BrokenBones wrote: ↑Mon Jun 21, 2021 3:01 am
Discuss what? I'm still bemused as to what this thread is about.
It seems to be about "people are saying" gossip and petty grievances (e.g. the fish thing) with just enough truth to keep going.
retrofuturist wrote: ↑Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:40 pm
Conversely, the bigger issue as it appears to me is that Sri Lankan Buddhism is so parochial and nationalistic, that it sets out to demonize anyone who would dare to deviate from the rigid orthodoxy of Sri Lankan Buddhism, even when that means having a closer focus on the historical Buddha's teachings.
...
The Dhammically uninspiring Sri Lankan Buddhist establishment do however seem quite adept at whipping up the laypeople and weaponizing them divisively against non-conforming monks... hell, they've even got you quibbling about a fish tank, of all things.
Sadly, there is a lot of truth to this. Ven. Gnananada has faced endless false and frivolous accusations from the moment he started to become popular. Now 20 years later he has significantly increased people's interest in suttas in Sri Lanka. It has even gone so far as to force other monks to start talking about the suttas because that's what many people expect to hear now.
If you go to the libraries of any of his monasteries you will find many full sets of the complete BJT Tipitaka and at least one set of the BCC's edition of the full Attakatha translation into Sinhala,
in addition to Ven. Gnanananda's translation. While public teachings are focused the first four nikayas and the first nine books of the KN, monks are free to read whatever they like and many are quite knowledgeable in all parts of the Pali canon.
In Sri Lanka people very often express their faith in the Buddha through doing various kinds of pujas, many with a wrong understanding of karma and its results. The monks in these monasteries work hard to help people understand the correct mindset to do these with, as well as use the more traditional activities like pujas to broaden people's understanding of the Dhamma. But if you just look at the facebook posts people make about the pujas, then yes, it's going to look like a whole bunch of flowers and not much else.