What is the big fuss about defrocking the Venerable Ming Yi?

Amitayus48 SG

Buddhism is compassion and benevolence in emptiness, it's democracy and liberty, neither it controls nor possesses. Harmony is important to the well beings and teachings of the Buddhism community. Hope that Buddhism teachings flourishes as long as possible to benefit afflicted living beings in samsara both physically and mentally to regain supreme consciousness of loving one another inherently and unconditionally.

放下屠刀，立地成佛 :D
The Buddha said to Ananda and Vaidehi, "Those who attain birth on the middle level of the lowest grade are the sentient bengs who violate the five precepts, the eith precepts or the complete precepts of a monk or a nun. A foolish person such as these steals from the Sangha or takes the personal belongings of monks, or preaches the Dharma with impure moties but feels no remorse. Thus he defiles himself by evil karma, and because of this he will fall into hell. "When he is about to die and the flames of hell suddenly close in on him, he may meet a good teacher, who compassionately explains to him the ten supernal powers of Amitayus, fully describing the majestic power of the light of that Buddha, his virtues in the observance of the precepts, meditation, wisdom, emancipation and knowledge of emancipation. When he has heard this, the eveil karma which he has committed during eighty kotis of kalpas of Samsara are extinguished; thus the fierce flames of hell turn into cool and refreshing breezes, wafting beavenly flowers. On each flower is a transformed Buddha accompanied by bodhisattvas welcoming him.

Amitabha

Demon Bane SG

So what will happen now? Will he go to jail again???? If he dun stand up the the charges, he won't be liable right? Or they (the council) can still demote his titles?

Aik TC SG

Frankly, I do not quite understand why the SBF would want to publicize the whole saga by going to the local press in the first place, when they should know that there is nothing they can do if Ven. Ming Yi refused to submit himself for a hearing with a disciplinary committee. What they do keep mentioning is the fact that many Buddhist leaders (who are they by the way?) thinks that the gala event is inappropriate.

The ironic is that, the whole event was organized by his supporters and the devotees of the Foo Hai Chan Monastery, but he is the one who is getting all the blame and bad publicity. On hindsight, he could have tried to ask the organizer to scale down the whole thing or stop it totally. But it is something I believe, his supporters or even he himself, did not expect the SBF to blow the whole thing out of proportion.

In today’s ST news, it was reported that the Chairman of the Singapore Buddhist Lodge commenting that the Ven. Ming Yi should have said ‘Sorry’ to the Buddhist community instead of thanking his devotee for their support. Good intention, Mr. Lee, but it sounds rather patronizing.

If Ven. Ming Yi refused to submit to any disciplinary action, I hope the SBF can extradite itself from a bad situation that they have created in the first place.

Rock^Star SG

just one word from the monk and the gala would have been more frugal.

Dawnfirstlight SG

If Ven. Ming Yi refused to submit to any disciplinary action, I hope the SBF can extradite itself from a bad situation that they have created in the first place.

I believe SBF is under pressure. If you know Ven. Kwang Phing (SBF's secretary-general), you will know that he is a very low profile person. He is not that type of person who will make a mountain out of a molehill. If Ven. Kwang Phing wants to take action, he would have done it long ago. As a lay Buddhist, just leave the sangha (monks)issues to the sangha community. Hope that everything will turn out well.

Pacman_73 SG

Building temples, hospitals and other charitable acts are good deeds that can be performed by anyone with the financial means and compassion. Members of the Sangha have a higher calling, that is to strive for enlightenment in order to guide all sentient beings out of samsara.

It is very distressing to know that an abbot of a temple with a large following feels it is all right to break certain monastic rules and precepts because times are different! While it is true that we live in modern times, the amount of diligence, dedication and perserverance needed to attain enlightment remains the same, be it in the past, present or future. Modern times are fraught with temptations, much more than in the past. And that makes the adherence to monastic rules and precepts more important than ever.

Rev Ming Yi should do the right thing, i.e., voluntarily resign from the abbotship of Fuhai Monastery and study Buddha’s teachings all over again. That is the least he can do to redeem himself for having twisted Buddha’s teachings during court hearings in order to justify his actions.

sanath SG

I think we've all forgotten the good deeds that Ven Ming Yi did to the Buddhist community and to Ren Ci Hospital. He served as the Secretary-general of SBF for quite a number of years, and did a lot of good things during his tenure. I know because i was a devotee at Foo Hai Monastery, and Ven Ming Yi was my first Refuge Teacher. I really don't understand the reasoning behind SBF's stance now. If they wanted to discipline him they could have done it before he was sent for detention, why wait till after the temple's celebratory dinner in order to do so? It really makes no sense to me, personally.

sanath SG

I know 2 of them who are long time devotees from Foo Hai Monastery. One is my neighbour and another is my close friend. They are fiercely defensive. Reasons for being so supportive are as follows :

1) They witnessed what Ven. Ming Yi had gone through when he built Foo Hai Monastery from a run down temple. According to them, today's Foo Hai does not come easy. Ven. Ming Yi had gone through a lot of hardship (in terms of raising funds and hard work monitoring when rebuilding).

2) They witnessed what Ven. Ming Yi had gone through when Ren Ci was a poor hospital. Again, the hard work Ven. Ming Yi put in to raise funds (he contributed from his own pockets) and building it to today's Ren Ci.

3) They had seen the other side of Ming Yi which we have not seen. There was a couple approached Ven. Ming Yi many years ago to adopt their son as they could not afford to raise their child. Ven. Ming Yi brings the child up personally and did not send the child to orphange.The child is still in the temple. He is a teenager now.

I bear witness that what they said is true. In fact, i remember playing with the boy in example (3) when he was really still a small boy, this was in 1995. Ven Ming Yi had taken over a really run-down temple, but started to build up the temple as well setting up Ren Ci Hospital. Not only that, in 1993 Foo Hai held one of the first Buddhist Youth Camps held in Singapore. He's done a lot of good service for the Buddhist community in Singapore and i don't think we should forget that. Yes, money corrupts but religious figures are not saints either.

Dawnfirstlight SG

SBF is under pressure from other Buddhist leaders and lay Buddhists to take action due to the $1000 per table dinner.

SevenEleven SG

All the good cannot be erase but as a Sangha community, he should be subjected to the Vinaya rules as well. He should learn from the Buddha teaching that "gain, honour and fame" is the biggest obstacle to the path.

No one is sending him to the gallow but he should let go and return to the path.

Rooney9 SG

Ming Yi is reaping the karma of his actions now isnt he. he has suffered jail time for the punishment of his misdeeds and now his reputation are in tatters.

sanath SG

SBF is under pressure from other Buddhist leaders and lay Buddhists to take action due to the $1000 per table dinner.

Which to me, is none other than "politics". An aquaintance put it quite aptly in Facebook:

so sad to see this happening. i cannot understand why these people just cannot give ven m.y. some space for him to be comfortable and give him a chance to move forward. who is perfect in this world? is it not because of our imperfection that we now have to strive and practice for perfection? if not, then we would have been buddhas and great saints now. even if he had made mistake and done wrong in the past, the government had taken their actions and he had already served his dues. why is there another set of community (formal, informal or as individual) coming up to try to pass "judgement" or even demand for an apology. what is the objective? is it to boost one's ego?? don't forget that whenever we point our index finger at someone (wrong), we always have 3 other fingers pointing back at us. where is the compassion that we stress so much and learn in our faith?
I guess if this does not stop and continues further, we could really see for ourselves who are the "real practitioners" . Action speak louder than words!

I agree.

sanath SG

No one is sending him to the gallow but he should let go and return to the path.

I don't think he broke any of the 4 major rules that requires him to be defrocked. But i do agree that he does need to do repentance, maybe to other senior monks or senior disciples, but i don't see the need for SBF to step-in and harp on the issue of the dinner.

Dawnfirstlight SG

Isn't SBF responsible for all the Buddhist matters in Singapore ? SBF is doing for the sake of the Buddhist community and Buddhism in Singapore. Buddhists will lose faith in Buddhism if some Buddhist community continue to splurge on the gala dinners. This is the first time and if this is not stopped, there will be more to come. SBF is right, they 以大局为重。Buddhists contributions are for the temples and charitable deeds, not for anybody to splurge on unneccesary things.

Dawnfirstlight SG

Which to me, is none other than "politics". An aquaintance put it quite aptly in Facebook:

I agree.

I see the demand for an apology is not that Ven. Ming Yi had made a serious mistake. As the $50,000 was not for his own use. According to my friends, Ven. Ming Yi is the type of person who hardly turns down anybody who approach him for help including long term commitment like bringing up a child. However, I see the apology is more for ruining the name of Buddhism due to the unfortunate incident.

zero thought SG

I think the important thing is not about putting anyone down or promoting anyone to a higher "in-charge" status. Any action should have solely the intention for the preservation of Buddhism.

Also, there are so many Buddhist cults around teaching externalist practices masquerading in the form of Buddhism - I think that is more dangerous.

We are in no position to handle the situation too, it's best to let it go and let things take their course. What we can do is work hard in our own cultivation, graduate, and come back to teach and transform beings.

Demon Bane SG

Hope he'll repent. Can he still be a monk? There are rumours that he can no longer be a monk....is it true?

sanath SG

Not all Buddhist centers in Singapore are affiliated to SBF, Foo Hai Monastery is though. It's not the first time that gala dinners have been held; maybe it's the first in honour of a monk whose just been released from prison, but gala dinners have been held as fundraising activities for temples and centers. Maybe the media is harping on the issue as Ven Ming Yi was just released from prison, if not, no one would be making a hoo-haa on the issue. The dinner was Foo Hai Monastery's way of commemorating Ven Ming Yi's 20th year as abbot of the temple; it just so happened that it was held after his release from prison.

sanath SG

Hope he'll repent. Can he still be a monk? There are rumours that he can no longer be a monk....is it true?

Look at my above reply to SevenEleven. If misappropriation of funds (which were not for his own use, he didn't pocket the money) is considered a violation of the precept against stealing, then he can be defrocked.

Aik TC SG

Looks like the SBF have decided to drop its idea of bringing Ven. Ming Yi to task and moved on to other things.

ELECTRIC NEWS

'No point in raking up past'

Buddhist federation head says it's time to focus on faith, not Ming Yi's past

By Maureen Koh

December 03, 2010

Let's move on and keep our focus in the right direction.

So goes the surprise call from the Venerable Sik Kwang Sheng, president of the Singapore Buddhist Federation, after reports that the federation would act against convicted monk Shi Ming Yi.

The Ven Sik's message comes a day after the federation's secretary-general, the Venerable Seck Kwang Phing, had told The Straits Times that the Venerable Ming Yi "should step forward and be judged by his fellow monks".

A pro tem disciplinary committee would be set up to decide if Ven Ming Yi should be demoted or defrocked, provided he steps forward voluntarily, said the report.

Ven Ming Yi, 48, the founder and former chief executive of Ren Ci Hospital, was sentenced to six months in jail and served four months for charges related to misappropriation of funds.

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