More to
commercialization of Buddhism in Singapore
The Buddhist
Channel, Singapore, March 17, 2014
We are also
regular readers ot Buddhist Channel, and we read with full
agreement about "Commercialization of
Buddhism in Singapore" written by one of your
reader.
Reading
the response from KONG MENG SAN
MONASTERY, I
quote the paragraph as follows :
“All prayers at all halls, except the Inner
Shrine (which are NOT FREE) of The Grand Puja that Blesses All
Beings conducted annually by the monastery are also open to public
to participate freely."
Based on their reply, it is admitted that
these Dharma based activities are not free.
Few years ago, many of my friends and myself were turned away at
the temple when we attempted to attend this Puja. We were told that
we needed to pay to enter the shrines. Paid members get special
passes, by class categories before admission.
Why the exhorbitant charges to enter the
Inner Shrine if one wants to earnestly join the Puja? What is this
rationale?
Did Amitahba and Other Buddhas of the past, Boddhisattvas, charge a
fee to listen to the DharmaorattendmorningPuja's?
If someone do not have money, can she join in the Puja? Or will she
be turned away? Clearly the temple do not know much about a Jataka
story where a devotee cut her hair so that she could buy oil to
light a lamp. It was her oil lamp that burnt the
brightest.
Practice from the heart that costs nothing.
Taking advantage of wealthy Singaporeans, I suppose, is the only
rationale for such charges.
And why the need to define "Inner Shrine"? I do no know much about
Mahayana Buddhism, but can any reader enlightment us, on these
charges for Pujas? May be the Abbot have a clear answer for
these?
How much are being charged to enter the Inner Shrines? We hear that
its from as low as $ 1,000 per person, up to as much as hundreds of
thousands. And what about the status of category for Dharma
chanting listed by color codes? Are they indicator of how much a
person has paid?
So if my family of 8 (wife, 2 kids and my 2 parents ) were to join
the such pujas at $1000 per person, I would have to fork out $ 8000
minimum to join such puja. If this is not commercialisation, then
may we ask what is?
Did Buddha teaches based on "Class of Category" in offering of
Pujas? Buddha taught us give give up everything, be selfless. How
ironic.
Also with the increased entry fees to join
PUJAs, there are limits to entry pass was reduced by half to such
prayer events ?
Can the KONG MEN SANG Monastery show a record history of how fees
are charged by number of times over the past years and also
restricting devotees allocation to puja?
In addition, the monastery also produces various quality Dharma
publications that are distributed freely to members of the public
to read and learn more about the Dharma. Many of these, we
understand, are often paid via donations of devotees, inviting
devotees.
It is also open secret the monks in monastery in ther annual alms
day are given the best as offering, for examples robes costing more
that $ 120 and give Tee shirts costing like $ 20 or more each,
totalling each few hundreds.
Why are such necesscities becoming a branded items an issue in alms
giving? Giving the novice monks the bests in brands, branded bands,
branded clothing, and branded food stuff?
Are we leading them in the wrong directions or worldly
materialisation and greeds?
Didn't Buddha teach us to dress in robes,
made from dye of tree barks, and accept non-monetary alms?
Even engaging services of private companies for traffic directions
of festivals? Certainly this can do good with volunteers
right?
Other Singapore Buddhists organisations garner 2,000 to 100,000
participants open fully to public at Singapore Expo, without a
single cent to participate too. Bring your heart and mind is all it
takes.
We may laugh at Christians churches scamming and skimming from
their church members, but unfortunately so is Buddhism in
Singapore.
My wife is a christian, and always I have
tried to invite her to Buddhist temples and often we debate over
such commercialisation of both Churches and Temples. She said at
least the bible indicate 10% of tithes are to be given back to
Church.
Monkey see monkey do. No wonder many temples are equating money
with faith.
Aloysius Teng & Family
Phobe Fong & Family
Ananda Naritha & Family
Di Vissantha & Family
Parritha & Family
I think the puja in question is the "Grand Prayer that Blesses
and Benefits all Sentient Beings", or "水陆法会“ in Chinese (literally
means Puja of Land and Water). Its tradition dates back to Liang
dynasty, when it was commissioned by Emperor Liang"
See
http://media.kmspks.org/uncategorized/water-and-land-great-festival
and in Chinese
http://baike.baidu.com/view/49829.htm
The puja is a very large scale one. The whole ceremony lasts 7
days and 7 nights of chanting of various important texts, and is
divided into 7 altars or shrines. There is an inner shrine and 6
outer shrines, and they require 59 Bhikkus to lead the chanting in
all 7 shrines. Other helpers are needed to help out with reception,
cooking, admin, etc, and close to 100 people in total are required
to organize such a large scale puja. Furthermore for the puja, for
all 7 shrines, there needs to be many offerings such as oil lamps,
flowers, fruits, vegetarian food, etc, and need to be replenished
everyday for 7 days.
The cost of organizing such a grand puja is huge, considering
the costs of tentage, the large amount of offerings required, and
the amount of manpower involved. Typically (and historically), the
cost of all 7 shrines are borne by a few sponsors from the laity
for benefit of everyone who wishes to participate in the
puja.
The reason why the inner
shrine is restricted to few people is to minimize interruptions
from having too many people moving in and out of the shrine, as the
chief master presiding over it has to perform complex
visualizations during the puja and requires full concentration.
That is why only few people are allowed in the inner platform, and
for expediency reasons only sponsors are allowed.
The outer shrines do not have
such a restriction and people are free to attend them to dedicate
merits to the deceased or to their families and friends. The outer
shrines are free because of the donations of the sponsors. There is
no difference in merits accrued from the outer or inner
shrines.
Of course, one way to avoid
misunderstanding is to disallow anyone into the inner shrine other
than the presiding monks. But that also defeats the purpose, as
most people (sad to say) would not want to sponsor the puja if
there is no such privilege. So out of expedient means, and to be
able organize the puja to benefit all sentient beings whether they
have the means to sponsor or not, the tradition is to allow just
the few sponsors into the inner shrine. This achieves two goals: to
minimize the disruptions in the inner shrine as explained earlier,
and to be able to conduct such a large scale puja to benefit all
sentient beings.
Btw, I am not affiliated to KMSPKS, but just wanted to provide
some background information so that everyone can understand the
context better.