Discrediting Buddhist Monks

The Weighty Karma of False Accusations

Wisdom Quarterly

China under military rule is one crazy place. Learning from US atrocities in the region, it has been engaging in an anti-Buddhist campaign (a cultural revolution) of Seven Suns proportions. It should be noted that one of the most karmically demeritorious acts one can commit is falsely accusing Buddhist monastics of defeat (parajika) offenses.

For if a fully gone forth recluse, someone who has received the higher ordination, kills, steals, has sex, or lies about attaining enlightenment or other states, that person is instantaneously no longer a monastic. It is "defeat" because it cannot be remedied, and one can not be readmitted into the Order as a fully ordained monastic for the remainder of this lifetime. (Future lives may hold that possibility, but the opportunity to ever ordain is extraordinarily rare and precious, almost inconceivably the exception).

Getting someone thrown out by falsely accusing them of offenses entailing expulsion is almost as serious as committing those offenses oneself. Has the Chinese government and its agents done just this, or does it have some basis for its allegations against Tibetan monks? (Having invaded Tibet, slaughtered monks, colonized the country, and destroyed its unique culture, sacred texts, and art objects, the Chinese Communist Party might not think too much of discrediting remaining monks in their way).

World's biggest propaganda agency "Xinhua" lies again[?]DHARAMSALA, India - A media briefing was held at the main Tibetan temple in Dharamsala on April 25, regarding China's continuing crackdown on the monks of Kirti Monastery and the Tibetans living in Ngaba, Amdo in Eastern Tibet.

"The Chinese authorities have launched a series of false allegation and groundless about the circumstances of the death of the young monk named Phuntsok, who self-immolated on March 16, as well as on the state of affairs at the Kirti monastery in general," said Ven. Lobsang Yeshi, one of two media coordinators of the Kirti monastery in exile who has responded to the recent reports made by the state controlled Chinese media "Xinhua."

"Chinese authorities trying to blame the monks, who took away Phuntsok from the hands of the police at the time of the self-immolation, for being his accomplices in planning the fatal protest action," Lobsang said during the press briefing this morning in Dharamsala. The authorities also claimed that if the monks had not taken Phuntsok away, then they might have been able to save his life. More