Ban on Buddhist bead bracelet violated my religious freedom, Hong Kong prison guard claims

by Eddie Lee, South China Morning Post, 7 February, 2017

Court document shows officer cited Bill of Rights Ordinance and argued Sikh bangle was not likewise prohibited

Hong Kong, China -- A prison officer has claimed that the Correctional Services Department’s “disapproval” of her wearing a Buddhist bead bracelet while on duty amounted to discrimination against her and violated her religious freedom, a court document showed.

In an application for a judicial review of the limit on items allowed to be carried into penal institutions, assistant officer Wong Wai-fan argued there was discriminatory treatment in favour of Sikh Kara as staff could wear that type of bangle.

Wong, who joined the department in 1989, said she was charged with disciplinary offences after carrying into the Lai King Correctional Institution a Buddhist bracelet in October 2011. She has since been interdicted from duty.

Top 10 MISCONCEPTIONS about BUDDHISM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYlQ0UZ1C2I

Published on Feb 9, 2017

Buddhism is extremely fast growing and estimates put its adherents at somewhere around one billion. Even though Buddhism is so popular, many in the western world, where it is barely practiced, have a very poor understanding of it. Not only have many people gained a completely incorrect understanding of it, but some attempt to practice without proper guidance and do it completely wrong. Now while these people’s hearts are in the right place, it might be wise to find a Buddhist teacher, they do exist in the western world, and learn from them. 

Mahaparinibbana Sutta

Whatever Dharma and Vinaya I have pointed out and formulated for you, that will be your Teacher when I am gone.   

Buddhist signs point wrong way

by ANDREW BIGGS, The Bangkok Post, 12 Feb 2017

Thought police are doing Thailand's religion no favours with their intrusive false advertising aimed at tourists

Bangkok, Thailand -- The billboard rises, like a Buddhist temple, up ahead on the right-hand side of the airport highway.

"BUDDHA IS NOT FOR DECORATION," it shouts at me alongside a decoration of a Buddha's head with an ugly red cross on top of it. Why desecrate a Buddha's head with an ugly red cross on a billboard that tells us not to desecrate Buddhas?

The politics of Thailand's Buddhist Supreme Patriarch

By Panu Wongcha-um, Channel NewsAsia, 12 Feb 2017

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand will soon welcome a new Supreme Patriarch. Somdet Phra Maha Muniwong, 89, was appointed last week by King Maha Vajiralongkorn and will be officially installed in a ceremony in Bangkok on Sunday (Feb 12).

<< Somdet Phra Maha Muniwong.

Somdet Phra Maha Muniwong has been an abbot of Ratchabophit temple in Bangkok and like his predecessor Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara, who died in 2013, he is a monk from the Dhammayuttika Nikaya - the smaller and more conservative of Thailand's two Theravada Buddhist orders.

DHAMMAYUTTIKA NIKAYA

The Dhammayuttika Nikaya order was created in the 19th century by King Mongkut (Rama IV), the great-great-grandfather of the current king.

"Rama IV created the Dhammayuttika Nikaya to reform the monks because the old order was seen as lacking in discipline," explained academic Somrit Luechai. "King Rama IV's goal was to make Buddhism more pure through this more conservative order.

Paradox of the human mind

Love, Marriage & Living in Tune

'People hold dear him who embodies virtue and insight, 

who is principled, has realized the truth, and 

who himself does what he ought to be doing.'

- Dhammapada Verse 217