The Cullen Café

[killersmom]

^^^^
This absolutely cracked me up! I snorted!!

Especially this part!

The incident prompted a warning from police that blow-up sex toys are "not recognised flotation devices’’.

[tfferg]

Of novices doing the striptease… and being disrobed
•   Published: 22/01/2011 at 02:51 AM
•   Newspaper section: News

With some things, if you just ignore them they go away. Like bees. Or that mysterious aching pain you get in your liver after a night of hard drinking.

Some things don't just go away. Homosexual novice monks doing a striptease in a temple and then posting the video on Youtube springs to mind.

Sad as it is, I didn't just make that story up. Last week the Thai media reported that two novice monks were filmed dancing provocatively inside a temple. Following an argument amongst those involved, the video was then posted on Youtube so the whole world could see just how dedicated Thai Buddhist novice monks are.

And what was the response to this shameful behaviour? The novices in question were expelled from the temple and, according to people who know about these things, subsequently joined a new temple! Meanwhile, the video clip was removed from the web and not much else was done about it.

Everything is now back to normal. The Buddhist institution in Thailand is functioning perfectly and there are absolutely no negative issues regarding the kingdom's national religion.

The end.

At least that's what the Sangha would  have you believe. Obviously this is not the case.

So what do we need to do to prevent incidents like this recurring and tarnishing the image of a major world religion?

From an institutional level would it be so much to ask that some form of screening process take place?

I don't mean we should have a form that says, ``Are you gay and do you plan to dance naked in a temple? If yes, no need to fill out the rest of the form, just take your things and leave quietly.''

That would be wrong.

But there should be a period where a temple's abbot gets to know the would-be monks, following which either he or a council approves their request to ordain.  Surely setting something like that up can't be difficult?

It should be the responsibility of the temple elders to decide whether a person is mentally ready for monkhood. If they're not, what's the point?

And let me be clear that this has nothing to do with sexual preference. If you spend all your time consumed by sexual thoughts, lusting after the latest technology, worrying about money or your social status, then you probably aren't ready for life as a monk.
Talking through issues such as these during the screening process would save everybody a lot of time and unwanted embarrassment.

But this is never going to happen, is it? ....

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/217580/of-novices-doing-the-striptease-and-being-disrobed

In Thailand, some men ordain as monks for life. Others ordain for a short time, anything from a few days to a year or more. The traditional custom, still followed by many, is for a man to ordain when he is 20 for the 3-month rainy season retreat. This used to be the rite of passage after which a young man was considered eligible to marry. The merit acquired by ordaining is for the benefit of the man's mother, women in Thailand not being allowed to ordain as Buddhist (Theravada) nuns. Families have big parties the night before a son is ordained and there is lots of feasting, drinking and dancing. The candidate is carried in a dancing procession to the temple the next morning with many of the revellers swigging alcohol (despite the fact that precepts for lay people discourage the use of intoxicants).

There is also a custom of young boys going to live in temples and ordaining as novices to get an education. My partner comes from a poor village family. The village had only a primary school. He went to live in a temple in the provincial capital in order to go to junior high school and then went to live with his eldest brother in Bangkok to go to senior high school. I wonder if the number of young boys who ordain will be affected by the current government's introduction of 15 years of (theoretically) free schooling.

BTW, one of the many challenges for a novice is the garb of a monk. My ex, who spent a year in a temple, told me of being all  the more conscious of the sensations of sexuality because monks are not allowed to wear underwear under their robes.

[CellarDweller115]

I don't mean we should have a form that says, ``Are you gay and do you plan to dance naked in a temple? If yes, no need to fill out the rest of the form, just take your things and leave quietly.''

Tony, that phrase just killed me!

Sometimes, I really wonder about what goes through the minds of some people.  Surely the young monks knew their behavior would be an issue, so why would they behave that way?  I don't get it.

Don't people realize that more and more video equipment is around and if they don't want to be caught doing something, they probably shouldn't do it?

[tfferg]

Tony, that phrase just killed me!

Sometimes, I really wonder about what goes through the minds of some people.  Surely the young monks knew their behavior would be an issue, so why would they behave that way?  I don't get it.

Don't people realize that more and more video equipment is around and if they don't want to be caught doing something, they probably shouldn't do it?

LOL! Khun Arglit has a way with words.

Yes those novices must have known at some level that their behaviour was just not on.  I found when I was teaching that a lot of young people here just seem to go through the motions without actually paying any attention. But this is a country where the law is enforced very selectively, so maybe they thought they could get away with it. School students can't fail. If they do fail a test, they are just made to do supplementary multiple-choice tests so they eventually get a passing grade. I wonder if in this case, being disrobed for breaking the monastic rule might have been their first encounter with reality - temporarily anyway since they were able to ordain again at another temple.

Scandals involving monks are not uncommon, about affairs with women followers and/or property or unethical financial actions/crimes and they are widely publicized.

As for people breaking rules and laws or abusing human rights, I guess if they are irresponsible enough to do so, they don't give a thought to the probability of a video record going public.

[fofol]

There is really only one proper response to this:  "Are you gay and do you plan to dance naked in a temple? If yes, no need to fill out the rest of the form, just" give me a call so I can join in the celebration.

[tfferg]

I'm afraid I'm rapidly turning into a grumpy old man and getting stroppy with some people very quickly, especially when getting the runaround on the phone.

Yesterday we were walking along our local High Street shopping strip on our way to the pharmacy when a middle-aged woman I presume to be of European background held up a publication in front of Phong. I've seen her do it a number of times before to non-Anglo Australian passers-by. She's never approached me unlike more aggressive groups. I think she's pushing some Christianist church or group that may have a non-Anglo congregation. i felt instantly very angry and said "Go away, you wicked woman". It was intemperate of me and Phong was shocked and reproached me. I explained to him that these evangelical groups hate us and are busy lobbying the government and running public campaigns against equal marriage. I have also had experience of evangelical church members who target people with little or no English and harass them and when I was teaching young immigrant and refugees had students ask us for help in protecting their families from them.

[tonydude]

  Tony, I know what you mean by being allergic to those fundamentalist cults.  They are very weird.  It isn't the fundamentalism, and the anti-this-or-that which bothers me. It's just that I've seen them destroy lives with their cult ways. The lives of their recruits.
 I feel dirty and metaphysically wary, when I run into them.  But it's only rarely that I muster the strength to be as firm as you were, in brushing them off.  IMO, you did well.

[tfferg]

Years ago, there used to be a group of people who would come on the weekends and ring the doorbell and proffer Christianist tracts. They always had their small children in tow, which inhibited me from showing my feelings beyond saying I wasn't interested and shutting the door. I felt sorry for the poor kids. I ended up putting a card by the doorbell reading "No evangelists or missionaries" which worked thankfully and I haven't been harassed at home since then.

A couple of years ago, doing the weekend shopping and walking along High St, I spotted a group of evangelists with coloured tracts button-holing people a little way ahead. Phong and I don't usually hold hands in the street, but guessing the Christianists were probably homophobic, I took Phong's hand and we sailed through unaccosted. Phong didn't realise what I was doing. Whenever we walked along that stretch of High St after that, he would take my hand.

[tonydude]

  I guess this is the appropriate thread, for general stuff.

 This has been, for me, the week of computer viruses  .  First, low threat, Facebook has had some issues, according to the news.  Low threat for me, as my page is nearly comatose, so I haven't gotten any scams, there.  Then 6-7 major companies were hacked, and one of them was a financial institution I use.  No threat there, as the solution is to just ignore any e-mail or phone calls, of which there have been none.
  The third was a direct hit, but, as far as I know, I didn't get compromised.  This one is very recent, has a name, but I forget what it is.  You get a warning from a Microsoft-appearing site, suddenly, telling you your computer was discovered to be infected, and giving the names of a bunch of the viruses, and advising immediate removal.  So, I forgot previous scams of this kind, and allowed the site screen to authorize removal.  Luckily, Microsoft said it did not recognize the site and advised against opening it. THEN, I remembered, and backed out. The http code looked strange, anyway.  So then, I got a warning my system would crash if I didn't authorize.  I still shut it down.  And, oh, great, Yahoo news or Huffpo had a warning of a massive wave, that day, of virus warnings from alleged Microsoft preograms, that were themselves the virus.
  I guess I was unlucky to be one of those attempted, but lucky I did back out.  Checked my security systems, and they said no probs.  Computer isn't any more grumpy than it usually is.

  Anyway, I should have posted this Monday, to give warning to others, but just got around to it now.

  I don't know about everybody else, but this virus stuff is just, to me, more evidence of how crummy things are these days.  I hope everyone stays alert.  Three in several days is not good news.

[killersmom]

I got two notices of the Epsilon Interactive breech, one from Robert Half and one from Target.
Did not get any other virus hits. Thanks for the post, Tony.

[tonydude]

 ^^^^ You bet!  Everybody be careful  !

[dejavu]

Then 6-7 major companies were hacked, and one of them was a financial institution I use.  No threat there, as the solution is to just ignore any e-mail or phone calls, of which there have been none.

I got this news too, Tony, but haven't received any emails or phone calls either.

[tonydude]

 Well, it does seem to be hit or miss, Debbie, so, am glad you got lucky!  Myself, I need to remember that these are problems that are here to stay, and I hope others do, too, and remain careful  .....

[CellarDweller115]

Geeez.....I hate viruses!  I had to have my computer professionally cleaned a while ago, thankfully, I've had no other problems since.

[tonydude]

  Facebook.  Aargh!  I re-activated my account, some months back, mostly so I could send messages. Too much inter-action on that site drove me nuts, several years ago, so that's why I closed it down.
  Anyway, I found an old friend from Ennis/Jack and have asked her to jump in. I hope she does, as we were once very close. Having done that, I think it might be better to be less of a hermit crab, and so, anybody from here would be very welcome.  It's under Francis Eller (gosh, I loathe that first name  and am so glad they tossed in Anthony, so I could have a normal name, as an alternative).
  So, if anybody wants to share their wall, and so on, please send me a message.  If anybody does, it really ought to freak out the sole friend, there, a photographer from Australia. A bunch of Brokies  , which was what there was, before. I don't let my family and local friends added on, as they just......snoop enough already.  I like making them feel guilty  ......