There is an article in the Star by Philip Golingail which I found interesting: Cleansing bad karma from a past life. It seemed that a Lanna-style rite has been carried out in Thailand to enable self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's safe return to Thailand. Lanna was a kingdom founded by King Mangrai in1296 in the north of Thailand around the city of Chiang Mai.In the ceremony for the prime minister, two pig’s heads, three boiled chickens, rice, lao khao or Thai whisky, fruits, sweets and coins were offered before a half-metre tall golden Buddha statue at Wat Umong, a Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai and the abbot and eight monks chanted and prayed to correct Thaksin’s bad karma and ward off evil coming his way. Forget the pig's head, the boiled chickens and theThai whisky as well as the Buddhist first precept to abstain from killing and the fifth precept to abstain from intoxicants for a minute and consider some of Buddha's sayings here:
- Reap What You Sow;According to the seed that’s sown;So is the fruit you reap therefrom;The doer of good will gather good;The doer of evil, evil reaps.
- We are the results of what we were and we will be the results of what we are.
- No Place To HideNot in the sky, nor in the mid-ocean, not in mountain cave, is found that place on earth where abiding one may escape from the consequences of one’s own evil deed.
- By oneself is one purified; by oneself is one defiled.
- To depend on others for salvation is negative, but to depend on oneself is. positive.
Comments
By the way, I do not understand how the Abbot and the eight monks could correct Thanksin's bad kamma and ward off evil coming his way by chanting and prayer? Is Thanksin free from suffering now?
What an innocent act?! Offering pig heads, boiled chicken and Thai whisky to the Buddha? Anyway, I had seen devotees offering boiled chicken and red eggs to Kuan Yin Pu Sar at Kuan Yin Teng Temple in Penang when they are celebrating their baby's first 1st full moon. Well, I believe Kuan Yin Pu Sar will pity their ignorant!
Just wondering, what would happen if the pigs and chicken feel that they could also ward off their bad kamma by offering human head and boiled human body to their GOD? Hahaha..... Sound silly right?
Anyway, may the ignorant people in the world have the affinity and opportunity to learn the real Dhamma one day!