Friday, March 9, 2007

Buddism on the decline road

Around 1130 am in the morning , I was having lunch at a hawker center nearby my house. In the meantime, a buddist monk appeared in the crowd at the hawker center asking for donation or " Ben Bart" in Cambodian. I used to think that was only happen in my hometown where buddism is the national religion and also the most critic religion but had never thought there is such thing in Singapore. The monk was walking around from one table to another , however nobody was please to donate a single cent. I felt that there is nothing different between the beggar and a respectful monk if he were to do the same thing as the beggar did. I think there should be a clear cut rules and regulations on timing , places and the way to approach people when monks are allowed to go out and ask for donations. In today world, buddism should change from traditionally a supported body by the people to a supporting organization which is able to provide benefits to the people. Otherwise, gradually pagoda will become a beautiful ghost building .

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

dun think those are real monks... there're of course rules and regulation to do so. i also saw thos monks asking for money from people around, but it was not real as i saw them do that out of time, around afternoon and evening time. this's not right either for buddhism in cambodia, lao, thailand, burma, or sri lanka. Buddhist monks from china might do so as they follow Mahayana Bhuddism. gotta notice their saffron robe.

My Apartment