Wat Phra Dhammakaya

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Chedi of Wat Phra Dhammakaya

Wat Phra Dhammakaya ( Thai วัด พระ ธรรมกาย , RTGS Wat Phra Thammakai ) is a Buddhist temple in Amphoe Khlong Luang , Pathum Thani , a northern suburb of the Thai capital Bangkok . Wat Phra Dhammakaya, founded in 1977 and expanded into the World Dhammakaya Center in 1985 , is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the world.

It is the center of an internationally widespread Buddhist movement of the same name  (also referred to as a "sect" in technical literature without any judgment). Although it is officially part of the Mahanikai order of the Thai Theravada Buddhist Sangha , it incorporates elements of Mahayana Buddhism. They are known for their style of meditation, which should lead directly to the attainment of nirvana . It also promises its followers financial and economic success. The Dhammakaya Foundation has a large following in Thailand, but is subject to more criticism because it actively solicits donations and deviates in its teaching from that of official Theravada Buddhism in Thailand.

Foundation and development

Dhammakaya Foundation emblem

The meditation movement was initiated around 1914 by the monk Phra Mongkol-Thepmuni ("Luang Pho Sot"; 1885-1959). He stated that the Dhammakaya meditation again to have discovered and claimed that it was the way in which even the Buddha ( Siddhartha Gautama enlightenment have attained). In 1916 he became abbot of Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen in the Phasi Charoen district of Bangkok . Wat Paknam has an important meditation school and thus the Dhammakaya meditation gained greater prominence.

The maechi Chandra Khonnokyoong ( "Khun Yai Ubasika"; 1909-2000), a pupil of Luang Pho Sots, relieved him of the movement as a charismatic leader and role model. She quickly gained a reputation as a particularly gifted meditator. For example, Khun Yai offered believers to visit their deceased family members in Hell and to deliver good karma collected by the family to alleviate their agony. Allegedly, Khun Yai was able to calculate exactly how much religious "merit" (Pali puñña ; or corresponding "minus points") a person collected through a certain act. Followers of the Dhammakaya sect also believe that the meditation Khun Yai and Luang Pho Sots saved Wat Paknam and other important parts of Bangkok from being bombed by the Allies or even being dropped from an atomic bomb during World War II .

Khun Yai's most prominent student is Phra Dhammachayo (civil Chaibul Sutthipol; * 1944). After graduating from university in economics, he was ordained a monk and founded the Dhammakaya Foundation in 1970 with Khun Yai and other followers of Luang Pho Sot's teaching, of which he is still chairman. Phra Dhammachayo popularized the Dhammakaya movement among students. Dhammakaya meditation groups have been established at universities. The foundation received a donation for the construction of its own temple, Wat Phra Dhammakaya, which was consecrated in 1977 and whose first abbot was Phra Dhammachayo and is still today with a few years' interruption.

In contrast to the sect Santi Asoke , which emerged in parallel in Thailand and preaches a return to a strictly ascetic Buddhism, the Dhammakaya movement has a positive relationship with modernity, prosperity and the capitalist economic system. In its modernist and missionary orientation it is comparable to the Japanese Sōka Gakkai and the Fo Guang Shan . The Dhammakaya sect is particularly aimed at well-educated, economically successful people of the middle and upper classes. The movement advertised its meditation classes with huge posters on the Bangkok city highway. The teaching that intensive reading of religious scriptures, buying amulets or hours of meditation sessions in the forest are unnecessary and that the simple and easy-to-learn practice of Dhammakaya meditation is even more helpful than monk ordination, was particularly well received by busy professionals and business people. Politicians and military officials such as former Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and financial institutions such as Siam Commercial and Bangkok Bank supported the movement. In 1995, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn led the temple's Magha Puja celebration .

The size and prosperity of the temple's followers make for large donations, regularly several million baht per month. Particularly generous donors are awarded special titles and benefits. The leading monks wear robes imported from Switzerland and travel in luxury limousines. The Dhammakaya movement offers the acquisition of religious “merits” ( puñña ) like a commodity. She states that the value of meritorious acts can be calculated numerically. For example, she promises that whoever donates 1,000 baht every month will be reborn as a millionaire.

Meditation style

Luang Pho Sot taught that with the correct attitude and correct practice of Dhammakaya meditation, a glowing Buddha figure up to 20 cm in size would grow in the meditator's belly, which one could perceive with the inner eye. This is the true body of the Buddha, the Dhammakāya ( Sanskrit Dharmakāya ), to which the practitioner returns. Such a success could already be achieved after 30 minutes. To see this Dhammakaya Buddha grow in oneself, according to Luang Pho Sot, means to attain nirvana. Important elements of Dhammakaya meditation are relaxation, breath control, the visualization of a crystal ball and the repetition of the mantra sammā arahaṃ . Under Luang Pho Sot, monks and Mae Chis ("nuns" who are not recognized as such by the official Sangha) meditated around the clock at Wat Paknam - in shifts of six hours each. Her goal was to break the power of Mara , who for her is the embodiment of evil and the adversary of the Buddha.

Temple and Foundation

Aerial photo of the site: Chedi (below center left), Phra Mongkol Thepmuni Memorial Hall (above left), Great Assembly Hall (above right)
Chedi at night

Wat Phra Dhammakaya was founded in 1970 as a branch of Wat Paknam. In 1977 he was raised to an independent monastery. Princess Sirindhorn was present at the laying of the foundation stone . Phra Dhammachayo became the first abbot. Wat Phra Dhammakaya developed into the fastest growing temple in Thailand and from 1985 was expanded to become the World Dhammakaya Center.

The area of ​​Wat Phra Dhammakaya has now grown to over 400 hectares. The chedi of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, the construction of which began in 1994 and was completed in 2000 and which cost 30 billion baht, is very modernist and hardly resembles that of a traditional Thai wat . The outside is covered with 300,000 individual 20 cm Dhammakaya Buddha statues. Inside there are another 700,000 figures, making a total of one million. Its appearance is compared to that of a UFO.

According to Phra Dhammachayo, it is said to be the "eighth wonder of the world ". According to the conception of the temple community, it is also a symbol and means on the way to world peace. It stands for a central belief of the Dhammakaya movement: that world peace can be achieved through the striving of every individual for inner peace. According to a general Buddhist symbolism, the chedi represents the " three jewels " (tiratana) Buddha, Dharma and Sangha . The upper part of the building with relics and the million Buddha figures for the Buddha, the middle part with the text collection of the Pali canon (tipiṭika) the Dharma and the lower part, in which up to 10,000 monks can gather, the Sangha. In addition, there is also a specific symbolism of the Dhammakaya community: the Chedi stands for the spiritual purity of the founder Luang Pho Sot and the devotion of Khun Yai for her master and the temple.

Phra Mongkol Thepmuni Memorial Hall

Because of this versatile and significant symbolism, any donation for the establishment of the chedi was viewed by the Dhammakaya sect as particularly valuable. For 10,000 to 30,000 Baht, donors could sponsor one of the small Buddha statues and engrave their name on the base. The foundation campaigned that such a donation would not only serve the religious merit of the individual donor, but also Buddhism as a whole, since the Chedi should be the center of Buddhism worldwide, like the Kaaba in Mecca for Islam.

Other important buildings on the temple grounds are the Great Assembly Hall, which, according to the temple, is the largest spiritual assembly hall in the world with over 16 hectares, as well as the Phra Mongkol Thepmuni Memorial Hall, which is dedicated to the founder of the Luang Pho Sot movement.

In 2008 there were 800 monks, 300 novices, 150 male and 500 female lay people in the temple community. On high holidays the center is visited by up to 300,000 believers from all over the world. A 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal named Wat Phra Dhammakaya the world's largest Buddhist temple. According to the Guinness Book of Records , however, this is the Borobudur plant in Indonesia.

The foundation finances scholarships and international exchange programs. She has been a member of the World Fellowship of Buddhists since 1986 . In 2003, she established the Dhammakaya Open University , a distance learning university based in Azusa, California . Since 2004 she has been running her own television station, DMC.TV (Dhammakaya Meditation Channel).

Criminal and disciplinary proceedings

In 1998 and 1999, prosecutors conducted criminal investigations into Phra Dhammachayo on suspicion of violating his authority and of breach of trust. At the same time, he was being disciplined by the official monastic community on charges of spreading heretical teachings on nirvana. The allegations arose during the height of the Asian crisis , which began in 1997 and hit Thailand hard. At this time, when many people were in need and numerous monks hardly received enough alms, the obvious prosperity of Wat Phra Dhammakaya and its offensive donation campaigns were a stumbling block. Overall, materialism in Thai society, and in particular the relationship between prosperity and Buddhist piety, has been called into question. It turned out that Phra Dhammachayo personally owned, under his real name, about 300 hectares of land, most of which had been given to him by followers.

The Supreme Monastic Patriarch of Thailand, Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara , asked him to transfer the land to the temple, as it is a serious violation of the rules of the order apart from the allegation of embezzlement . When the latter did not comply with the request quickly enough, the Patriarch suggested to the Supreme Council of Monks that Phra Dhammachayo be expelled from the monastic state. The council did not implement the laicisation . At Wisakha Bucha 1999, Phra Dhammachayo declared that it would rather die in the saffron-colored robe than give it up. When he was summoned before the chief monk of Pathum Thani Province in August 1999, 350 police officers and a bomb disposal squad were standing by for fear that angry Dhammakaya supporters would be prone to extreme reactions. However, Phra Dhammachayo did not appear. Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai called on the monk to face the police and the trial. Followers of Wat Phra Dhammakaya set up roadblocks around the temple. In December 1999, Phra Dhammachayo was suspended from the position of abbot while the infidelity proceedings were in progress. However, he was allowed to name his deputy Phra Tatthacheevo as his temporary successor. He remained president of the foundation.

Temple area surrounded by the military in February 2017

In 2006, he gave 959.3 million baht of land from his property to the temple and his case was closed. He was reinstated as abbot. In 2010 King Bhumibol Adulyadej gave him the new name Phrathepyanmahamuni.

The involvement of Wat Phra Dhammakaya and in particular Phra Dhammachayo in the infidelity scandal surrounding the Klongchan credit union has been the subject of media attention since 2014. The temple and the foundation are said to have accepted misappropriated funds amounting to 1.2 billion baht, thereby helping to conceal their origins. Since October 2015, the Thai Department of Special Investigation has been investigating Phra Dhammachayo on charges of aiding and abetting money laundering and the acceptance of stolen property. After failing to appear on a subpoena in 2016, an arrest warrant was issued against him. Police and the military surrounded and searched the temple grounds with 4,500 officers in February and March 2017 without finding him. Phra Dhammachayo has been on the run ever since.

Wat Phra Dhammakaya outside of Thailand

The Dhammakaya sect opened its first center outside of Thailand in 1992 in Azusa, California . In 2010 there were already 38 institutions abroad, in addition to the 28 centers in Thailand. In August 2012, Wat Phra Dhammakaya attracted international media attention when Phra Dammachayo made testimony about the reincarnation of Steve Jobs .

On the occasion of the Wisakha Bucha festival in May 2008, the Dhammakaya movement opened a temple and a meditation center in Königsbrunn near Augsburg , the Wat Phra Dhammakaya Bavaria . In 2009 the Wat Phra Dhammakaya Black Forest in Kippenheim was added. There are now further branches of the community in Berlin , in Raunheim near Frankfurt am Main , in Horneburg near Hamburg , in Obersulm - Willsbach near Heilbronn and in Moers .

literature

  • Jeffery Bowers: Dhammakaya Meditation in Thai Society. Chulalongkorn University Press, Bangkok 1996.
  • Mano Mettanando Laohavanich: Esoteric Teaching of Wat Phra Dhammakāya. (PDF; 469 kB) Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Volume 19, 2002, pp. 483-513, ISSN  1076-9005 .
  • Rory Mackenzie: New Buddhist Movements in Thailand. Towards an Understanding of Wat Phra Dhammakāya and Santi Asoke. Routledge, Oxford / New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-40869-1 .
  • Rachelle M. Scott: Nirvana for Sale? Buddhism, Wealth, and the Dhammakāya Temple in Contemporary Thailand. State University of New York Press, Albany 2009.
  • Martin Seeger: The Thai Wat Phra Thammakai movement . In: Buddhism Past and Present. Volume 9: Renewal Movements, Asia-Africa Institute, University of Hamburg, 2006, pp. 121–139.
  • Donald K. Swearer: The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia. 2nd edition, State University of New York Press, Albany 2010.

Web links

Commons : Wat Phra Dhammakaya  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Websites of Wat Phra Dhammakaya and associated organizations
Documentation and reports

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Williams: Mahāyāna Buddhism. The Doctrinal Foundations. 2nd edition, Abingdon (Oxon) / New York 2009, pp. 126-127, 328-329.
  2. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, pp. 147-148.
  3. ^ Mackenzie: New Buddhist Movements in Thailand. 2007, pp. 31-32, 66, 99.
  4. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 72.
  5. ^ Lindberg Falk: Making Fields of Merit. 2007, p. 183.
  6. ^ A b Monica Lindberg Falk: Making Fields of Merit. Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand. NIAS Press, Copenhagen 2007, p. 182.
  7. ↑ a b Seeger: The Thai Wat Phra Thammakai movement. 2006, p. 128.
  8. ↑ a b c d Pataraporn Sirikanchana: Dhammakaya Foundation. In: Religions of the World. A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices. 2nd edition, ABC-CLIO, 2010, pp. 885-886.
  9. ↑ a b Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 52.
  10. ^ A b Justin McDaniel: Buddhism in Thailand. Negotiating the Modern Age. In: Buddhism in World Cultures. Comparative Perspectives. ABC-CLIO, 2006, pp. 110-112.
  11. ^ Mackenzie: New Buddhist Movements in Thailand. 2007, p. 65.
  12. ↑ a b Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 140.
  13. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 73.
  14. ↑ Swearer: The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia. 2010, p. 139.
  15. ↑ Prayer in front of the Wat Phra Dhammakaya Temple, Pathum Thani. Mirror online.
  16. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 109.
  17. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 110.
  18. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 209.
  19. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 102.
  20. ^ Ron Gluckman: Inside the World's Biggest Buddhist Temple. The Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2010.
  21. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 85.
  22. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 129 ff.
  23. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 132 ff.
  24. ↑ Scott: Nirvana for Sale? 2009, p. 143.
  25. ^ Mackenzie: New Buddhist Movements in Thailand. 2007, pp. 53-54.
  26. ↑ Swearer: The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia. 2010, p. 141.
  27. ↑ King-oua Laohong: Phra Dhammachayo faces theft, money laundering charges. In: Bangkok Post , October 30, 2015.
  28. ^ Ron Corben: Thai Authorities Continue Standoff at Buddhist Temple. VOA, February 28, 2017.
  29. ↑ Umesh Pandey: Dhammakaya saga's cost is too high. In: Bangkok Post , March 5, 2017.
  30. ↑ King-oua Laohong: DSI to renew efforts to collar fugitive rogue monk. In: Bangkok Post , July 29, 2019.
  31. ↑ Rachelle M. Scott: Merit and the Search for Inner Peace. The Discourses and Technologies of Dhammakaya Proselytization. In: Proselytization Revisited. Rights Talk, Free Markets and Culture Wars. Equinox, 2008, p. 245.
  32. ↑ Swearer: The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia. 2010, p. 138.
  33. ↑ Tim Worstall: Apparently Steve Jobs Is Now Half a Yak And Lives In A Silver And Crystal Castle. ( Memento of August 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Forbes, August 23, 2012
  34. ↑ James Hookway: Thai Group Says Steve Jobs Reincarnated as Warrior-Philosopher. The Wall Street Journal, August 31, 2012.
  35. ^ Hermann Schmid: Königsbrunn: Opening of the Buddhist meditation center. Augsburger Allgemeine, May 25, 2008.
  36. ↑ Theo Weber: Find the way to inner peace. Badische Zeitung, February 5, 2011.

Coordinates: 14 ° 4 ′ 9 ″  N , 100 ° 38 ′ 51 ″  E