(Photo: www.foreignpolicy.com)You may have seen this photo (or others like it) going around, posted on Facebook, etc, with a note that it depicts 100,000 Burmese monks praying for world peace, or something along those lines. After the earthquake in Nepal, it’s now circulating again, described as “100,000 monks in Napal [sic] in prayer after the Nepal earthquake as a necessary gesture of power.” So: who’s in it?
The photo is from a photoset of what some call a cult, based out of Thailand, whose “mass ceremonies,” we are told, “are inspired by the head abbot’s fascination with the Muslim hajj gatherings and Nazi parades…” That description and the photoset itself — called “Close Encounters of the Buddhist Kind” — come by way Foreign Policy, which hosts the photoset here. These photos do deserve to be seen — but we thought you might want to know more of the context.
Thank you! I thought it was a photoshop picture, but I am glad to know although I got a 'wrong' feeling from it, that it actually exists. I hope, cult or not, they do good for the world, whomever they are.
There couldn't possibly be any to determine that this is in fact a cult with the information provided here. There has never been a "religion" known to humans which has not housed leaders who are not corrupt and greedy in the even the slightest way. This could very simply be 100,000 good intended INDIVIDUALS gathered in what is very rightly a reassuring and awe inspiring display of love, compassion and selflessness.
it doesn't matter! Lets do it! pray and meditation for the planet!
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Prayer-…
here is the link to the web page of the photographer who took the images, on it you can link to the writer who accompanied him some and has written on his time there – you're statement regarding the image may have some truth to it though, and this is surprising to me because i have read for many years and respect shambhala sun , you seem quite negative without researching the facts yourself, it sounds like you are 'just repeating something that you heard', like gossip, which is at the very least irresponsible and unprofessional – http://blog.lukeduggleby.com/2010/06/inside-the-w…
Please see the link from our post, which links to an actual photojournalistic piece that includes the photo in question.
To call that a "photojournalistic piece" is a bit like calling a Tonka Truck a "heavy construction vehicle." The article you link to consists of a blogger taking photos someone else did, looking up a Wikipedia page, and name calling and dog-whistle Buddhist-bating with unsourced hearsay. The only thing worse than hearsay is repeating it again rather than investigating it for yourself – and you have managed to do that. Now Wikipedia could take these articles and source them on their site, saying "some people say that Dhammakaya is a Nazi-like cult" (source: ForeignPolicy, Shambala Sun). Then a major news source can pick it up, it gets sourced, and it becomes the Gospel truth. Well done.
I think Shambhala Sunspace is doing an awesome job to warn the Buddhist community of a cult existence. The pictures of monks showing off a multi million dollar building with fireworks display are not the characteristics of true Buddhists to say the least. Thailand has so many poor citizens, why not use the money for education & food? The purpose of meditation is to subdue the ego self not to boost it.
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions simply because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
Quote from the Buddha
That's not really a quote from the Buddha, though. Tricycle did a feature on that misquotation here: http://www.tricycle.com/feature/lost-quotation
Nevertheless LynBanas is right. It sounds like you just heard rumours and reported them.
Who told you that the abbot is keen on nazi stuff? I think you should explain that. And then – just then – your article would be helpful.