Tipitaka protection act Sri Lanka

[Bikkhutittadammo]

Has anyone heard of the recently proposed tipitaka protection act of Sri Lanka?
Any details on this, and your opinions.speaking as a monk that values the abhidamma and commentaries, but also sees the merits in the EBT approach, I fear it might be a double edged sword and threat to freedom of inquiry.
But on the other hand there are so much counterfeit Dhamma being preached, in Sri Lanka and Thailand. But is government legislation curtailing freedom of expression the answer? Is this simply another attempt at retaining the influence of the orthodoxy?

[BrokenBones]

Would love no know the details... I might be arrested if I visited Sri Lanka again.

[Dhammanando]

Thanks. I hadn't heard about this before.

If anyone wants to Google the subject, you'll get more hits if you use the Sanskrit spelling: "Tripitaka Protection Act".

There's a long and informative article in Ceylon Today:

Those who oppose the Bill say that according to the Buddha’s teachings in the Tripitaka, there are infinite ways of explaining and representing aspects of Buddhism and it is against the teaching that all Buddhists have to be confined to a narrow explanation defined by the Committee that is being proposed in the Bill.

The questions they table are: who is pushing for these draconian laws and how could a preacher communicate limitless meanings, indicated by the Buddha, of the Four Noble Truths, by strictly sticking to a limited number of books and limited meanings given in them?

[...]

The Bill also suggests legal action against those who ‘distort’ the Tripitaka once it is passed as a law. The draft states, a person who alters, defaces, distorts, destroys, causes to be destroyed, humiliates, degrades, misuses, misinterprets the Theravada Tripitaka, Pali Atthakatha, Pali Teeka and their translations by submitting interpretations contrary to the approved version of such Theravada Tripitaka, Pali Atthakatha, Pali Teeka, commits an offence and shall, on conviction after trial by the High Court, be liable to a fine depending on the seriousness of the offence.

https://ceylontoday.lk/news/proposed-tr ... nge-within

[chownah]

Those who oppose the Bill say that according to the Buddha’s teachings in the Tripitaka, there are infinite ways of explaining and representing aspects of Buddhism and it is against the teaching that all Buddhists have to be confined to a narrow explanation defined by the Committee that is being proposed in the Bill.

https://ceylontoday.lk/news/proposed-tr ... nge-within

Do you know if this is indeed found in the suttas?
chownah

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

If anyone wants to Google the subject, you'll get more hits if you use the Sanskrit spelling: "Tripitaka Protection Act".

Does anyone else see the irony of this?

I wonder if those who proposed this act are familiar with The Four Great References?

The words spoken, monks, by that monk should neither be received with praise nor treated with scorn. Without praise and without scorn every word and syllable should be carefully understood, and compared with the discourses and the rules of discipline.

[Inedible]

It sounds like a very Muslim thing to do. What should we call the Theravada version of Sharia Law?

[Dhammanando]

Those who oppose the Bill say that according to the Buddha’s teachings in the Tripitaka, there are infinite ways of explaining and representing aspects of Buddhism and it is against the teaching that all Buddhists have to be confined to a narrow explanation defined by the Committee that is being proposed in the Bill.

https://ceylontoday.lk/news/proposed-tr ... nge-within

Do you know if this is indeed found in the suttas?

I can't immediately think of any statement in the suttas to that effect. In the commentaries, on the other hand, it's the kind of thing that gets said about the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, and especially about its seventh book, the Patthāna.

[Dhammanando]

An opinion piece by social anthropologist Prabhath Sirisena: Catch-22 of the Tripitaka Conservation Act.

From its conclusion...

Catch-22 of conservation

Be that as it may, and assuming that the board in charge of enacting the Act are all perfectly qualified in every conceivable way, we are still left with one nagging matter: the freedom of interpretation afforded by the Buddha’s teaching. That leads us to the following conundrum:

Nothing in the Tripitaka itself prevents one from starting a new ‘school’—regardless of whether they have followers or not—with an interpretation different from what the board will define as Mahaviharian orthodoxy. In fact, the Theravada Vinaya (monastic code) makes explicit allowance for this under the clauses pertaining to nānāsaṃvāsakatā (difference in communion).

Thus, if the board is to actually protect the Mahaviharian interpretation of the Vinaya and the Tripitaka, it has to let the new proponent continue with their new interpretation.

But if allowance is made for the new interpretation, the board is not protecting the Tripitaka in the way they intend to in the Act.

So, to protect the Tripitaka as intended by the Act, the board has to not protect the Tripitaka in actuality, and to actually protect the Tripitaka they have to not protect the Act intended for protecting the Tripitaka.

Some Catch-22, that.

https://www.ft.lk/opinion/Catch-22-of-t ... /14-719566

[Bikkhutittadammo]

The Bill also suggests legal action against those who ‘distort’ the Tripitaka once it is passed as a law. The draft states, a person who alters, defaces, distorts, destroys, causes to be destroyed, humiliates, degrades, misuses, misinterprets the Theravada Tripitaka, Pali Atthakatha, Pali Teeka and their translations by submitting interpretations contrary to the approved version of such Theravada Tripitaka, Pali Atthakatha, Pali Teeka, commits an offence and shall, on conviction after trial by the High Court, be liable to a fine depending on the seriousness of the offence.

https://ceylontoday.lk/news/proposed-tr ... nge-within
[/quote]

That is terrifying so, Buddhists are resorting blasphemy laws now. Who decides what is approved? Are they gonna rustle up a council of Arahants.
Do they not have enough faith in the Dhamma, to know that it is robust enough by itself to defend against the adhamma.

[48vows]

The Bill also suggests legal action against those who ‘distort’ the Tripitaka once it is passed as a law. The draft states, a person who alters, defaces, distorts, destroys, causes to be destroyed, humiliates, degrades, misuses, misinterprets the Theravada Tripitaka, Pali Atthakatha, Pali Teeka and their translations by submitting interpretations contrary to the approved version of such Theravada Tripitaka, Pali Atthakatha, Pali Teeka, commits an offence and shall, on conviction after trial by the High Court, be liable to a fine depending on the seriousness of the offence.

Good for the them !
Maybe other countries can follow suite.

It will help to protect against some of the "translations" that have been discussed on this site already.

[BrokenBones]

The Bill also suggests legal action against those who ‘distort’ the Tripitaka once it is passed as a law. The draft states, a person who alters, defaces, distorts, destroys, causes to be destroyed, humiliates, degrades, misuses, misinterprets the Theravada Tripitaka, Pali Atthakatha, Pali Teeka and their translations by submitting interpretations contrary to the approved version of such Theravada Tripitaka, Pali Atthakatha, Pali Teeka, commits an offence and shall, on conviction after trial by the High Court, be liable to a fine depending on the seriousness of the offence.

Good for the them !
Maybe other countries can follow suite.

It will help to protect against some of the "translations" that have been discussed on this site already.

Yeah! We could do a good old fashioned book burning of all the the blasphemous teachings... and lock up the perpetrators

[SarathW]

The Sri Lankan Parliament is going to make a new law prohibiting misinterpretation of Tipitaka.
Any person who breaks the law is subject to seven years imprisonment and an Rs1000000 fine!

viewtopic.php?p=630314#p630314

I think I posted about the OP matter several times.
It appears there are several motivations behind this issue
-Stop the free inquiry and basically jail people who question the authority
- Back way to legalise to protect the teachings of Islam. For instance, once the law is extended to other religions, people will not be able to discuss those religious matters.
- Smokescreen to shift the attention of people away from other political issues

[annada]

I think this is clearly a step in the direction of destroying the Dhamma. Someone in power will decide to alter it, remove parts of it and every other copy will be destroyed and all the ones who oppose it or recite the original one, will be jailed.

There is a global attack on religions currently. You can see several videos online as churches are closed, priests are arrested, fined, believers are fined and attacked/harassed by police forces if they commune with each other and they practice their religions. I saw several such occasions happening e.g. in the US, England and Canada.

Also, e.g. in China they altered the Bible already. In their Bible Jesus did not forgive the sinner woman but he stoned her.

Original:
“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Chinese translation:
"When the crowd disappeared, Jesus stoned the sinner to death saying, “I too am a sinner. But if the law could only be executed by men without blemish, the law would be dead.”

In my opinion we are heading to something similar. The Buddha said:
"Kassapa, the true Dhamma does not disappear so long as a counterfeit of the true Dhamma has not arisen in the world. But when a counterfeit of the true Dhamma arises in the world, then the true Dhamma disappears.
Just as, Kassapa, gold does not disappear so long as counterfeit gold has not arisen in the world, but when counterfeit gold arises then true gold disappears, so the true Dhamma does not disappear so long as a counterfeit of the true Dhamma has not arisen in the world, but when a counterfeit of the true Dhamma arises in the world, then the true Dhamma disappears.
" SN 16.13

[dharmacorps]

I don't have a problem with fines/people being banned or whatever for people disrespecting temples (such as Thailand), monasteries or whatever (usually foreigners who are being truly disrespectful wearing revealing clothing, drinking, etc), but this sounds like a step far, far beyond. There is a current of ultra-nationalism in sri lankan buddhism tied in with national mythology which seems to generate some of these extremes. I understand a lot of it came from the near decimation of Buddhism on sri lanka by colonial efforts, but those days are over now.

[DNS]

The Bill also suggests legal action against those who ‘distort’ the Tripitaka once it is passed as a law. The draft states, a person who alters, defaces, distorts, destroys, causes to be destroyed, humiliates, degrades, misuses, misinterprets the Theravada Tripitaka, Pali Atthakatha, Pali Teeka and their translations by submitting interpretations contrary to the approved version of such Theravada Tripitaka, Pali Atthakatha, Pali Teeka, commits an offence and shall, on conviction after trial by the High Court, be liable to a fine depending on the seriousness of the offence.

In another thread, I posted this photo/meme as a joke, but after reading this proposed bill, it's not too far-fetched. Even for "misinterprets"?!