It has been officially upheld during meetings of the Sangha Supreme Council, the council of top monks, in and most recently in The government says this is not gender discrimination but a matter of long-held tradition, and women are free to travel abroad to be ordained, just not in their own country. Emerging Markets Updated. By Patpicha Tanakasempipat 4 Min Read. When one day he became aware of the problem of suffering, he decided to leave behind his wife and child, his home, and his wealth to look for an answer.
First he studied with Brahmin hermits, but was disappointed that they did not know how to escape the cycle of reincarnations. Then he lived as an ascetic for several years, only to find out that this did not help him reach his goal. Finally he claimed to have reached enlightenment after prolonged meditation. Over many centuries Buddhism evolved in two major schools, Theravada and Mahayana.
Theravada Buddhism claims to be the more orthodox of the two and emphasizes the teachings of the Buddha. Mahayana Buddhism came into existence later.
It started to regard the Buddha as an eternal, omnipresent Principle or Being. At the same time it emphasized the importance of bodhisattvas, more or less divine beings on the way to Buddhahood who devote themselves to the well-being of people. Mahayana Buddhism became the larger of the two schools, and has China as its heartland. Some of the ethnic Chinese in Thailand hold to Mahayana Buddhism, but most now are adherents of Theravada Buddhism, which is the dominant school in Thailand.
Buddhism in Thailand is not a monolithic whole. Different aspects of it may be categorised as nibbanic, kammatic, and folk Buddhism. The message that Gautama came to proclaim after his enlightenment, is known as the four noble truths.
The first truth is suffering. Life basically is suffering. The second truth is that desire is the cause of suffering. This includes worldly desires for possessions and enjoyment, but most of all it means the desire for existence as a separate entity.
This desire is rooted in ignorance: not realizing that the self is imaginary and has no existence in reality. The third truth is that suffering ceases when desire ceases.
When the lust for life, the passion to exist, has ceased, than suffering ceases as well. The fourth truth is the path which leads to the cessation of suffering, and is called the eightfold path. The eightfold path consists of right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right mode of livelihood, right effort working towards universal love , right awareness introspection , and right concentration.
Three concepts are important to understand in orthodox Buddhism: karma, anicca, and nirvana. Karma is the totality of actions in life. Good and bad deeds result in good and bad karma.
This karma has to be lived out in the next life. Orthodox Buddhism emphasizes that it is the karma that is lived out in the next life. The soul is not reincarnated, because Buddhism does not believe in the existence of a permanent soul.
This leads to the second concept: anicca, which means impermanence. According to Buddhism, there are only fleeting phenomena, but no objective reality.
Misery only doth exist; none miserable. No doer is there; naught but the deed is found. Nirvana is, but not the man that seeks it. The path exists, but not the traveler on it. The third important concept is nirvana. The eightfold path is said to lead to the cessation of suffering, the end of the cycle of incarnations, which leads is to nirvana.
Gautama took pains to explain nirvana as a state that is neither existence nor non-existence. While the teaching about nirvana forms the heart of the teaching of the Buddha, it does not play a major role in Thai Buddhism. It is widely believed that nirvana is unobtainable in this era for even the most revered of monks.
With nirvana out of the picture as a practical concern, Thai Buddhists have placed other concerns in the heart of their religion. Kammic Buddhism Because reaching nirvana is seen as impossible, a more attainable goal is to build up good karma to ensure rebirth in a better life. Building up good karma is mainly done through merit-making.
The most certain way to do that is through taking care of the monks, both through giving food and through taking part in the main temple ceremonies. These and other rituals to make merit are the most important aspects of kammic Buddhism for almost all Thai. From the beginning, Buddhism has been a religion centered on the Sangha, the order of monks.
Until today the over , monks in over 31, temples are the centre of Buddhist life in Thailand. Every village has a temple.
Every morning the monks walk around, and many women line up to offer food to them. Four times in every lunar month there is a holy day wan phra during which more people, again especially women, go to the temple to offer flowers, incense, and gifts to the monks. There is a service with Pali chanting, and a Thai sermon.
Some very religious people will promise to keep the eight precepts during that day. Except the five general ones that every Buddhist should keep refraining from taking life, stealing, unchastity, lying, and drinking alcohol these include as extra ones refraining from eating after noon, from entertainment, and from sitting or lying on a mattress.
There is a perceptible difference between rural and urban religious life. In the villages the temple still is the core of the community, and most people in one way or another take part in the various festivals and ceremonies in the temple.
Wat Sansai Don Kok in Chiang Mai, for example, set up an offering table in the temple where about people donated each day in May. With the money and food collected, monks and temple supporters make meals to help feed the community. The idea of monks cooking is unusual in Thailand, as it is typically against monastic rules. But given the circumstances, preparing food is considered acceptable, said a Chiang Mai monk during a conversation with me on July 1, Monks collect and redistribute offerings for those in their immediate surroundings and also travel to villages to support those in need.
At Wat Tha Luang in Phichit Province , northern Thailand, the abbot has made efforts to feed one meal per day per person during the quarantine period. Media reports showed thousands of villagers, including children, elderly and disabled, lined up to receive boxed lunches.
A long, socially distanced line also stretched outside Wat Songdhammakalyani , the temple where Dhammananda Bhikkhuni , the first female monk of Thailand, resides. People were handed instant noodle packages, bags of rice, snacks and vegetables. This reversal of roles between monks and lay Buddhists has helped improve the image of monks in Thai media, which prior to the coronavirus had a tendency to focus on monastic excesses, such as riding in a private jet , taking trips to the mall and embezzling money.
It has also shown that material goods do not always have to flow exclusively from laypeople to monks. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom.
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