You have to observe a person or a Master before you leap. Don’t go with the flow. Don’t go just because he/she is famous. Don’t go just because people say he/she is good. You must know it yourself whether or not you have experiences, and you have to feel good about that. Do not just follow anyone else. Follow yourself.
Always praise God for protecting you, guiding you to a real good Master. That’s the best way. Always be sincere, humble, and really, truly longing to go Home, Heaven Home. Then God will help you. Then God will send you a real good Master to lead you Home who doesn’t abuse you, who will not delude you, who will just be as pure as your heart is, as sincere as your longing is, and just for you, just work for God for you. That is important. You are important. Not other people telling you what, what. You have to observe, you have to study that Master. You have to know whether his/her saying is correct for you, logical, and he/she proves it or not.
I saw some funny things when people asked me questions, like the priest in the Catholic Church. It’s written sometimes on the screen, on the web, something like how much money they (followers) offer, then how much they will get blessing from God. Something like that. And that people should not care if it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars to donate if they can speak direct to God. Oh my God! Is God like an object or something on sale, cheap like that? And similar to some monks somewhere also, they told me in some questions, like they said, “If you give how much, then you will have how much protection, how much blessing?” something like that.
“Testimony by a former disciple of Ruma Trần Tâm, Aug. 1, 2024: I used to be a disciple of Trần Tâm. I was directly involved in internal affairs such as living expenses, food, and shopping. Therefore, I know all about his personality and lifestyle. I gradually realized that many of his actions were improper, such as taking money from the meditators, some of whom even had to sell their houses to make offerings out of fear of his curses. There were male meditators who left and reported him because he sexually harassed them during their participation in the group. Many people were abused in this way. He even wrote letters threatening and cursing that their whole family would get sick or die if they did not come back. His right-hand men, who called themselves his dharma protectors and monks, freely collected money from meditators for him and even put it in their own pockets. During the retreats, food was sold at exorbitant prices, even 20 times higher than the actual cost, because he claimed it had blessing power. For example, he sold a sapodilla (fruit) that he grew himself for US$100, a pancake for 500,000 VND (Vietnamese Dong ~ US$20), a plate of rice for 1 million VND (US$40), and many other similarly overpriced items.”
“Excerpt from ‘Ruma Trần Tâm is a heretic who deceives and misleads many practitioners astray. Beware of these tactics’ – Mar. 5, 2024: Ruma Trần Tâm is a blatant cheater who uses religion to harm others. We need to condemn and boycott him to save many people who are going astray. He cast his own statue and sold it for US$5,000, or about 120 million VND, and forbids his followers to worship Buddha, God, or their ancestors. He is truly a devil in human form. He even sold an alms bowl for US$2,500, about 60 million VND. He profiteered to the extent that he sold a warm blanket to the meditators who followed him for 30 million VND (US$1,190), which Ruma called ‘the karma-dissolving blanket’. He enticed people by deceitfully claiming that buying everything he sold could dissolve karma, no matter how heavy the karma was. Do you see the contradiction in his own words, when he himself said that he has the power to dissolve all the karma for all sentient beings. But then he deceived people by selling many things at cut-throat prices, and they have to buy these items to erase all their karma. Alas, this is so absurd and delusional. But how come so many ignorant and vulnerable people have been deceived by him? Not only did they lose their money but their homes were also destroyed and their souls were lost. Please wake up!”
“Excerpt from ‘Exposing some monks’ tricks in getting offerings from others’ – July 24, 2024: Even if [someone] makes an offering of 50 million (US$1,983) to the temple, but doesn’t tell anyone, and also instructs the respected monks and nuns not to tell anyone, and when [they] go to the temple, [they] blend in like any other ordinary Buddhist practitioner, then that person, in the eyes of the Buddhas, is considered to have made an offering of 500 million (US$19,830). Offering 50 [million] (US$1,983), but being humble, harmonious, and keeping it discreet causes the Buddhas to multiply the merit of the offering by a factor of 10, making it hundreds of millions. And in your next life, you will enjoy the merit of that 500 million (US$19,830), which becomes 500 billion (US$19,830,500).”
“Excerpt from ‘The controversial words of Thích Chân Quang’ – June 11, 2024: Find high denomination money. How? Give it to the abbot. Putting low denomination money in a Buddha statue will bring bad luck that year. Giving high denomination money to the abbot will bring good luck that year.”
“Interview by Simon & Schuster Books – Jan. 29, 2015: For about 1,800 years, the popes were not just the head of the Catholic Church, the spiritual head of the world’s largest religion. They were also kings, pope-kings. They had a secular empire, thousands of square miles of lands, their own armies. How did they get the money for this? They fueled it by taxing people inside their empire, by fees, and also by selling something called indulgences. A piece of paper was sold to a Catholic and said, ‘You’re forgiven for your sins for buying that paper.’”
“Media Report by EWTN – Mar. 12, 2015: Indulgences are great. The true treasure of the Church is not the IOR – the Vatican Bank, but the indulgences. It lies here, in the merits of Jesus Christ and all good souls, the holy souls who are in the world and who offer their pain up for the sake of the Church.”
“Excerpt from ‘Pastor gets angry as members refuse to give an offering of $1000’ by Kwodwo Sheldon – Oct. 1, 2020: You can do 1,000 or 500 (dollars). Who is coming? Who is coming? A thousand (dollars), which is equivalent to GH₵5,000 (Ghanaian Cedi). Five hundred (dollars) is equivalent to GH₵2,500. You can do it. Just rush. Just come forward. And I want to pray with you. And I want to ask for the blessings of God for your life. Who is coming?”
“Excerpt from ‘Joel Osteen Says Giving To Me Is Giving To The Poor and He Mocks “It Is Well With My Soul” Hymn’ by iThink Biblically – Sep. 4, 2021: We’ll take a moment to receive our tithes and our offerings. We always want to thank you for your donations, keeping the ministry going. You’re not really giving to people, you’re giving to the Lord. Every time you give, you are lending to God, and I know you’ve seen in your own life God knows how to repay you. Nobody can pay you like God can pay.” Photo Caption: Joel Osteen on a private jet
“Excerpt from ‘Televangelists SHAMELESSLY Beg For Peoples Money’ by Owen Morgan (Telltale) – May 9, 2022: I tell you, partnership in the gospel is the greatest thing you can do. When we get to Heaven, I can guarantee you, there’s not a single one of you that’s going to be saying, ‘I wished you hadn’t encouraged me to give so much. And that I’d have got my fifth flat-screen TV, and that I would have had more jewels and fancier clothes and a nicer car’ – all that stuff will be gone. It’s only what you invest in the Kingdom, that is going to benefit you for eternity. You’re going to come up to me and hug my neck and kiss me, and say ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you, for getting that money out of my pocket.’”
“Excerpt from ‘Malachi 3:8-10 The Blessings of Paying Tithing Elder Bednar’ by Edward Hegemann – Dec. 13, 2022: Often, as we teach and testify about the law of tithing, we emphasize the immediate, dramatic, and readily recognizable temporal blessings that we receive, and surely such blessings do occur. Yet some of the diverse blessings we obtain as we are obedient to this commandment are significant but subtle. Spiritual illumination and perspective are poured out through the windows of Heaven and into our lives as we honor the law of tithing.”
“Excerpt from ‘Elder Johnson: Tithing grants physical and temporal blessings. Don't pay and you miss out’ by Thoughts on Things and Stuff – Dec. 7, 2017: My remarks this afternoon are intended as an invitation to those who have not yet gained a personal testimony of the full payment of tithing. A lack of compliance with this eternal law is not to be taken lightly and can not only seriously impair our spiritual growth and development, but can also limit the physical and temporal blessings that we could otherwise enjoy.”
“Excerpt from ‘Tithing: A Test of Faith with Eternal Blessings’ by General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ – Feb. 5, 2015: We express our gratitude to the Lord by paying our tithes. Tithing is a test of faith with eternal blessings.”
“Excerpt from ‘The Law of Tithing’ by General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ – Feb 12, 2015: Exercise your faith. Pay your tithing. This law may be different from that to which you were accustomed prior to your baptism. But nothing you do as a new convert will more completely prepare you for the blessings that await you, even temple blessings, than paying your tithing.”
“Media Report from NBC News – May 31, 2018: This preys upon the poorest people, that want or need money badly, where they’re told if they give money, God’s going to bless them a hundred-fold.”
My God, are we selling God’s Grace and Buddha’s Mercy or Power for money nowadays? I have never heard such a thing in any of the Bibles or sutras that Buddha has left behind. Nothing like that was mentioned. Even with the exact number. Like, if you give $50, then you are protected for one week. And then, after that one week, if you don’t have any more money, then what? You have no protection from the Buddha anymore even if you are virtuous, if you believe so sincerely in the Buddha? If you don’t give another $50, then you will not have any more protection from the Buddha? You’re not blessed anymore from the Buddhas? You have nothing to do with the Buddhas? The Buddha just abandoned you? Oh dear God! Āmítuófó, Amitābha Buddha! Oh God! I think all the Buddhas, all the Gods, all the Heavens, if They listen to all this, They probably wouldn’t know what to say about humans anymore. I don’t mean all humans, I mean the (bad) monks and the priests, for example. They’re supposed to be holy. They’re supposed to tell the truth. But this is outright abuse and just materialistic.
And they said to me that some monks even talk seductively, like hinting for some physical... You know what I’m saying – some physical togetherness with some women or something, really saying it outright so that some women may come to him, some followers, some Buddhist women might come to him. Oh my God! All this… I don’t know what to say anymore.
“Excerpt from ‘Exposing some monks’ tricks in getting offerings from others’ – July 24, 2024: Some Buddhist women asked me, ‘Why do you drool so much when you preach?’ Some women asked me, Nhuận Đức, like that. I replied, ‘It’s because after you ladies recite the Buddha’s Name, you become so beautiful! Therefore, when you sit in front of me, I naturally drool while looking at you.’ One day, a woman who owns a nearby sauna came to listen to my talk. She told me that whenever I wanted to visit her sauna, I should come by car and wear a hat so I wouldn't be recognized. She would arrange a VIP room and select three girls to provide the best massage for me and take good care of me. I told her I, Nhuận Đức, would arrange to go there someday.”
“Excerpt from ‘Sex, drugs, money and murder in Thailand’s Monkhood | Foreign Correspondent’ by ABC News In-depth – Aug. 8, 2024, Lauren Day: Tucked away in the valleys of north-eastern Thailand, this temple was once raking in millions in cash, gold and jewels from wealthy donors. The temptation proved too much for its monks. Well, it’s pretty quiet here today, but just a year ago, this place was swarming with dozens of cops who’d just made an incredible discovery and blown open one of the biggest cases of temple fraud in Thailand’s history. It’s centered on one of the country’s most famous monks, Phra Khom, who’d developed a loyal following among the rich and famous. I’ve come to find out how police cracked the case. Lieutenant Colonel Parnumas Saengsong was a part of the team which raided the temple and brought down Phra Khom and six other monks. How did this case land on your desk?
Parnumas Saengsong: The Crime Suppression Division had received complaints from some of Phra Khom’s disciples about his inappropriate behavior in having sex with men.
Lauren Day: What started as a sex scandal quickly turned into something much bigger.
Parnumas Saengsong: So we dug further into their financial activities. The most important finding was evidence that Phra Khom had deposited money into his sister’s account.
Lauren Day: Officers brought Phra Khom in for questioning. Then he made a rookie error. He called his monks from the police station and told them to hide the loot.
Parnumas Saengsong: Some had hidden it in the bell tower. So we found and seized it. Some had buried it in the hills behind the temple and covered it with monk robes. [Then go dig the soil and bury it]
Lauren Day: They were caught red-handed, as pictures from the raid captured.
Parnumas Saengsong: We interrogated them until they took us to dig it up. They were hidden in lots of places. In the woods and in the hills, many locations.
Lauren Day: So this was jewelry that people had donated, right?
Parnumas Saengsong: Those gold bars and ornaments were meant to be melted down to form a tiered top on the stupa. Mostly these are gold. Gold bars.
Lauren Day: Wow. Look at that gold. Phra Khom has since been jailed for his part in embezzling a staggering $12 million AUD (US$8,000,000) in temple funds.
Parnumas Saengsong: Our investigation team was stunned by the amount of money from people who believe in Buddhism who donated their money to support Buddhism. But these people took it for themselves.”
Some monks just use the money of the faithful, which they earn with sweat and tears, to benefit their own physical body or comfort, or even give it to their relatives, their lovers or whatever, and hiding in such luxury. That’s not good.
Photo Caption: Seeing Beauty in the Humblest Form of Contribution
