Skip to main content
Betting shops are all over Malaysia but they are out of bound for Muslims which is understandble since their religion forbids gambling. Once, a raid was carried out by the Pahang Islamic Religious Department (Jaip) at a four-digit lottery shop in Kuantan, Pahang. The shop turned chaotic as people started to run helter-skelter. Some of the men aged between 29 and 54 years, kicked and even punched the officers. I have heard of people questioning the Buddhist Five Precepts. There seems to be no clause that forbids gambling which they find puzzling. Gambling, understandably, is bad and the Fifth Precept particularly, Surā-meraya-majja-pamādaṭṭhānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi, sometimes, said to mean, I undertake the training rule to abstain from fermented drink that causes heedlessness sounds more like the antidote for an Indian social problem. Even in this modern age, Indians seem to like drinking more than let's say, the Chinese, who happen to love both drinking and gambling. Both are bad if you want to see them as bad, and why then, isn't there a clause in the Five Precepts or anywhere else that forbids gambling? Lest there is a deeper meaning to the Fifth of the Five Precepts like for example, if it had been translated into, I undertake the training rule to abstain from intoxicants - that would be a broad term that refers to anything under the sky and above too, that causes heedlessness...
Betting shops are all over Malaysia but they are out of bound for Muslims which is understandble since their religion forbids gambling. Once, a raid was carried out by the Pahang Islamic Religious Department (Jaip) at a four-digit lottery shop in Kuantan, Pahang. The shop turned chaotic as people started to run helter-skelter. Some of the men aged between 29 and 54 years, kicked and even punched the officers. I have heard of people questioning the Buddhist Five Precepts. There seems to be no clause that forbids gambling which they find puzzling. Gambling, understandably, is bad and the Fifth Precept particularly, Surā-meraya-majja-pamādaṭṭhānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi, sometimes, said to mean, I undertake the training rule to abstain from fermented drink that causes heedlessness sounds more like the antidote for an Indian social problem. Even in this modern age, Indians seem to like drinking more than let's say, the Chinese, who happen to love both drinking and gambling. Both are bad if you want to see them as bad, and why then, isn't there a clause in the Five Precepts or anywhere else that forbids gambling? Lest there is a deeper meaning to the Fifth of the Five Precepts like for example, if it had been translated into, I undertake the training rule to abstain from intoxicants - that would be a broad term that refers to anything under the sky and above too, that causes heedlessness...
Comments