This certainly happens in New Zealand, where they sponsor Buddhist Studies at at least University of Otago…
Oh, I didn’t know that. They have been turned down at Sydney Uni, so that’s good.
We shouldn’t be too hard on the Unis: the underlying problem is that their budgets have been gutted and there is no money for Buddhist studies. They have to survive somehow. Because it’s not like Buddhism is an important phenomenon in the region. </sarcasm>
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Well the Chinese have the Confucious Institutes around the country too…
As in the Chinese govt?
I think it’s sponsored by the Chinese Government.
Of course, other governmnents do sponsor cultual things…
whoa… I think it just happened in developing country… One of Indonesian academic did it too… They need money to survive? I don’t think so… :3
Oh, absolutely. University funding is terrible in Australia, and probably elsewhere too, especially for “pure learning” humanities like Buddhism. One lecturer I know, one of the world’s foremost experts, taught a course on Buddhist Chinese for free because there weren’t enough students, while paying the bills by teaching business Chinese.
Those who are supposed to be teaching often spend most of their time trying to secure funding. With some minor exceptions, there is hardly anyone in the Buddhist world interested to pay up. In Australia, we are very lucky to be supported with funding from Master Chin Kung—who I believe supports Universities in Indonesia as well. I am out of the scene for a while now, but I think he is still supporting the courses at U Sydney.
But when Dhammakaya comes with their extremely deep pockets, it’s hard to say no. And when they send their students, it’s hard to fail them.
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I’m agree with you Bhante… (y)
So their greed finally got the better of them?
What a “holy” life.
Didn’t know that it is this bad, if Dhammakaya is not shutdown soon there will be whole generation of fanatics and Thailand can no longer be the stronghold of Buddhism.
Come to think of it, it is much better that Early Buddhism spread to west, even though they generally don’t believe in rebirth but at least they read suttas.
I’m completely new to this controversy, and really know little about the background of Dhammakaya. But it seems to me there is not all that much of a firm, principled distinction to be made between a cult and a religion. A religion is just a cult that that has achieved social prominence and respectability.
It looks like Dhammakaya has made a lot of money selling good worldly fortune, meditation techniques and happy rebirth to the masses, and contains some bad, rich monks doing bad and greedy things. How is that different from other systems of (state-sponsored) Theravada “temples” that have accumulated lots of money selling good worldly fortune, meditation techniques and happy rebirth to the masses, and contains some bad, rich monks doing bad and greedy things?
Well, not as different as you’d hope. But the problem is that Dhammakaya is really good at it, and pushes things to an extreme. It’s the difference between Catholicism—a genuine spiritual practice with deep and harmful flaws—and Scientology, which was never anything other than a scam.
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A cult is where all powers are channeled to the leader, and the followers will do almost anything that the leader says, for example “hey followers, I have cleansed this corrupted politician, now you should vote for him as he is thus purified”, “only me has the power to know all, just believe me and nothing else” or “come beautiful female followers, stay with me and I will purify you”.
And yes, when a cult has too many followers, we are forced to acknowledge it as a religion even thought it leads to violence and hatred, if you know what I mean. But the real danger comes from the almighty cult leader. As long as a person can command so many followers, then it’s a cult unless it’s already officially recognized as a religion.
Here’s a nice update on the Dhammakaya criminal enterprise saga.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1220702/phra-dattajivo-turns-himself-over-to-cops
I like to think of Thailand’s abbots in terms of the initials “AC” On one end, we have Ajahn Chah. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Al Capone. Thankfully, I’ve met some monks in Thailand that are at or near the Ajahn Chah end of the spectrum. Meeting these monks gives rise to saddha and joy. I have also encountered at least one abbot that runs his wat like a for profit business, buying and selling land, misusing temple money and child labor, and being involved in highly questionable deals with unsavory local characters. Becoming a Thai monk was just his way of obtaining power, money, and influence.
My hope is that the current Thai government truly takes the lead on rooting out corruption in the wats. It is sad to see the Thai people abandoning Buddhism and the temples, because of these horrific stories of mobster monks. Part of the rejuvenation of Thai monastic practice will have to include Bhikkhunis…somehow, I have faith that Bhikkhunis ,on the whole, will uphold the ethics of the Sangha with more vigor than has been demonstrated by the patriarchy in Thailand over the past decades.
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Not to pile on, but…
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crime/1222140/abbot-shot-by-resentful-woman
" According to police, Ms Athitaya said she had an affair with the abbot and fell pregnant. He made her get an abortion and wanted no more to do with her. She allegedly confessed, and said she acted out…"
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Well, that’s a horrifying story. In lighter news:
I mean, it could be The Onion, but no, it’s just Thailand! The article finishes:
The other monks restrained the man and tried to calm him down. Eventually the man became quiet and seemed to realise what he had done. He again prostrated himself before the abbot, who had bruising on his face caused when he fell to the ground.
The man placed the abbot’s hand on his head, a gesture seeking forgiveness, before leaving the temple without saying anything more.
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To be frank, this is the kind of story I would not be surprised to find in the Bhikkhu Vibhanga! 
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Why? Can you clearly explain why?
They have a large, full time staff dedicated to digital marketing, PR, branding, etc and a major effort of theirs is to keep their Wikipedia image good, buy up domains like this, fill them with propoganda and SEO them… They are extremely organized, well-funded and zealous.
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I spent some time at their main Wat last year, and it is extremely similar to the “prosperity gospel” of the American mega-churches.
The Thai people are good at putting on a smile, but, as the latest surveys show, there’s a lot of anxiety and anger under the surface about Thailands broken political system (no matter how the elections today go). There’s a lot of anxiety about inequality and the insufficient infrastructure, especially in Bangkok.
Wat Dhammakaya steps into this with a prosperity theology based on karma. They tell the middle class and rich people of Bangkok to not worry about being so rich: they deserve it. And they tell the poor: no worries about being poor. To both they say: just give your money to us and you’ll be taken care of.
And, to be fair, their extremely impressive compound does take care of their members. It’s a whole city, with its own public transit and utilities and public services and city hall and police (!)
Especially coming from a polluted and disfunctional Bangkok, it feels like a utopia. It projects very strongly a sense of optimism and “look what we can do together” that politics and religion (around the world, but especially in Thailand) lack these days.
And if you have never seen photos of Nazi Germany, it’s easy to ignore the ominous overtones of the massive rallies:
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