Buddhism As Education

Yong Vui Kong, a 22 year-old Malaysian from Sabah, was sentenced to mandatory death in January 2009 for trafficking heroin into Singapore. He was arrested at the age of 18. He was grew up from a poor family background, lack of education and misguided. His ignorance had trapped him into this situation. He even do not know that the penalty of drug trafficking is death sentence. In fact, Yong Vui Kong is also a victim in this case. Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia (YBAM) deems that if a person can realised his own mistake and pledges his remaining life to campaign against drug-trafficking and drug abuse, he should deserve a second change in his life. Thus, YBAM is organising “Heart Sutra Writing” Event. This campaign will be held on Sunday 15th August, 9.30am-1.00pm. YBAM urge the public to join this campaign and hope that Yong Vui Kong will be given a chance in his life. Venue for “Heart Sutra Writing” Event: 1。Keningau Buddhist Association（Fam Yun Ching 013-8804277） 2。Persatuan Bu...

It has been a common situation till today that leaders of Buddhist association and societies often discourage its members from being politically active or being sympathetic to any political ideologies or its cause. This is because Buddhists as the whole has been ingrained for decades that they should not address any issues or raise matters that show signs of political connotations or support of any political organizations. In any Buddhist association or societies normally, if there are any of its committee members or leaders show any signs of interest in politics or being part of a political party or comments in political development of our nation, they will be often treated with suspicion and frowned. I personally agreed with Loka Ng, a former leader of the Buddhist Missionary Society of Malaysia (BMSM) and Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia (YBAM). Such thought and perception are completely inaccurate, wronged and should be corrected as quickly as possible. By encouraging leaders...

The Buddha was among the first to speak against the caste system, on the importance of individual rights and the equality of all human beings despite differences in social standing, race and religions. He also encouraged the spirit of social cooperation and active participation in society at all levels. According to the Buddha, the only classification of human beings is based on equality of their moral conduct. The Buddha, seeing the two sexes as ultimately equal in rights was the first religious teacher who gave women full freedom to participate in religious rights. His move to allow women to enter the Sangha (order of monks and nuns) was extremely radical in his times. The Buddha was also the first religious teacher to advocate the spirit of consultation and democratic process in the Sangha community, each member has individual rights to decide on matters of general concern. When a serious question arose, the issues are put forth before and discussed in a manner similar to today’s de...