discrimination. Although the Buddhist Pali canon reveals a relatively liberal attitude of spiritual practices, the fact remains that women never enjoyed the same rights in Buddhism as men. They are not allowed to be equally ordained - if at all, even though they outnumber men as the main patrons in most Buddhist societies.The restricted right of women is based on the canonical evidence that alleges destructive roles to women in the religion. According to the canon, the Buddha explicitly said that the life of a homeless world renouncer was not appropriate for women, even though they had the ability to be enlightened. Only after negotiation did the Buddha allow women to be ordained - under eight conditions that every bhikkhuni had to observe strictly throughout their lives. To name a few, the rules prohibit a bhikkhuni from teaching or criticising a monk at all times; a bhikkhuni who makes a monastic offence is required to spend double the probation time required for a monk; and a bhikkhuni who is ordained for a hundred years had to pay respect to a monk ordained for one day. Although bhikkhuni ordination has been promoted and will soon be an officially accepted institution in Sri Lanka, women are not allowed full ordination in other Theravada countries such as Thailand, Burma, Laos and Cambodia. Apart from that, the current feminist movement to provide equal rights to women in Southeast Asian countries is still frowned upon. The Ecclesiastical Council, which retains a pessimistic and non-negotiable view of women's rights, officially reprimands monks who speak publicly in favour of women's roles within ecclesiastical Buddhism. However, in the Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese Buddhist traditions, Buddhist women enjoy many more rights and freedoms than their peers in Theravada lands. Taiwanese bhikkhunis, in particular, have proven to the world that a woman's role in the Buddhist religion is creative and not destructive as the canon alleged. The situations in these Theravada countries leave a large number of devoted female Buddhists with only the option of praying to become reborn as men, since males monopolise access to Nirvana. Kammatic Buddhists take it for granted that womanhood is a part of the karmic retribution of past lives. Feminist movements in Theravada Buddhist countries still have a long way to go.To improve the condition of women and to enhance the rights and dignity of individuals in Buddhist traditions, Buddhist communities should modernise their traditional education at all levels, and be open to dialogue, both among Buddhists of different schools and with other spiritual traditions. By so doing, the traditional barriers of pride and prejudice, of nationalism and chauvinism will be destroyed. Merit will not be limited to the dialogue of the Buddhist clergy with modern society, but for the entire world. It will also revitalise the spirit of self-criticism and universal compassion, which would be nothing more than bringing back the original core of the Buddha's mission to modern society. The author is special adviser to the secretary general of the World Conference on Religion and Peace. This article was drawn from his speech last month to the International Conference on Human Dignity and Freedom of Religious Choice: Perspectives of the Great Religious Traditions, in Turin, Italy.Dr Mettanando Bhikku