Reflections On The Trial Of Ming Yi

Two things come to mind while contemplating the Ming Yi affair. The first is this. Venerable Ming Yi allegedly misappropriated S$50,000 from the Ren Ci Hospital, which is actually small change compared to the huge amounts of his own money he spent on himself. The question no one has asked so far is, ‘Where did he get all that money from?’ Anyone familiar with Buddhism as practiced in Asia will know the answer. It was given to him by his supporters and admirers. Traditional Buddhism is constructed so that the lay person’s main role, some might even say, only role, is to give things to the Sangha, and the more lavish the better. I have frequently encountered people who happily tell me that they don’t know and don’t want to know any Dhamma and that they just want to ‘give dana’ or to use the Thai term, to ‘make merit’. And if a monk wins more respect and regard than usual, as Ming Yi did, he will literally be buried under an avalanche of goodies. The more finicky monks will refuse to take money and either direct donors to their personal accountant or suggest that the money be ‘converted’ into material luxuries before being offered. A friend of mine recently stayed in what he was led to believe was a ‘forest monastery’ in Thailand. He described it to me as ‘a bhikkhu’s Club Med’ - all mod cons, dozens of servants, expensive furnishing, four cars to take the monks anywhere they might want to go, every meal a banquet, all the ‘kutis’ made out of teak and other rare timbers and fitted with air-conditioners – and everything acquired without actually touching any money.
I have said this before but I will say it again – traditional Buddhism is (unintentionally) constructed to make it much more likely that a monk (nuns aren’t in the running) will be spoilt or corrupted. The adulation monks receive, the ignorance of the Dhamma by the laity, and the understanding of ‘dana’ almost exclusively as generosity to monks, conspire to overwhelm, then tempt and finally to corrupt someone trying to live the holy life. Some resist this, many don’t. This of course does not excuse Ming Yi behaviour, but does go some way to explaining it. So long as Buddhism is ‘monk centred’ rather than ‘Dhamma centred’ these problems will persist.

Continued Tomorrow.