At first glance, the Buddhist religion can be very impressive.
But how does it operate in the home continent?
But how does it operate in the home continent?
Traditional Buddhism –
Success or Failure?
Dear Reader. If you came to this webpage seeking info about
‘The Broken Buddha’ by S Dhammika from a Google search, I begin to discuss it
just before the section ‘Corruption and Decadence in the Religion.’
I use Dhammika’s book to expose the problems of the religion,
that impacts on translation and presentation of Buddhist scripture.
I first need to explain what Vinaya is,
before I can introduce ‘The Broken Buddha.’
Best wishes fr Mike.
‘The Broken Buddha’ by S Dhammika from a Google search, I begin to discuss it
just before the section ‘Corruption and Decadence in the Religion.’
I use Dhammika’s book to expose the problems of the religion,
that impacts on translation and presentation of Buddhist scripture.
I first need to explain what Vinaya is,
before I can introduce ‘The Broken Buddha.’
Best wishes fr Mike.
Table of Contents.
1. The Original Practises of the Buddha.
2. Vinaya summarised.
3. Corruption and Decadence in the Religion.
4. Why All this Criticism?
5. The Origins of Vinaya.
6. Information Sources.
7. Copyright.
I wrote this website to give better presentation of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy and scriptures, so we can gain their full benefit. Unfortunately, the religion presents these themes according to tradition, and what is habitual is not necessarily helpful to daily life, or even relevant.
These problems in traditional translations and interpretations might be better understood if we examine the problems of the religion itself, as traditionally practised in the home continent, and among ethnic Buddhists who have immigrated into the West from Asia.
These foundational problems of traditional Buddhism do NOT NORMALLY MANIFEST in successful Buddhism in the West, because this new Buddhism is successful. Therefore, many Western Buddhists might not be aware of the root causes of unhelpful traditional presentation of Buddhist themes.
If similar problems also apply to the Brahmin caste of Hinduism, this would also explain traditional unhelpful presentation of Hindu themes, especially translations of the Upanishads.
Much of the problems of traditional Buddhism stem from the monks’ rules, and the role they traditionally play in the religion. What was the original purpose of these Vinaya Rules?
1. The Original Practises of the Buddha.
These rules were originally intended for a spiritual, male only, religious community, dedicated primarily to simple living and meditation in solitude, intent on cultivating spiritual insight that they could then offer to others who did not have the time nor discipline to meditate like this. These monastic communities or saṇgha were reliant on donations from those who worked, exchanging spiritual gifts for material gifts of food, clothes, and the minimum of possessions. Before mechanisation, much work was needed to make cloth and clothes, from wool or cotton. Clothes and especially blankets were expensive, and this is reflected in the Buddhist rules. A bowl to receive and carry food in was also expensive.
This was 2500 years ago, in what is now northern India. It was before the great forests were destroyed, and these monastic communities or saṇgha just camped in the forest. It was in a tropical climate, where clothes, insulated buildings and fires are not needed for warmth. Indeed, some sects went virtually naked, and there is a section in these rules named “naked ascetics.” The hot wet climate also made food production quite easy.
These saṇgha were also celibate, for sex brings children who must be fed and attended to. You cannot supervise a child while you are meditating. Sex also leads to possessive sexual relationships, and quarrels over trespass and ownership.
Because of the danger of rape and robbers in remote places, it was a spiritual practice better suited to men than women.
These monks rules, also called Vinaya or monks’ discipline, are recorded in the scripture called Vibhanga Sutta, also called pāṭimokkha. Thanissaro is a Western Buddhist monk and most prominent translator of Buddhist scripture. He offers a good translation of Vibhanga Sutta, dated 2007, at –
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/vin/sv/bhikkhu-pati.html#sk-part3
I have shortened and summarised these, and adapted them into a form that presents them in the most favourable light, for the purpose they were originally intended. About five percent of the Vibhanga rules are unhelpful, useless or even absurd, and I have excluded these from the following list.
The Vibhanga Sutta talks about bhikkhus. For our purposes, a bhikkhu is best understood to be “one gone forth” (pabbajta) to spiritual Liberation, and is a member of one of these saṇgha. But where it talks about bhikkhus and bhikkunīs, these can be understood to be male and female disciples of the Buddha. The Buddha needed to create some separation between his male and female disciples, to promote celibacy.
The shady bodhi tree.
the original dwelling place for the Buddha’s disciples.
Where has the religion gone to since?
the original dwelling place for the Buddha’s disciples.
Where has the religion gone to since?
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
Vinaya summarised.
The Rules for a Celibate Male Religious Community, Camped in the Forest.
As defined by the Vibhanga Sutta.
pārājika = Rules of defeat. Should these rules be broken, one is “defeated and no longer in affiliation”. Breaking a Parajika rule usually mean expulsion from the community for life. If a monk decides to take a wife, wedded or unwedded, he needs to first leave the community. Then, if the relationship fails and conceives no children, he might be able to rejoin that community or another one, later on.
saṅghā-disesa. Rules that, when broken, require a meeting of the sangha or community.
aniyata (no single outcome) – Rules that, when broken, result in either expulsion from the community, or a meeting of the community, or a confession of wrong doing.
nissaggiya pācittiya (forfeiture & confession). Two sections.
Simplicity in Clothing and Blankets.
No Personal Income
pācittiya. When these rules are broken, this requires a confession to the community. Five sections.
Correct Speech
Monks and Nuns to be Separate
Food and Meals.
The Military
Personal Conduct
sekhiya. Training for a Spiritual Leader. Each “rule” concludes with the mantra : “I will observe this training.” When these “rules” are breached, community members do not have to confess it to others.
adhikaraṇa samatha. Rules for Settling Disputes.
Some offences require a meeting of the community or saṇgha to be settled, others require only confession to a senior member of the community. Some offences are easily resolved, others are not. The rules specify seven different outcomes for settling disputes over misconduct by community members.
Most of these rules seem quite appropriate by themselves, if applied with wisdom. It might seem that such a list of rules could make quite a successful all male celibate religious community.
However, this is a long list of prohibitions. There are virtually no instructions to be positive. Vibhanga ignores the heart of spiritual practice, and gives no instructions for this. We need to -
There are other problems inherent in a long list of prohibitions like this. There are innumerable forms of unhelpful and antisocial behaviour, and it is simply impractical to ban them all. It is actually impossible. As a result, there is no rules against monks being disrespectful, arrogant, inconsiderate, greedy, lazy, wealthy and wasteful. And this happens to be a fitting way to describe certain attitudes and conduct that are far too common among Buddhist monks, in Buddhist countries and from Buddhist countries. Let us explore what Bhante Shravasti Dhammika discovered in his many international journeys to numerous Buddhist temples and monasteries in many different countries.
Dhammika was a Buddhist monk for almost 40 years.
Dhammika was my first teacher in the early to mid 1980’s, at the Buddhist Society of Victoria, then in Richmond, a very old inner suburb of Melbourne. He was very successful then, and he established me and many other Melbournians in meditation practice. He established me so firmly that I have practised meditation every day ever since.
Dhammika is a Westerner and grew up in Melbourne as I did. In the mid 1970’s he went to India on spiritual quest, and trained to become a Buddhist monk from 1976 to 1982 in Sri Lanka. He then returned to Melbourne in late 1982 to teach us at the Buddhist Society. His first Dharma talk in the West was also the first Dharma talk I heard. He is a few years older than I.
His book of 2005 with 177 pages, “The Broken Buddha. A Critical Reflection of Theravadan Buddhism, and a Plea for a New Buddhism,” explodes the corruption and decadence of Buddhism in the home continent. Since communism has destroyed Buddhism in the northern countries of China, Tibet and North Korea, the surviving Buddhist countries are now in the south, in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma and Cambodia, where Theravada is the dominant form of Buddhism.
This means that Buddhist countries are also Theravadan countries, these days.
As defined by the Vibhanga Sutta.
pārājika = Rules of defeat. Should these rules be broken, one is “defeated and no longer in affiliation”. Breaking a Parajika rule usually mean expulsion from the community for life. If a monk decides to take a wife, wedded or unwedded, he needs to first leave the community. Then, if the relationship fails and conceives no children, he might be able to rejoin that community or another one, later on.
- No sexual intercourse
- No theft normally punished by law
- No killing any human, or praise death, or incite someone to die
- No false claim of spiritual attainment
saṅghā-disesa. Rules that, when broken, require a meeting of the sangha or community.
- No Sexuality.
- No self stimulation.
- No sexual caresses.
- No seductive language suggestive of sex
- No suggestions of intimacy
- No conveying amorous messages between other people.
- When building a hut for oneself -
- keep it simple, not overly large,
- yet with adequate space around it, and
- in quiet place, and
- consult with the community before building.
- No unfounded accusations, especially of serious offences.
- Do not cause schisms in the community, and
- no support for those who cause schisms.
- If a member obstinately breaks these rules, urge them to accept admonishment from others, and improve their conduct.
- Expel members who are corrupt or depraved in conduct.
aniyata (no single outcome) – Rules that, when broken, result in either expulsion from the community, or a meeting of the community, or a confession of wrong doing.
- No time spent alone with a woman in a secluded place, that suggests intimacy.
nissaggiya pācittiya (forfeiture & confession). Two sections.
Simplicity in Clothing and Blankets.
- Keep clothes to a minimum.
- Do not “dwell apart from” these clothes.
- Nuns are not to supply nor wash nor prepare nor mend clothes for monks.
- Do not demand clothes from supporters, nor ask them for clothes when they have not offered to supply.
- Donations of clothes should be given to the steward of the community, not to individual members.
- Dye (“discolour”) clothes to a uniform colour; green, brown or black.
- No luxurious materials for blankets (traditionally silk or pure black wool).
No Personal Income
- No personal income, and
- Direct any income from one’s employment to the community’s funds, and
- NO embezzling income for the community into personal possession
pācittiya. When these rules are broken, this requires a confession to the community. Five sections.
Correct Speech
- No intentional lies
- No insults
- No divisive tale bearing
- No extended conversation with a woman without adult male chaperone (usually another monk).
- No claims of spiritual attainment, even if true.
- No discussing the offences of other community members to outsiders.
- No evasive frustrating speech.
- No complaints, blame and criticisms beyond proper admonishment.
- No sleeping in a dwelling that a woman is in.
- NO leaving bedding out in the rain
- No claiming the sleeping space of other members
- No angry eviction of other members from their sleeping places
Monks and Nuns to be Separate
- No admonishing nuns on their misconduct
- No admonishing nuns for “worldly gain.”
- Nuns are not to supply nor mend clothes for monks
- No travelling in the same vehicle as a nun
- NO sitting in private with a nun
- Nuns are not to feed monks.
Food and Meals.
- Accept only moderate amounts of food
- Pass on excess donated food to the rest of the community
- Do not continue to eat having refused further food.
- No eating at the wrong time.
- No eating food that has not been given.
- NO drinking alcohol.
The Military
- Do not attend military activities
Personal Conduct
- No tickling
- No disrespect
- No frightening people
- Bathe regularly
- No hiding the personal possessions of other members.
- Where an issue has been decided by the community, no agitating to reopen the issue.
- No accepting juniors as community members
- No consorting with thieves.
- No complaints that these rules are only minor and lead to anxiety, bother and confusion.
- No angry striking other community members
- No angry raising the hand to strike
- No unfounded accusations about other members.
- No intentional provocation to upset others
- No intentional listening to the arguments of others
- Having given proxy instructions for another to carry to meeting, no complaints about the decisions.
- No leaving decision making meetings without permission.
- No entering a village at the wrong time (eg after dark uninvited)
sekhiya. Training for a Spiritual Leader. Each “rule” concludes with the mantra : “I will observe this training.” When these “rules” are breached, community members do not have to confess it to others.
- Dignified Carriage, fitting for a Spiritual Leader
- Wear the monastic uniform in public, and
- Be modestly clad in public.
- Walk, speak, move and sit with dignity in public
- Food
- Give appreciation and attentiveness to food when it is offered, and
- also at meals.
- Eat with dignity, and
- don’t find fault with other community members at meals
- No Teaching Dharma -
- to people bearing weapons
- when travelling in a vehicle (these were cramped and bumpy in the Buddha’s day)
- to people not respectfully seated
- when standing over seated audience
- to someone walking ahead of you.
- Calls of Nature.
- No urinating nor defaecating in the wrong place.
adhikaraṇa samatha. Rules for Settling Disputes.
Some offences require a meeting of the community or saṇgha to be settled, others require only confession to a senior member of the community. Some offences are easily resolved, others are not. The rules specify seven different outcomes for settling disputes over misconduct by community members.
- Face to face verdict is needed.
- Verdict of “mindfulness.” This is the verdict of innocence given in an accusation, based on the fact that the accused remembers fully that he did not commit the offense in question.
- A verdict of past insanity.
- An act in accordance with what is admitted. Where the community member openly and accurately admits their wrong doing.
- In accordance with majority. Where there is disagreement in the community about the offence.
- Further punishment. Where the accused will not admit until cross examined at the meeting. The community withdraws normal rights and privileges to the wrong doer for a specified period of time.
- Covering over with grass. When both accused and accuser have been in the wrong. Both parties make a confession to the whole community assembled, including sick members.
Most of these rules seem quite appropriate by themselves, if applied with wisdom. It might seem that such a list of rules could make quite a successful all male celibate religious community.
However, this is a long list of prohibitions. There are virtually no instructions to be positive. Vibhanga ignores the heart of spiritual practice, and gives no instructions for this. We need to -
- be sensitive to and recognise the arising of defilement or kilesa, and
- learn to let go of kilesa so they may dissolve, dissipate and cease to trouble us,
- before they can invade our mind and hijack our will. Then
- cultivate, value, practise spiritual Qualities or bodhaṇga, and then
- protect bodhaṇga from defilements when they return.
There are other problems inherent in a long list of prohibitions like this. There are innumerable forms of unhelpful and antisocial behaviour, and it is simply impractical to ban them all. It is actually impossible. As a result, there is no rules against monks being disrespectful, arrogant, inconsiderate, greedy, lazy, wealthy and wasteful. And this happens to be a fitting way to describe certain attitudes and conduct that are far too common among Buddhist monks, in Buddhist countries and from Buddhist countries. Let us explore what Bhante Shravasti Dhammika discovered in his many international journeys to numerous Buddhist temples and monasteries in many different countries.
Dhammika was a Buddhist monk for almost 40 years.
Dhammika was my first teacher in the early to mid 1980’s, at the Buddhist Society of Victoria, then in Richmond, a very old inner suburb of Melbourne. He was very successful then, and he established me and many other Melbournians in meditation practice. He established me so firmly that I have practised meditation every day ever since.
Dhammika is a Westerner and grew up in Melbourne as I did. In the mid 1970’s he went to India on spiritual quest, and trained to become a Buddhist monk from 1976 to 1982 in Sri Lanka. He then returned to Melbourne in late 1982 to teach us at the Buddhist Society. His first Dharma talk in the West was also the first Dharma talk I heard. He is a few years older than I.
His book of 2005 with 177 pages, “The Broken Buddha. A Critical Reflection of Theravadan Buddhism, and a Plea for a New Buddhism,” explodes the corruption and decadence of Buddhism in the home continent. Since communism has destroyed Buddhism in the northern countries of China, Tibet and North Korea, the surviving Buddhist countries are now in the south, in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma and Cambodia, where Theravada is the dominant form of Buddhism.
This means that Buddhist countries are also Theravadan countries, these days.
Corruption and Decadence
in the Religion.
In Buddhist countries, monks monopolise the leadership of the religion, and the duty of lay people is to look after the monks. The monks are superior, the lay people inferior, and monks tend to become too proud of their exalted status. Giving donations of food, money, transport to monks is given the highest priority in the religion. (p 10). A man at a Thai temple in Singapore, known to Dhammika, could chant the five moral precepts in Pali, but he did not know the translation and meaning. But he did know he had to give a large hung pow or donation to the monks. (p 13)
How have the monks convinced the laity to give to them and not the poor and needy? Buddhism encourages people to give assistance to others. The giver receives what is called “merit” in English. This “merit” is a kind of spiritual currency to encourage people to provide best service, and render aid where it is needed. But the monks are in charge, and they set the currency exchange rates. Far more merit is earned when donations are given to monks than to the poor. Greed is a natural partner to other defilements, as follows …
In the late 1990’s the Western Buddhist monk Ariyeseko published his book “A Laypersons Guide to the Monks Code of Conduct.” I saw many copies of this 160 page book in Buddhist centers, including Bodhinyana. It has no less than fifteen pages about deferential conduct to the monks. Here are some of his instructions –
“If you meet a monk in the shrine room or inside a house, show your respect to him before you start discussion.”
“When speaking to a monk, always be polite and never raise your voice.”
“Do not point your feet to a monk. This is disrespsctful.”
“Lay people should not have their meal before a monk. They should wait until he has finished eating.” (please note, the food is always provided by the lay people!)
“Lay people should not stand and talk to a seated monk.”
“Always try to maintain a bodily posture lower than the monk.”
Ariyaseko claims this is “Examples of Vinaya practice.” Yet none of these rules are in the Vibhanga Sutta. Regardless, this deferential treatment of Buddhist monks ensured my decision to never become one, throughout my training in meditation and in Ajahn Brahm’s monastery, near Perth.
At a Buddhist event or venue, you are required to be very respect-ful towards the monks, if you want to be accepted. But are these monks necessarily respect-able? Dhammika, in “The Broken Buddha,” describes the early days when Buddhist monks thought that their attitude and conduct in Asia would be acceptable here in the West.
There was an incident in Europe. “A certain visiting monk was giving a talk to a group of thirty people. One was wearing a hat. So the monk deviated from his sermon, and said how rude it was to wear a hat when the monk was teaching Dhamma (Sekhiya Rule 66). Everyone in the room turned to the now excruciatingly embarrassed woman, who soon crept from the room and burst into tears. She had terminal cancer, was undergoing chemotherapy, had lost all her hair, and was wore a hat to disguise her disfigurement.” (p 50).
“An Australian woman invited a well known Buddhist monk to teach at a mediation retreat she organised. She arrived in her car, with two female friends, to pick up this monk. He looked agitated, and declared he could not get into the car. “We monks are not allowed to sit next to a woman!” Anxious to do the right thing, the woman discussed the matter with her friends. They agreed to stay behind while she drove the monk to the retreat. Again the monk objected. “I am not allowed to be alone in a car with a woman.” So the woman went to fetch her son. When she returned the monk objected again. It had to be an adult male.” Dhammika will not bore us with the rest of the tale. The woman finished up driving 250 miles instead of fifty, received not a word of thanks from the monk, and her two friends gave up in disgust and did not attend the retreat. The woman quit Theravada in protest, and turned to Zen instead.
If that monk had been referring to the aniyata rule, it actually forbids sitting alone with a woman where “a trusted supporter might describe as sufficiently secluded to address lewd words to the woman.” If so, the monk’s attitude is an excellent example of allowing unfounded allegations to override common sense and proper respect to a trusted supporter.
Dhammika vividly remembers his first encounter of Theravadan narcissism, in 1976. He had just arrived in Sri Lanka to start his monk’s training, and was taken to a funeral. It was in a slum, and the family was desperately poor. Their infant daughter had died, probably from the poverty. The senior monk gave the usual glib sermon that grief was pointless, because death was inevitable. Then the monks were served an enormous meal, from the gaunt and hungry heartbroken mother in the wretched house. The monks took no notice of the family’s tragedy, and ate with gusto. At departure, the senior monk whispered to the father, who rushed off to get a taxi – the style of travel suitable for monks. (p 80, "The Broken Buddha").
Very few monks in Buddhist countries meditate. According to an official of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Mandalay, no more than 15% of monks spend any time at all in meditation. According to Ingersoll, no monks mediate in rural Thailand. “They say they have no time for it.” Anthropologist Jane Bunnag studied monks in a regional Thai city. “Less than one third of my informants reported that they practised meditation, and only from time to time. When questioned about their techniques, they inevitably replied in the vaguest terms.” (p 65) How do monks spend their time?
“The monks settle back, and allow the lay people cater to every whim. There is little motivation for the monks to do anything at all. Because their Vinaya is a long list of ‘don’ts’, a monk that does nothing can qualify to be good. Boredom is a common reason why young men quit the monkhood, and boredom accounts for the inordinate amount of sleeping one sees at monasteries. You could hardly believe it possible for humans to sleep so much until you spend time in a Theravadan monastery. Monks are forever taking naps. All their needs are satisfied by others. The monk permitted to do nothing for himself, even if he wants to. He does no work, does not earn his bread. Everything must be given to him.” (p 64 - 67)
Most monks in Buddhist countries have virtually no physical exercise to freshen their mind and care for their body. Dhammika always walked for exercise. So the head monk organised for a driver to give him a lift, and could not understand why Dhammika refused the offered lift. How do monks support the Dharma?
Outside the small rural town of Matale in Sri Lanka is the site of the Aloka Vihara, where the Pali scriptures were first committed to writing in the first century BCE. In 1954, 2500 years after the Buddha was born, the abbot of the nearby monastery decided to build an international Buddhist research library on the site. Huge sums of money were collected, Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia laid the foundation stone, and eventually the complex was built. It still stands there, empty, unused, and with not one book in it. The abbot had no interest in libraries and research. Yet the “merit” had still been earned by all the expense and work.
In the 1960’s, a well known monk had a gigantic stupa (a Buddhist tower) built at the entrance to the port of Colombo, at a huge cost to lay supporters. It was the highest structure built in Ceylon. Its once white form is now dirty and unpainted, the light on top long broken, its metal fittings are rusting from the salt air, and its vast interior is quite empty. Apart from a roosting place for crows, it serves no good purpose. Why?
In traditional Buddhism, monks have little else to do but indulge their fancies. They have no responsibilities but to themselves. No one would ever dream of questioning a monk’s wishes. In Buddhist countries, one gives to the monks. That is the tradition, and what is habitual is not necessarily helpful, or even sensible.
Dhammika once visited a Sri Lankan temple in Australia, where there had been no monk resident for a while. The monks room was somewhat cluttered from past donations. Dhammika counted 200 cakes of soap, 60 toothbrushes, a huge pile of towels (he forgets the actual count), 9 electric heaters, a dozen clocks, and innumerable other things donated to the temple. In his last visit to Burma, he stayed in a monastery. In the large room where the abbot received his visitors, there were no less than 74 clocks on the wall. Which told all sorts of different times!
Dhammika continues on and on like this. For twenty five long long years as a Theravadan Buddhist monk he had been forced to keep silent about the corruption he saw repeatedly. "The Broken Buddha" opens the flood gates of all that pent up energy. Needless to say, it was his exit from Theravada, and he became an independent Buddhist monk in Singapore, which is NOT a Buddhist country.
Dhammika’s book is a powerful criticism of Theravadan Buddhism. Much of the problems of Theravada in Asia might not be so severe in other branches of Buddhism. This is probably because communism destroyed Buddhism in the northern countries of China and Tibet, and North Korea, and Buddhism from these countries is now a refugee religion. Has been all my life. Tibetan Buddhism had to go thru a major reformation to survive, and thrive in foreign countries, in the West.
Theravada in Buddhism corresponds to Catholicism in Christianity. Both have celibate male clergy who are separated from and elevated above the so called laity, and both are dominant in the south of the home continent. Other kinds of Buddhism were dominant in the north. These other branches originated in a split away from Theravada, some 500 years after the Buddha’s death, in protest against domination by a small elite of old priests. Likewise, other branches of Christianity originated from a split away from Catholicism, in protest against Papal dominance, some 500 years ago.
In the West, Zen and Tibetan Buddhism and offshoots like Insight and Vipassana Meditation correspond to Protestantism, including the evangelical “born again” Christian churches. The leaders are non celibate, usually hold normal jobs, and include both women and men. The services are all in the native language.
In my country of Australia, sexual molestation of juniors, especially young boys, had become so rife in Catholicism that the most senior Catholic priest in the country, Cardinal Pell, had to be thrown in jail for several years for sexual molesting juniors, to teach the religion a lesson. About moral conduct. This was several years ago. It cost the Catholic Church almost $800,000 in legal costs to get him out of jail. Whether the same problem occurs in Theravada, I do not know. Perhaps the topic was too sensitive for Dhammika to write about. He also wrote “The Broken Buddha” about 15 years before Cardinal Pell’s legal battles.
Dhammika saw a lot of Buddhist corruption because he travelled to many countries as a monk, visiting very many Buddhist monasteries and temples, and always saw what when on behind the scenes. And Dhammika is a Westerner who grew up in Australia, and he imbibed our religious values from an early age. Here, a good religious leader serves the community, and works hard in this, instead of serving his own greed and laziness.
How have the monks convinced the laity to give to them and not the poor and needy? Buddhism encourages people to give assistance to others. The giver receives what is called “merit” in English. This “merit” is a kind of spiritual currency to encourage people to provide best service, and render aid where it is needed. But the monks are in charge, and they set the currency exchange rates. Far more merit is earned when donations are given to monks than to the poor. Greed is a natural partner to other defilements, as follows …
In the late 1990’s the Western Buddhist monk Ariyeseko published his book “A Laypersons Guide to the Monks Code of Conduct.” I saw many copies of this 160 page book in Buddhist centers, including Bodhinyana. It has no less than fifteen pages about deferential conduct to the monks. Here are some of his instructions –
“If you meet a monk in the shrine room or inside a house, show your respect to him before you start discussion.”
“When speaking to a monk, always be polite and never raise your voice.”
“Do not point your feet to a monk. This is disrespsctful.”
“Lay people should not have their meal before a monk. They should wait until he has finished eating.” (please note, the food is always provided by the lay people!)
“Lay people should not stand and talk to a seated monk.”
“Always try to maintain a bodily posture lower than the monk.”
Ariyaseko claims this is “Examples of Vinaya practice.” Yet none of these rules are in the Vibhanga Sutta. Regardless, this deferential treatment of Buddhist monks ensured my decision to never become one, throughout my training in meditation and in Ajahn Brahm’s monastery, near Perth.
At a Buddhist event or venue, you are required to be very respect-ful towards the monks, if you want to be accepted. But are these monks necessarily respect-able? Dhammika, in “The Broken Buddha,” describes the early days when Buddhist monks thought that their attitude and conduct in Asia would be acceptable here in the West.
There was an incident in Europe. “A certain visiting monk was giving a talk to a group of thirty people. One was wearing a hat. So the monk deviated from his sermon, and said how rude it was to wear a hat when the monk was teaching Dhamma (Sekhiya Rule 66). Everyone in the room turned to the now excruciatingly embarrassed woman, who soon crept from the room and burst into tears. She had terminal cancer, was undergoing chemotherapy, had lost all her hair, and was wore a hat to disguise her disfigurement.” (p 50).
“An Australian woman invited a well known Buddhist monk to teach at a mediation retreat she organised. She arrived in her car, with two female friends, to pick up this monk. He looked agitated, and declared he could not get into the car. “We monks are not allowed to sit next to a woman!” Anxious to do the right thing, the woman discussed the matter with her friends. They agreed to stay behind while she drove the monk to the retreat. Again the monk objected. “I am not allowed to be alone in a car with a woman.” So the woman went to fetch her son. When she returned the monk objected again. It had to be an adult male.” Dhammika will not bore us with the rest of the tale. The woman finished up driving 250 miles instead of fifty, received not a word of thanks from the monk, and her two friends gave up in disgust and did not attend the retreat. The woman quit Theravada in protest, and turned to Zen instead.
If that monk had been referring to the aniyata rule, it actually forbids sitting alone with a woman where “a trusted supporter might describe as sufficiently secluded to address lewd words to the woman.” If so, the monk’s attitude is an excellent example of allowing unfounded allegations to override common sense and proper respect to a trusted supporter.
Dhammika vividly remembers his first encounter of Theravadan narcissism, in 1976. He had just arrived in Sri Lanka to start his monk’s training, and was taken to a funeral. It was in a slum, and the family was desperately poor. Their infant daughter had died, probably from the poverty. The senior monk gave the usual glib sermon that grief was pointless, because death was inevitable. Then the monks were served an enormous meal, from the gaunt and hungry heartbroken mother in the wretched house. The monks took no notice of the family’s tragedy, and ate with gusto. At departure, the senior monk whispered to the father, who rushed off to get a taxi – the style of travel suitable for monks. (p 80, "The Broken Buddha").
Very few monks in Buddhist countries meditate. According to an official of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Mandalay, no more than 15% of monks spend any time at all in meditation. According to Ingersoll, no monks mediate in rural Thailand. “They say they have no time for it.” Anthropologist Jane Bunnag studied monks in a regional Thai city. “Less than one third of my informants reported that they practised meditation, and only from time to time. When questioned about their techniques, they inevitably replied in the vaguest terms.” (p 65) How do monks spend their time?
“The monks settle back, and allow the lay people cater to every whim. There is little motivation for the monks to do anything at all. Because their Vinaya is a long list of ‘don’ts’, a monk that does nothing can qualify to be good. Boredom is a common reason why young men quit the monkhood, and boredom accounts for the inordinate amount of sleeping one sees at monasteries. You could hardly believe it possible for humans to sleep so much until you spend time in a Theravadan monastery. Monks are forever taking naps. All their needs are satisfied by others. The monk permitted to do nothing for himself, even if he wants to. He does no work, does not earn his bread. Everything must be given to him.” (p 64 - 67)
Most monks in Buddhist countries have virtually no physical exercise to freshen their mind and care for their body. Dhammika always walked for exercise. So the head monk organised for a driver to give him a lift, and could not understand why Dhammika refused the offered lift. How do monks support the Dharma?
Outside the small rural town of Matale in Sri Lanka is the site of the Aloka Vihara, where the Pali scriptures were first committed to writing in the first century BCE. In 1954, 2500 years after the Buddha was born, the abbot of the nearby monastery decided to build an international Buddhist research library on the site. Huge sums of money were collected, Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia laid the foundation stone, and eventually the complex was built. It still stands there, empty, unused, and with not one book in it. The abbot had no interest in libraries and research. Yet the “merit” had still been earned by all the expense and work.
In the 1960’s, a well known monk had a gigantic stupa (a Buddhist tower) built at the entrance to the port of Colombo, at a huge cost to lay supporters. It was the highest structure built in Ceylon. Its once white form is now dirty and unpainted, the light on top long broken, its metal fittings are rusting from the salt air, and its vast interior is quite empty. Apart from a roosting place for crows, it serves no good purpose. Why?
In traditional Buddhism, monks have little else to do but indulge their fancies. They have no responsibilities but to themselves. No one would ever dream of questioning a monk’s wishes. In Buddhist countries, one gives to the monks. That is the tradition, and what is habitual is not necessarily helpful, or even sensible.
Dhammika once visited a Sri Lankan temple in Australia, where there had been no monk resident for a while. The monks room was somewhat cluttered from past donations. Dhammika counted 200 cakes of soap, 60 toothbrushes, a huge pile of towels (he forgets the actual count), 9 electric heaters, a dozen clocks, and innumerable other things donated to the temple. In his last visit to Burma, he stayed in a monastery. In the large room where the abbot received his visitors, there were no less than 74 clocks on the wall. Which told all sorts of different times!
Dhammika continues on and on like this. For twenty five long long years as a Theravadan Buddhist monk he had been forced to keep silent about the corruption he saw repeatedly. "The Broken Buddha" opens the flood gates of all that pent up energy. Needless to say, it was his exit from Theravada, and he became an independent Buddhist monk in Singapore, which is NOT a Buddhist country.
Dhammika’s book is a powerful criticism of Theravadan Buddhism. Much of the problems of Theravada in Asia might not be so severe in other branches of Buddhism. This is probably because communism destroyed Buddhism in the northern countries of China and Tibet, and North Korea, and Buddhism from these countries is now a refugee religion. Has been all my life. Tibetan Buddhism had to go thru a major reformation to survive, and thrive in foreign countries, in the West.
Theravada in Buddhism corresponds to Catholicism in Christianity. Both have celibate male clergy who are separated from and elevated above the so called laity, and both are dominant in the south of the home continent. Other kinds of Buddhism were dominant in the north. These other branches originated in a split away from Theravada, some 500 years after the Buddha’s death, in protest against domination by a small elite of old priests. Likewise, other branches of Christianity originated from a split away from Catholicism, in protest against Papal dominance, some 500 years ago.
In the West, Zen and Tibetan Buddhism and offshoots like Insight and Vipassana Meditation correspond to Protestantism, including the evangelical “born again” Christian churches. The leaders are non celibate, usually hold normal jobs, and include both women and men. The services are all in the native language.
In my country of Australia, sexual molestation of juniors, especially young boys, had become so rife in Catholicism that the most senior Catholic priest in the country, Cardinal Pell, had to be thrown in jail for several years for sexual molesting juniors, to teach the religion a lesson. About moral conduct. This was several years ago. It cost the Catholic Church almost $800,000 in legal costs to get him out of jail. Whether the same problem occurs in Theravada, I do not know. Perhaps the topic was too sensitive for Dhammika to write about. He also wrote “The Broken Buddha” about 15 years before Cardinal Pell’s legal battles.
Dhammika saw a lot of Buddhist corruption because he travelled to many countries as a monk, visiting very many Buddhist monasteries and temples, and always saw what when on behind the scenes. And Dhammika is a Westerner who grew up in Australia, and he imbibed our religious values from an early age. Here, a good religious leader serves the community, and works hard in this, instead of serving his own greed and laziness.
Why All this Criticism?
Please remember why Dhammika wrote and published this material about corruption in traditional Buddhism. It is to help with the modern day Reformation of Buddhism. “The Broken Buddha” is subtitled “A Plea for a New Buddhism,” and the last 15% of the book describes Dhammika’s vision for this new Buddhism, that he calls “Buddha-yana.”
I myself hesitated for several years before I decided to include material from ‘The Broken Buddha’ by Dhammika on this website, mantra-translate. In fact, I wrote and published this webpage last, after I had composed everything else for mantra-translate. Exposing so much corruption just feeds the fault-finding mind, and feeds the ego that drives it. And our purpose is to return to our higher self, and restore it into our daily lives. Where it belongs.
I include material from ‘The Broken Buddha’ to help people understand why the religions have such trouble in presenting their philosophy in a clear and helpful manner. Explain why the doctrine is so cumbersome, unappealing and seemingly irrelevant to any but religious scholars. How can we expect good Dharma from a source that is so corrupted?
I feel called upon to present the philosophy in best possible light, and bring out all its full benefit, for our spiritual practice in daily life. I feel there is a real and urgent need. I believe that people really are interested in the Wisdom of the East, and the Sanskrit that preserves and conveys it. Indeed, over three hundred people visit this website every week! This is deeply rewarding to me personally.
Hence the need also to expose the hindrances and obstacles to proper presentation of the Dharma. I wish things were better in the native religion. But ignoring the problem only makes it worse.
The Origins of Vinaya.
Most of this corruption and decadence is the inevitable result of a religion that lost its contact with its origins and original purpose many centuries ago. Before describing the arrogance, greed, laziness and waste of Buddhist monks in Buddhist countries and from Buddhist countries, he spends some twenty pages describing the corruption of the Buddhist monastic order itself. Some of this is related to the Vinaya. What are the origins of Vinaya?
The Buddha was a most successful religious leader, being the son of a small king or baron, and he taught for forty years. As his following grew, the amount of supervision and inspiration he could give to each of his disciples naturally fell. He had groups of disciples or saṇghas scattered all over the country, out in the forests, and he travelled often. They could not have too many disciples in one place for too long, for this would drain the local food supplies too greatly.
Whenever he heard that one of his groups of disciples had erred, he would call attention to the wrong doing, assert the proper thing to do, and use this a teaching tool, when he visited his various saṇghas. The Buddha called this “dhamma-vinaya”, the spiritual teaching (dhamma) of spiritual discipline (vinaya).
Everything the Buddha said was remembered by his disciples. They had no books nor reading in those days, and people learned from birth to rely on memory, cultivate memory, and value it. Unlike today.
Several centuries after the Buddha’s death, these remembered sayings of the Buddha about improper behaviour hardened into fixed rules, fixed prohibitions. Since they were all attributed to “the Lord”, they remained unquestioned, unquestionable, unchangeable, with no further additions allowable. This is how the Sutta Vibhanga came into being. Scholars date it to two or three centuries after the Buddha’s death. And the Sutta Vibhanga defines Vinaya in modern Buddhism.
The list of Vinaya rules that I provide is actually a summary, and an adaption. The full wording of all rules is actually 10 times longer. A few monasteries observe the fortnightly Patimokkha chanting sessions, where they recite this long list in full. But rarely are these Patimokkha sessions used to encourage members to confess wrong doings to the community assembled, and so strengthen good conduct in the community. “The recitation of the rules is nearly always done in a purely perfunctory manner.” (“The Broken Buddha,” p 15). What actually happens in these Patimokkha sessions is this. The mind gets fully engulfed by all this indoctrination, and there is no room in the mind for any other viewpoint.
The monks who observe the traditional fortnightly Patimokkha chanting sessions are a small minority for all monks, but they are a substantial majority in Western Theravadan Buddhism. These monks adhere to all Vinaya rules at all times, with a fanatical insistence, and judge other monks accordingly. This is because such rigid adherence and judgement gives them highly elevated status in traditional Buddhism, and the traditional Buddhists from Asia are the biggest donors to Buddhist monks, for they have been trained to do so since birth. The last few decades have been an era of building new, purpose built Buddhist temples and monasteries in the West, and these need big donations. Western Buddhists tend to be tardy or incapable of such large donations.
As a result, these Buddhist “colonies” in the West tend to be more Buddhist than Buddhist countries, and these Western Buddhists approach Buddhist scriptures in a most traditional way.
However, most monks in Buddhist countries simply follow those rules that suit them, and ignore other rules that do not. Then they interpret these rules so that the rule justifies more status and wealth for monks and monks’ buildings, and more influence for the monks. These rules are “insisted on with the greatest conviction.” (p 14.)
And the monks say that these rules were laid down by the Buddha himself, and therefore beyond question. There are no rules against the corruption and decadence in this 9000 word long list. So why should the monks in Buddhist countries worry about it? They have trained themselves and the lay people to accept it all without question, and so the tradition goes on and on.
How is the presentation of Buddhist themes effected by all this? With the source religion in this state of decadence in the home continent, and Western Buddhists determined to be more Buddhist than Buddhist countries, it is not surprising that the traditional interpretation and presentation of the scriptures is not necessarily helpful or even relevant to daily life. And this is how Buddhist doctrine is presented on Wikipedia pages, for Buddhist scripture defines Buddhist doctrine.
Hence the need for new translation of scripture, and new presentation of the philosophy. This is the mission of this website : www.mantra-translate.org
Eric Harrison’s Rejection of Buddhist Scriptures..
Unhelpful and unwise interpretation of the Buddha’s dhamma-vinaya are paralleled by unhelpful and unwise interpretations of the sutta-pitaka (the basket of discourses) which are the scriptures that preserve the Buddha’s sermons (sutta). These can be so off-putting that many people who are keen on meditation are not at all keen on these scriptures. This includes meditation teachers.
Eric Harrison is a famous and very successful meditation teacher in Australia, having taught meditation to some 15,000 people. He is now part retired and in his late sixties. He was originally trained in Buddhist meditation in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, and I first met him at the Buddhist monastery near Perth in 1988, just after he began teaching meditation in Subiaco, Perth. I have fond memories of attending the talks by visiting Buddhist teachers that Eric hosted in the 1990’s, in Subiaco. I also greatly value the conversations I had with him, when we used to meet in the Subiaco shops, for we lived near each other. He had a beautiful meditation center in West Perth, on the third and top floor, which looked out over tree tops. When I introduced Eric to Dhammika in the early 1990’s in Perth, they connected very well together, and I observed from the backseat.
Eric Harrison is uncompromisingly critical of Buddhist scriptures, in his article “Why I am Not a Buddhist,” available at –
https://perthmeditationcentre.com.au/articles/general-articles/why-i-am-not-a-buddhist/
Eric describes these scriptures as “so cold and uncompromising, that Buddhist teachers have sweetened the message ever since.” He says these scriptures describe life as “inherently miserable, painful and frustrating because nothing lasts forever,” and we “find perfect peace through detachment, solitude and inactivity.” Eric then declares the Buddhist Four Noble Truths are “articles of faith in all schools of Buddhism,” and describes them thus -
- Suffering is Universal
- The cause of suffering is desire
- Nirvana is detachment, emotional neutrality, mental inactivity, and ‘snuffing out’ of the will to live.
- Train to extinguish our sense of self. Disconnect from worldly pursuits and human contact as much as possible, avoid all forms of entertainment, including music. Never discuss anything except enlightenment
I do not entirely agree with Eric’s devastating criticisms of Buddhist scriptures. But from my long experience of Buddhism, I cannot entirely disagree either. It might be an accurate description of Buddhist doctrines.
The reason for Eric Harrison’s rejection of these scriptures could be due to the way the religion presents these scriptures. Religious tradition insists that the scriptures be presented and translated to suit established doctrine and the politics of the religion, regardless of how helpful and practical it may or may not be.
For this reason, I dived deep into the original Pali to discover more useful translation. I found that these same scriptures can become transformed from unpalatable and questionable doctrine into clear and helpful guide to our spiritual practice. Now published on this website.
But to discover these new translations, we need word-for-word translations, and a copy of a really good Pali-to-English dictionary, such as the Pali Text Society dictionary. These were not readily available, or not available at all, to most people until they appeared online. This was in the 2010’s, perhaps late 2010’s, when Eric retired from teaching meditation full time.
My writings are based on a resource that the common people never had access to, in all the 2500 year history of Buddhism, until only a few years ago.
Other Kinds of Rules.
We can compare Vibangha with other sets of rules. We can look at rules for incorporated not-for-profit associations, which date from the 20th Century. These are not intended for a residential spiritual community, but can provide us with another point of view.
The ‘model rules’ for incorporated not-for-profit associations are formulated and handed down by the Department of Fair Trading of the Queensland Government. They are intended for non profit groups who wish to apply for Government funding, own real estate, and have public liability insurance. To do so, they need to become incorporated with Fair Trading, who requires them to adopt these model rules, which are about 6000 words long. Essentially, these rules require proper decisions, and proper record of decisions, income and expenses. Available from a Google search.
Information Sources.
For daily life in Buddhist monasticism, the most significant rule in the Vinaya which effects health is probably pācittiya 37. Thanissaro translates this as “no eating at the wrong time.” Yet in all my time in Buddhism, and especially in the monastery, the rule was clearly –
- No eating after midday.
This has major significance for someone with health issues around lack of energy and energy stores in the body, as I had for many decades, after I was poisoned. This means that Thanissaro might be something of a pioneer in sensible Vinaya. For at Bodhinyana monastery, eating dark chocolate at night was not considered “eating after midday.” Every evening, half a dozen monks would gather together, and between them consume a 200 gram block of dark chocolate, and no proper food. Yet the dark chocolate consisted of almost 30% refined white sugar, which is a known health hazard.
For some unaccountable reason, lollies were classed as an “allowable medicine”. These disgusting sugary things, normally only eaten by small children and loaded with artificial colours and refined sugar, were sometimes served to the monastery residents at night, instead of proper food.
In addition, the monks were allowed to keep jars of sugar, coffee and the artificial coffee whitener ‘Coffee-mate’ in their rooms for personal use after midday, and I often would fill these jars, for some of the monks. Yet Coffee-mate is actually quite toxic, and relying on stimulants instead of real food when we feel tired simply undermines our energy metabolism.
If these are the values they hold for their own health, what about their values concerning translations of Buddhist scripture? And their posture towards corruption and decadence in the religion?
“The Broken Buddha, A Critical Reflection on Theravada, and a Plea for a New Buddhism” is quite unlike any other book on Buddhism, by a prominent Buddhist leader. Indeed, it would be impossible to even think of writing something like that when living in a traditional Buddhist country like Thailand, Burma or Sri Lanka. It would be professional suicide. After leaving the Buddhist Society of Victoria in 1987, Dhammika went straight to Singapore, which is NOT a Buddhist country. When he was not travelling internationally, he taught in Singapore, mostly at the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society. Also the Buddhist Library. Until his retirement in 2017, aged 65 years, when he was eligible for the Australian old age pension. He returned to Australia for his retirement in 2017.
No Buddhist religious leader in Australia could write like this either. Ajahn Brahm was the most successful Buddhist leader in Perth and in Australian Theravada, when I knew him 20 years ago. Might still be. He has made Vinaya based Buddhism succeed quite well. I trained in his Bodhinyana monastery near Perth from 1999 to 2001. I also attended very many talks by Ajahn Brahm. These had immense value for me. I could not have written this website without this help.
Yet Ajahn Brahm’s Buddhism had only limited value for me, and I was rapidly approaching the expiry date in the early noughties. I also had major problems with the man, which caused me much pain.
No leader in Ajahn Brahm’s style of Buddhism experiences the corruption in Buddhism that is rife in Buddhist countries. They do not travel like Dhammika did. Nor does this corruption occur in Goenka’s Ten Day Vipassana Meditation Retreats, which is another close parallel to the Buddha’s practice. Ajahn Brahm actually felt quite threatened by “The Broken Buddha,” although it is not relevant to his work in Buddhism. He was most hostile to it, and his attitude helped me to also exit Buddhism in 2005. I have felt no inclination to attend any Buddhist event or venue, ever since.
For me to start teaching what I had learned in Buddhism, I had to first leave Buddhism. Monks are the only people allowed to teach in the traditional religion. Worse, they are the sole authority on what is allowed to be taught. And I always found that monk taught doctrine was of little or no use to me as a philosophy. “The Broken Buddha” arrived at a good time for me to quit. Within 2 months of leaving the Buddhist Society of Victoria, I was teaching meditation at a community center that I cycled past on my former trips to the Buddhist Society. This is the Alamein Neighbourhood Center, opposite Alamein railway station, in Ashburton. Later I taught meditation at another community center – Ceres City Farm in East Brunswick.
The intense revelations of “The Broken Buddha” are exactly what the fault finding mind feasts on, in its egoic criticisms, blame and resentment. Indeed, reading it will provoke and breed this mind state, and we can reflect on its destructiveness. After we have recovered. So it is material to be handled carefully.
Dhammika discussed with me the release of the "The Broken Buddha" in 2005, and asked me to place copies of his book into libraries in Melbourne “where people are studying and learning.” His fervent wish was - “Please don’t let the fault finding fundamentalist Christians get hold of it.” He still believes that the Buddha’s Teachings are “beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle, and beautiful in the end.”
The book’s introduction says –
“After completing “The Broken Buddha” I hesitated for a long time about publishing it. I feared it might do more harm than good. Unfortunately, someone published an early unpolished draft on the internet without my permission, and I was forced into publishing the final version. I had hoped to circulate the book only in the Buddhist community, but this is no longer possible.
I hope “The Broken Buddha” will provoke a wide ranging, thoughtful and realistic discussions among Western Buddhists about the future of Buddhism.”
Dhammika once told me that the real problem about Buddhism is this. They never had a Reformation like Christianity did, and Buddhism is still coming out of the dark ages. Indeed, Dhammika was determined to participate in the modern day Reformation of Buddhism. He devoted his entire working life to being a Buddhist religious leader, he introduced me and many other Melbournians to meditation, he provided new translations of select Buddhist scriptures, and he wrote and published over 25 books on Buddhism, covering all topics.
Very many other Westerners also participate in this modern day Reformation of the Buddha’s teachings. In these I include Ajahn Brahm and myself. In addition, Eric Harrison became a most famous meditation teacher in Perth, WA, and I talked with him several times, for we lived near each other. I lived in Perth for 10 years, and my first night there was spent as guest at Eric’s place, in 1987. He learned meditation in Buddhism when young, still uses some Buddhist material, yet he is most opposed to traditional presentation of Buddhist scriptures. His treatise “Why I am NOT a Buddhist” is most revealing. Available at –
https://perthmeditationcentre.com.au/articles/general-articles/why-i-am-not-a-buddhist/
Copies of “The Broken Buddha” are not readily available on the net, and perhaps this is appropriate. My website is an excellent venue for it. No fault finding fundamentalist Christian will ever find it using search engines. They won’t have the knowledge or interest in Sanskrit, and the spiritual practice it is based on. Nor are ardent Buddhists, quite happy with their Buddhist guru, likely to find it and thus take offence. They are not likely to use the search terms that brought you to this website. Their internet searches will take them to the authorities in their religion.
©Copyright Mike Browning, Sept 2021. You are permitted and encouraged to copy material on this webpage about Vinaya, and use it as you see fit.
But PLEASE consider carefully before you publish anything about the corruption in Buddhism. Who will read it? Will it be helpful for spiritual practice? Will it help them gain benefit from Buddhism?
Best wishes from Mike B.
But PLEASE consider carefully before you publish anything about the corruption in Buddhism. Who will read it? Will it be helpful for spiritual practice? Will it help them gain benefit from Buddhism?
Best wishes from Mike B.
I have checked the following online copy in places, and it is an exact copy of the book that Dhammika gave me in 2005.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.html?pdfurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.buddhistische-gesellschaft-berlin.de%2Fdownloads%2Fbrokenbuddhanew.pdf&clen=695544&chunk=true
It is published by
https://engagedharma.net/2018/01/22/the-broken-buddha/