{"id":42899,"date":"2015-04-06T13:51:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T20:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=42899"},"modified":"2015-04-06T13:51:42","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T20:51:42","slug":"sacerdotalism-edges-out-authentic-buddhism-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/04\/06\/sacerdotalism-edges-out-authentic-buddhism-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacerdotalism edges out \u00a0Authentic Buddhism in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Religious practice is generally a tripartite affair involving the lay population, the priesthood and the Doctrine or Sacred Teaching. The Priesthood usually assumes dominance in this interactive triad and when this asymmetry is very marked \u2013 that is when the Priests assume the role of leaders and instructors\u00a0 in doctrinal interpretations and practice \u2013 a species of sacerdotalism inevitably replaces genuine religion. This happens when priests become elitist instructors and guardians of temples \u2013abandoning their original role as renunciants pursuing a lonely course of self-abnegation in the pursuit of the Truth. Such an evolution inevitably results in a perversion of the authentic religion and an installation of practices designed to enhance the power and prestige of a priesthood\u00a0 that has lost its focus on that ineffable truth that is the key to Nirvanic release.<\/p>\n

The practical result of this lamentable transformation is that the practice of authentic religion is replaced by a mock religion based on services to the Temple\u00a0 and the reverence of Fetish Objects that the Priests hold to be valid symbols of Divinity. The giving of \u2018Gifts to the Gods\u2019 is promoted as the easiest and quickest route to that Summum Bonum<\/em> that all earnestly seek. By such trickery the Original Doctrine\u00a0 is forgotten and the masses are massively deceived by a priesthood that that has crafted a self-serving programme that has the trappings \u2013 the sounds and lights \u2013 of the genuine teachings but is a mere mimicking of the original for the service not of God but of Man.<\/p>\n

I ask all sincere Buddhist in this country to reflect on the sad decay of authentic Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Is not what we have said above\u00a0 true of our own religion in this day and age? We have more temples and priest today than at any time in our long and tumultuous history.\u00a0 A kind pf public religion patronized by \u2018Kings\u2019 flourishes \u2013with priests crowding the airways with the sounds of religion. Yet the brutal fact is that we live in a debased society that pays scant respect for the authentic doctrine but is eager to assume a fa\u00e7ade of religiosity by ostentatious services mediated by priests and opulently backed by flashy rituals in Temples that are not exactly centres of Holiness. How else can we explain a great paradox \u2013 that the Sinhala Buddhists of today are are roundly denounced by their own leaders as among the most venal and corrupt in the world? We are told that this nation is full of rogues, Kudu-Karayas and imbibers of Ethenol with its elite topping the show in venality. Has not Buddhism \u2013 the religion of the majority in Sri Lanka failed? Comparisons are invidious but must we not acknowledge that the Community of Anglican Christians in our country display a moral order greatly superior to that of the Buddhists \u2013 their priests do not take part in rowdy protests organized by political hooligans nor do their high priests metamorphose into loud-talking abusive Politicians. To echo a notorious remark made by a leading social anthropologist, Buddhism has been betrayed in contemporary Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma Religious practice is generally a tripartite affair involving the lay population, the priesthood and the Doctrine or Sacred Teaching. The Priesthood usually assumes dominance in this interactive triad and when this asymmetry is very marked \u2013 that is when the Priests assume the role of leaders and instructors\u00a0 in doctrinal interpretations and practice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-r-chandrasoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}