Brainwashed into quitting
By KANG SOON CHEN Saturday October 6, 2012 [email protected]
PETALING JAYA: A group of Universiti Sains Malaysia medical students has allegedly been brainwashed into leaving their studies by a Buddhist monk.
Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia lay adviser Chong Hung Wang said the student Buddhist association from the campus in Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, had voiced its concern that around 30 medical students had shown behavioural changes and disinterest in their studies after returning from a trip to Thailand with the monk in August.
“These students were led to believe that patients should not receive medical treatment for their condition as sickness is the result of their karma.
“They are convinced that they should not become doctors as the act of treating patients will interfere with karma,” said Chong.
It is believed that the monk had approached the students in March this year and had gained a following through religious activities conducted off-campus.
The monk also allegedly claimed that he had supernatural power and was able to tell the past and predict the future of the students.
“Compassion is central to Buddhist beliefs. What the monk had propagated about leaving patients to their sickness is wrong.
“We hope to curb the spread of misleading religious beliefs among students by creating better awareness on the true teachings of Buddhism,” said Chong.
The students are said to want to leave the medical school and transfer to other programmes such as nutrition and sports science.
They are also having strained relationships with their family members following their decision to quit medical studies.
It was understood that some of the students were in their third and fourth year of studies.
A university official confirmed that three students had applied to transfer to other courses.
Vice-chancellor Prof Dr Datuk Omar Osman said none of the students had received approval to switch courses and the university viewed the matter of students being influenced by misleading religious teachings seriously.
“We do not want the students to simply switch courses because they are very good students and had worked very hard to gain a place to study medicine,” said Prof Omar.
He added that the university was reaching out to the students through counseling.
The Buddhist organizations in Malaysia should provide more details to the general public as to who this monk is and which temple he is from and should try to dissemilate more information on the Buddhist understanding of the teaching of Kamma before this monk does more damage to the religion with his misguided teaching.
Buddha’s interpretation of Kamma
MN 101: Devadaha Sutta - Translator's Introduction:Thanissaro Bhikkhu
In this sutta, the Buddha refutes the theories of the Jains — here called the Niganthas — an order of contemplatives flourishing in India during his time. Although on the surface this sutta may seem to be of strictly historical interest, it makes two important points that are very relevant to some common misunderstandings about Buddhism alive today.
The first point concerns the Buddhist teaching on action, or kamma (karma). The general understanding of this teaching is that actions from the past determine present pleasure and pain, while present actions determine future pleasure and pain. Or, to quote a recent book devoted to the topic, "Karma is the moral principle that governs human conduct. It declares that our present experience is conditioned by our past conduct and that our present conduct will condition our future experience." This, however, does not accurately describe the Buddha's teaching on karma, and is instead a fairly accurate account of the Nigantha teaching, which the Buddha explicitly refutes here. As he interrogates the Niganthas, he makes the point that if all pleasure and pain experienced in the present were determined by past action, why is it that they now feel the pain of harsh treatment when they practice asceticism, and no pain of harsh treatment when they don't? If past action were the sole determining factor, then present action should have no effect on their present experience of pleasure or pain.
In this way, the Buddha points to one of the most distinctive features of his own teaching on kamma: that the present experience of pleasure and pain is a combined result of both past and present actions. This seemingly small addition to the notion of kamma plays an enormous role in allowing for the exercise of free will and the possibility of putting an end to suffering before the effects of all past actions have ripened. In other words, this addition is what makes Buddhist practice possible, and makes it possible for a person who has completed the practice to survive and teach it with full authority to others. For more on these points, see the articles, "Karma," "A Refuge in Skillful Action," and "Five Piles of Bricks"; see also the Introduction to The Wings to Awakening, along with the introductions to the sections on Skillfulness and Kamma & the Ending of Kamma in that book.
The second important point touched on in this sutta — how to put an end to pain and suffering — relates to the first. If the cause of present suffering were located exclusively in the past, no one could do anything in the present moment to stop that suffering; the most that could be done would be to endure the suffering while not creating any new kamma leading to future suffering. Although this was the Jain approach to practice, many people at present believe that it is the Buddhist approach as well. Meditation, according to this understanding, is the process of purifying the mind of old kamma by training it to look on with non-reactive equanimity as pain arises. The pain is the result of old kamma, the equanimity adds no new kamma, and thus over time all old kamma can be burned away.
In this sutta, however, the Buddha heaps ridicule on this idea. First he notes that none of the Niganthas have ever come to the end of pain by trying to burn it away in this way; then he notes that they have based their belief in this practice entirely on their faith in their teacher and their approval of his ideas, but neither faith nor approval can act as guarantees of the truth. As he illustrates with his simile of the man shot with an arrow, only a person who has succeeded in going beyond pain would be in a position to speak with authority of the method that actually puts an end to pain. (What is not mentioned in this sutta is the Nigantha idea that the practice of austerities, to succeed completely in burning away old kamma, must culminate in a suicide by starvation. Thus there could be no living person who would be able to vouch for the efficacy of their method.)
The Buddha then provides his own account of how meditation actually works in putting an end to pain and suffering. His discussion shows that the problem underlying pain is not past action, but passion — in the present — for the causes of pain. In other words, pain is not inevitable. Present suffering can be prevented by changing one's understanding of, and attitude toward, the cause of suffering in the present. The Buddha illustrates this principle with the simile of a man in love with a woman: As long as he feels passion for her, he will suffer when he sees her enjoying the company of another man; when, seeing the connection between his suffering and his passion, he abandons that passion, he will no longer suffer from that cause.
Thus the practice must focus on ways to understand and bring about dispassion for the causes of stress and pain here and now. As the Buddha points out in MN 106, equanimity plays an important role in this practice, but it can also become an object for passion and delight, which would then stand in the way of true release. Thus he notes here that, in some cases, dispassion can arise simply from on-looking equanimity directed at the causes of stress. In other cases, it can come only through exertion: the mental effort — through the fabrications of directed thought, evaluation, and perception — to develop the discernment needed to see through and abandon any and all passion.
The remainder of the sutta is devoted to a standard map of how the practice develops over time, showing how the proper mixture of on-looking equanimity combined with fabrication and exertion can lead to dispassion, and through dispassion to release from all stress and suffering.
Originally posted by Aik TC:
In this way, the Buddha points to one of the most distinctive features of his own teaching on kamma: that the present experience of pleasure and pain is a combined result of both past and present actions. This seemingly small addition to the notion of kamma plays an enormous role in allowing for the exercise of free will and the possibility of putting an end to suffering before the effects of all past actions have ripened.
good to know.
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Treating patients is another good form of practicing Buddhism. They will not develop too dislike and cherish of their own body form on their daily medical professional experiences. At the same time, they are conducting compassion and benevolence for treating the patients with care and love in the way of Mahayana Buddhism. And they can provide valuable advice on health care based on their wisdom so that patients would live blissly and healthily. May all be safe and happy.
Public Statement of YBAM：Misleading Teachings Deviate From The Right Path of Buddhism
The Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia (YBAM) recently received a correspondence from the Buddhist Society of a branch campus of a university in Kelantan, stating that members and other undergraduates are influenced by a Theravada monk, leading to transferrence of course of study, and strained relationship with the family members.
The monk started to approach the undergraduates of the said university since March this year. Activities were carried out without the acknowledgement of the Buddhist Society of the university. The monk even brought dozens of students to pay a visit to the temples in Thailand for few weeks. When the semester started in September, these students, of about 30 of them, contacted the faculty and their family about their intention of transferrence from Medical Discipline to other disciplines such as Nutrition or Sport Science. Some students could not concentrate in their study, and absent from the lectures to participate in the activities organised by the mentioned monk. Some students even have the intention to withdraw from the university. The university started to show concern on this incident following the request of transferrence of course from these students.
Most of the affected students are the future doctors, with some of them are graduating in next one or two years, and some of them are even the JPA scholarship holders. However, these students disregard the worries of the family members, as well as the implications of the RM 250,000 compensation that the family is going to make following their irresponsible act, had a falling out with the family, and even threatened to run away from home or to terminate the family relationship.
This monk taught the students that the patients should not receive medication for their condition, as these sicknesses are the results of their Karma. If one receives treatment for the sickness, this will not eliminate the Karma, and he/she will continue to suffer in the future. This monk keep stressing about the supernatural power, and telling students that he has the power to know the past, and to predict the future. He also used the so-called subconciousness method to let students to see their pasts. These teachings led to the Medical students not willing to, and also dare not to face the patients and corspes. Some of them even felt the uneasiness and the horror after contacting or facing the patients and corspes. In addition, this monk also misled the students in the views of the relationship that led to the end of the relationship of a few couples.
YBAM also received some complaints that this monk used the same tactic to approach the Buddhist and youths in the Alor Setar, Kedah. He also has a centre for students’ gathering in the Klang Valley
In the Buddha’s teaching, we see how the Buddha, as the leader, also concerned his disciples who are sick, and provided necessary medications. The Buddha taught how to integrate ourselves into the society and to benefit the society with our contributions. The Buddha did not teach us on the unconventional and bizzre ideas, which leads to the worries of our family and friends, or even broken relationships with them.
YBAM hence urge the Buddhist society in the varsities and the local Buddhist societies to pay extra care when dealing with the interactions between the venerables and the disciples, as to avoid the negative implications that might be caused to the students and disciples following such relationship. Together with other Buddhist organisations, YBAM is also trying with various approaches including the Immigrations, university and family members, not to worsen the development of the incident, and to prevent this monk to bring the students to Thailand in this October again.