Yesterday, I received a SMS from Dialog Telekom saying "Dial 556 to listen to Buddhist Teaching from Pitiduve Siri Dhamma Thero. Register before 6th Sep for free two weeks". I called and found out that after two weeks it'll be 65 rupees a month. I am amazed. This is simply and directly selling the Dhamma.
I think during past few years we have seen lot of commercialization of Buddhism. This appeared after the emergence of this so called media giant monks. Its true they are good preachers of Buddhism and they convey a good message to the public but underneath a huge business is flowering. If you go to one of their Asapuwas you will see that. One of them is marketing the Meithree Bhodisatva. According to him you have to observe strict pansil and practice dhmma AND buy his yanthra and other stuff to get the blessings of Mithree Bhodisattva so that you flourish economically and otherwise. Well, If you practice good dhamma do you have to buy his yanthra? Another one is selling books. Lot of books, just the Buddhist teachings and Sinhalese meaning, and sold everywhere. I read one book on Ruwanveliseya. Well, it's better than "Alice in Wonderland" when speaking of fairy tales. According to that basically king Dutugemunu has done nothing much. Everything is done by the gods.
This trend has spread to the smaller temples also. I saw in one 'old' temple, pirith nool for sale. Well, not the normal one, but a one imported from Thailand! If you go to most of the pilgrim "attractions" you will experience this one way or the other.
The story is two fold. According to what I gather, as contrast to the era controlled by the kings, there is no fixed income for the temples. They have to be maintained, acquire new things, like building and status etc. So, monks have to come up with lot of marketing ideas to do this. At the same time some write perfect success stories with millions of income.
I think its time to say no to this. This should stop somewhere. Again one might ask why shouldn't a monk experience a luxury life. Do we know what luxuries were there in Devram Vehera! We have noticed that Bhudda, the grate mother of all, did not try to acquire anything. They just reached the grate teacher. If one is getting luxury due to the good deeds done by the person that is another story, but it should not be by selling the Dhamma. Again one might say, you have to buy Buddhist Books, but they really include the cost of printing and publishing. Buddhist monks who has written good books are not so called commercially successful ones.
Give this a thought, and if you think 'enough is enough', do what you can. Send a mail to Dialog Telekom or call customer care hotline and say that as a Buddhist, you are against this. Stand against selling of Bhudda the grate one, and Dhamma, the real path.
