To be Buddhist in Contemporary Society

To be Buddhist in Contemporary Society

Pracha Hutanuwatr *

Buddhism during the first eighteen years of my life was very concern with ritual and magic rather than content. I grew up in a fruit orchard environment in the Bangkok suburbs where I went to government primary school located in a local monastery but had little contact with the monks residing there. The main memories I have of monastery activities were big funeral and ordination ceremonies that included fun-filled events such as movies, folk music and theatre shows. We kids liked to go to the monastery for that. In our classroom we were also given an envelope for donations twice or trice a year for yellow-robe offering (kathina) or forest-robe offering (pha pa).

My mother ran a small business in a market in central Bangkok, my father looked after us six siblings at home. My parents were both second generation overseas Chinese with the father coming from China and the mothers born in Siam [Thailand]. My mother''s religious belief was a mixture of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. All were of popular type. My father was more agnostic but went along with my mothering ancestor worship and other ceremonies in the Chinese way. As I understand from my mother in those days, all the ceremonies were for the prosperity of the family. Only late in her life did she get into the meditative aspect of Buddhism and Taoism. Buddhism for her was to visit monks she believed had special power that they put into amulets and statues to help our business. She also consulted a blind Chinese astrologer intensively and this helped her cope with the hardship of bringing up six children to be well fed and educated.

At school Buddhism was taught as one subject among others mostly with old-fashioned teachings who made Buddhism very boring. We had to memorise a lot of principles for the exam. We did three minutes of chanting in the morning before going into class and in primary school a longer chanting on Friday afternoons. We did not understand what we chanted.

So until I was eighteen Buddhism did not have a deep impression on me, despite three years in my early teens when I attended a Buddhist Sunday school and enjoyed the friendship of the monks who taught us. I remember during this time I challenged him that there are no more enlightened beings in the world today. He quoted the Buddha saying ''As long as there are those who practice the eightfold path, the world will not be without the enlightened one''.

However the real ethos of my first two decades was to get rich and move-up. Both at home and school we were brought up to compete with each other. The whole society was dominated by the Americanisation process of the ''development era''. It was a kind of uneven continuation of the previous 100 years of ''mordanisation''. Through the radio, television and billboards all over the countries, the Government intensively propagated the motto ''Good education brings good money and happiness'' or ''Work is money, money is work''. This was the time when the American adviser to the Thai government asked the dictator Sarit to forbid the monks to teach contentment saying this would make the country backward.

So we grew up with the idea that we had to get rich and move out of this orchard neighbourhood. A good life was one with a lot of money, big house and big car. My elder brother had to help my mother earn a living during daytime and he went to night school. He studied hard, went to university and got a Fulbright scholarship for a Ph.D. in the USA. He was our role model when we were young. So we all worked hard at school except my elder sister who had to work hard with my mother to earn our living and send us all to school. She did not even get a chance to go to primary school. I got into a prestigious high school in Bangkok by merit where competition was extremely intensive as all the ''best'' from all over the country would come here as a gateway to a prestigious future. It was clear here that to compete was a virtue.

However, at the end of 60''s and the beginning of 70''s a wave of student awakening crept into my school. I intensively read Buddhadasa, a monk who gave life to contemporary Buddhism and his teaching washed away the Thai version of the American dream in my head nearly completely. Then when I went to university the student movement moved left and Buddhadasa had no ready-made answer for social change, so I shifted to the left and became deeply involved with the underground Thai Marxist-Maoist movement for 3 years. At the same time the new left intellectuals above ground also appeared to me personally. At the end of the 3rd year of Marxism I got completely disillusioned as it seemed to me that we spent more time fighting each other than the fight for the cause of social justice and ecological well-being we first aspired to. In early 1975 I quit the youth wing of the Communist Party of Thailand.

Supported by Ajarn Sulak Sivaraksa and other friends who formed the ''Ahimsa Group'' I became a Buddhist monk. My original intention was for two weeks but I ended up eleven years in robes. It became an attempt to come to terms with my disillusionment and to explore my Buddhist roots. I spent the first four years moving around forest monasteries searching for meditation teachers all of whom were very traditional and conventional and spent the last seven years with Buddhadasa who was very unconventional.

Three important things I learnt during this decade:

(1) Coping with the enemy within: no escapism. For me the Buddha designed the life of a monk so that one cannot escape from oneself especially if one tries to live a monk''s life as original designed. You have to face your own self without any escape. As activists, our enemy was always out there but now you start to see all those whom you have accused, the dictator, the capitalist, the reactionary, the conservative, the feudalist, they are all inside you and you have to learn to live and cope with them and tame them step by step with a lot of sense of humour otherwise you go crazy.

(2) Joy unlimited: The other very important thing I learnt was meditation. One can find quite a sensational joy just by meditation and not that deeply actually. Daily meditation is like spring water for daily spiritual thirst and if used wisely this also reinforces the abovementioned self-recovery.

(3) Some synchronicity: Though I could not swallow Marxist philosophical ideas any longer, I had not abandoned the morality of social justice and ecological concern. I am on the left in the conventional political spectrum. Buddhist studies and meditation, at least under the guidance of Buddhadasa and Sulak Sivaraksa did not undermine this aspect of my life rather reinforced and refined it. Thus, the third big portion of my time was spent on understanding the complications of modern society.

For a rebel to have in a real sense is not easy. That''s why my first four years as a monk were quite restless. Although I tasted some deep joy of meditation, most monks, some were good meditation teachers, did not really related to my way of thinking. To have a good friend or teacher includes a lot of surrendering of your ego and accepting your teacher''s spiritual authority. Ajarn Buddhadasa was so generous for my endless questions and arguments. He used these arguments to sharpen my understanding of Buddhism skillfully. Though he pitied me when I told him that I wanted to leave the monkhood for a woman I lived, we became and remained goodfriends even when I left him to disrobe.

Even as a monk, I maintained a regular relationship with Ajarn Sulak as another close teacher who tamed me in many other aspects outside Ajarn Buddhadasa''s concerns, especially the understanding of com plex modern society and the complications of urban activist psyche. Both of them trained me to challenge and accept, accept and challenge spiritual authority. It was so wonderful for a young seeker.

I disrobed in 1986 to be rejected by the woman I loved and to be humbled by my inability to use Dhamma to cope with the pain of my ego. I became a womanizer for a number of years creating a lot of pain to many people and myself. It may seem that the former is the cause of the latter - but this might not be so as I am of lustful temperament since I was young.

As a layperson, I worked under the ethos of socially engaged Buddhism under the leadership of Ajarn Sulak. We have been doing all sorts of projects and activities, local, regional, international, many of which are my own initiatives. I had plenty of room to breathe my teacher''s leadership has not shadowed my growth. The overall aim being to enhance the values of cooperation and compassion over competition, simplicity and local cultures over consumer-mono culture, social justice over exploitation, living in harmony with nature over conquering nature, inclusive over exclusive. We also work with non-Buddhist friends with deep respect for each other.

For me to be a Buddhist means firstly to reject the aims of life promoted by the present society to have more power, wealth, recognition or sensual pleasure. On the contrary we should aim to reduce the existential suffering of others and ourselves by reducing our cravings either in the form of greed, lust, hatred or self-importance. But this is just one aspect. We have to also reduce greed, hatred and wrong values in the society by changing the structural violence in society at the same time.

Relief work, though useful in any society, alone is never enough to reduce the suffering of the world. This is the difference between Buddhists who understand the present society and those who do not. Each year the social welfare department and the high-class charity foundations in Siam go out to the countryside or the slums in big city and provide cloths or food for the poor or stationary for the poor children. Most of the people involved do not realise their way of life is the cause of the poverty. They do not understand that poverty can often be reduced by reorganising the economic structure in a way that wealth is more justly distributed in society. We can reorganise economics so that the concept of dana (sharing) and karuna (compassion) are the core of the system instead of the maximization of profit and competition. Or if the education and the media stop brain-washing the rural people and forest dwellers that their way of life is inferior to the city dwellers, and if these institutions start promoting respect of cultural diversity and respect for local culture, a lot of those who are classified as ''poor'' will be able to live a self-reliant life with dignity and don''t have to depend on the donation of the upper-class and government departments.

We take the structural issues seriously because firstly the present structure is the result of and reproduces wrong view and unwholesome thoughts. These include pursuit of endless economic growth, the conquering of nature, the over emphasis on individualism (or collectivism in the case of Soviet model experiment). In other words these wrong views are the cause of the increasing greed, hatred and illusion in society. Hence a natural increase of suffering. Secondly, as the social structure is humanmade, it is the out come of policy makers, government, inter-government or TNCs, so it can be changed by public opinion and political will.

Moreover, when the majority of public opinion has not changed we can create new experiments, new ventures, and new social innovations to show that alternatives are possible and stimulate social reform in different areas. The Buddha actually did this when he established the Sangha during his lifetime.

For me a meaningful Buddhist life in this contemporary world needs to be based on the application of wisdom and compassion both for inner work and outer work. If you work only for inner change, emphasise only on vipassana and keeping your personal precepts, you escape from social responsibility and avoid all the suffering around you. Your meditation on loving kindness and compassion could be a fake. If you work only for social change, you escape from responsibility of dealing with the negative and cultivating positive aspects of consciousness that is part of the collective consciousness. External and internal work complements each other for a more healthy society and more enlightened individual.

As I also believe that the path to this goal of enlightenment is a slow sloppy process, not unlike the slope from the ''shore to the centre of the ocean, we have to pay a lot of attention to how we live our daily life and try to have a glimpse of enlightenment here and now. This would not have been possible without the intensive training I had during my years as a monk. St that time I was young enough to endure the hardship of intensive sitting and walking meditation. So the path to enlightenment should start when you are young enough. Young people should be ambitious in this aspect. Taming the dragon within need to a lot of psychical and mental strength. Side by side with this meditation we need to train ourselves to look at things around us from a non-self perspective. This changing of perspective needs a lot of practice too at least for a period in one''s life which will make it easier to bring it into our daily life. Without practice, philosophising about non-self can be very self-deceptive and harmful. A lot of so-called Buddhists fall into this trap without awareness of it.

A non-self perspective is a radical way of looking at everything beyond all kinds of conventional frames of reference and even beyond the concept of non-self itself. A good book on the subject can help as a first step, a good spiritual teacher can help tremendously then we have to work it out for ourselves individually. As the Buddha said when we know only we know that we know.

As I have a lust temperament, I find the keeping the third precept difficult. Even though since my marriage, I have stopped sleeping around with many women, I still enjoy women''s companionship and I have more women friends than men. I have been training myself to welcome getting old as it helps the hormones to be less active. I also still enjoy eating meat with some feelings of shame from time to time but not guilt. However, training oneself in precepts is as important as in meditation and wisdom though it is as hard and also a gradual process to achieve. Even we try and fail we have to keep on trying and failing with a lot of compassion and sense of humour. Without the latter two elements you can become selfrighteous as the ego will creep into your trying to be good.

As to earning my living, I am that the dilemmas have reduced as I have a strong community and as time goes by. I have discovered some of my potential and am quite content using it for the benefit of others in my social change work. From a Buddhist perspective; to work for the benefit of others will benefit your-self. As you offer your thoughts and energy to help others with the right frame of mind, you are also cultivating the seeds of enlightenment within you. For me working for social change is part of a part to enlightenment. But again this is not easy. Your ego will always jump in and take possession of the good work you do for others and spoil it. For me at least this happens from time to time. One always has to be cautions. Learning to disown our good deeds is a good practice.

One thing that I find very helpful is to regularly visit who suffer, for example those who claim to be our target groups. If we sit and work in the office for too long or jet around to meet other people of the same sort too much, our heart can get lost even though our mind still articulates our mission. Visiting the poor, the excluded, the protesters, the slums, the handicapped and the forest dwellers helps the flowering of our compassion. We can also learn a lot of wisdom from these people as suffering makes them wise and some of them live a much more sustainable life than those of us who preach it. When we were young and got confused easily, visiting them helped clarify our direction. Now I visit them to gain wisdom and develop my compassion and pull me down to earth.

However as a non-enlightened being, there are times in daily life that our minds are clouded. I am not always a happy bunny. Whenever that happens, I take that state of mind as a visit of a great teacher to show me the areas in my heart that needs to be cultivated, to show me where the non-self perspective has not been sufficiently applied. As life goes by if we can see affliction and confusion reduced, we can bow to ourselves.

There are other time when the comparing mind pops in to say ''hello dear, you don''t have as gig a house as your friends, you don''t have as much power and position as this one, or you are not as famous as that one''. I would that comparing mind with a gentle smile and respond humorously ''Thanks, but I don''t need your nagging. I am who I am. I enjoy my work. I enjoy my friendship, I have a good family and community and I have enough for my life. I accept and sometimes enjoy the challenge of life as causes and conditions arise. Sometime I even go for a challenge. My life here and now is precious. I enjoy exploring and expanding my potential and I don''t need a sense of lack to do that. I am good enough and I do not need to compare. Thank you very much. If you are not sure you can visit me again. Bye!''

I will talk to this comparing mind as many times as needed with a lot of love and gentleness. He seems to come to visit me less often as time goes by.

As for the basic needs of life I go for a minimum principle but not scarcity. Besides enjoying working a lot I go to a good movie from time to time. Once in a while I go to a bad one. I go for beach holidays most years and immerse myself with the sea. I go for a forest walk every year. I often read good novels that touch the deeper part of my heart and good non-fiction that stimulates my intellectual curiosity increases my understanding of complicated social issues. I enjoy the companionship of good friends and close relatives and walks in nature.

Though I still have a clear sense of what ideas are right or wrong, I am less attached to the rightness and wrongness of them and able to listen to people of different opinions with understanding and if needed with patience. However, I have a clear sense that I am treading on a right path but knowing that this is not the only path.

All in all, to be a Buddhist in contemporary society, I am aware that my society is based on a wrong view (miccha ditthi) and I have to resist the mainstream way of life which promotes greed, violence, individualism, competition. I cannot wait until the dawn of a new society to live a good Buddhist life so, here and now, I have to find and create alternatives that based on the Buddhist values of compassion, generosity, justice, living close to nature and peace. I have to live a life that Ieads to the reduction of my existential afflictions. An important part of doing that is to embark on a challenging and meaningful work to shift the society to move towards right view. I like to think of myself as a small bodhisattva whose mission to transform my consciousness and to change the structure of society is one. ( I copied it fro rakhapura online magazine, sorry for not asking permission)