THE MAN WITH A THOUSAND FACES

Reports of Phra Dhammajayo having been stripped of his monastic title of “Phra Thepyan Mahamuni” early this month and the possibility that he might be disrobed have brought joy to many Buddhists. His doomed fall from grace is the result of his repeated failure to answer charges on money laundering, receiving stolen assets and forest encroachment that have been filed against him. The former abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, who earlier claimed to be too ill to turn himself in, has now been declared a fugitive with his whereabouts a mystery despite a 23-day temple search operation, conducted by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), which ended a few weeks ago.

That was the DSI’s third and biggest hunt for the elusive monk, who now has a string of arrest warrants hot on his heels, not to mention more than 300 charges that are being filed against him and his controversial temple.

Phra Dhammajayo is probably the most loved and loathed priest in Thailand. While his followers look at him with the utmost respect despite his entanglement with the numerous scandals over the past two decades, other Buddhists and scholars have always wanted him defrocked. They accuse him of distorting original Buddhist principles, from the basic teaching on merit-making to the most complex issue about nirvana.

Their anger has been fuelled in recent years with the revelation that he came up with a fictional story to hint to his disciples that he was better than the Buddha. Since then he has been accused of trying to “brainwash” Thai Buddhists to believe in the Dhammakaya sect.

It is widely known that the 73-year-old monk, whose empirical temple has earned massive wealth from its money-can-buy-merit donation concept, has close ties with many influential politicians and that he has a way to persuade top members in the Sangha Supreme

Council (SSC) to turn a blind eye to his underhand behaviour.

The most vivid example is the historic case in which he was accused of embezzling 900 million baht in assets from the temple in 1999 but managed to escape both legal punishment and disrobement with the help of his influential associates, including those in the SSC in spite of instructions by the late

Supreme Patriarch Somdet Phra

Nyanasamvara to defrock him.

Now, we are seeing a similar scenario where Phra Dhammajayo is once again being charged with his involvement in illegal affairs. But this time the situation is different. Unlike previous governments, which secretly supported him in favour of political gains, this military government vows to bring him to justice.

An investigation is underway and is leading to the disclosure of a related scam, which involves his right-hand man Phra Dattajivo. The 77-year-old former acting abbot has allegedly invested 1 billion baht belonging to the temple in the stock market. Many see Phra Dhammajayo as a disgrace to the monastic community. He committed grave offences which, according to monastic disciplines, should have seen him defrocked a long time ago. Though his immorality is evident, sadly it is ignored. His supporters claim that he is the only monk who has attracted a large number of followers to Buddhism over the years. They praise his role in promoting the religion, citing his mass ordination projects and the expansion of more than 100 branches of his temple, in Thailand and around the world. I have never been impressed with Phra Dhammajayo. Apart from the fact that he instructs people to donate money to his temple to secure a place in heaven for their next life, I don’t think he is worthy of being a monk. I also doubt if his followers, who seem to believe every word he says, while ignoring the core of Buddha’s teachings, can be considered Buddhists at all.

I wonder how we can trust a man, who can’t perfect himself in the basic moral precepts, with such a crucial job of spreading the religion in the first place? Most importantly, I have always wanted to know how we can be confident that his disciples are teaching Buddha’s words and not his own doctrine? The junta’s recent push for the removal of his monastic title and continued attempt to apprehend the man shows how serious it is to help protect the religion. I do hope this will send a strong signal to the Sangha governing body to be more active and swift in their job to deal with this shameless monk who deserves to be expelled from the clergy, no matter what.

Many see Phra Dhammajayo as a disgrace to the monastic community