The Buddhist monks across Burma are boycotting the military
personnel and their families due to ongoing abuses against Buddhist doctrine
and clergy by the ruling military junta.
The Burmese monks have demanded the military junta to apologise
the killing and insulting of monks and the religion not later than October 2,
2009 or face the consequences of excommunication starting on October 3, 2009 in
Burma and around the world.
This is the second wave of the Saffron Revolution, that started in
2007.
Known as a Pattanikkujjana in Pali, a Buddhist monks’ boycott
involves refusing morning alms from those said to have violated religious
principles.
Burmese monks have declared a Pattanikkujjana against the military
regime and their cronies twice in recent history: the first time in 1990
following the suppression of Aung San Suu Kyi and her opposition party, the
National League for Democracy, after they had won a national election by a landslide;
and again in 2007, the “Saffron Revolution,” when monks led demonstrations
against price hikes in Rangoon that turned into a national uprising against the
government.
The meaning of giving alms in Buddhism
In Buddhism, alms or almsgiving is the respect given by a lay Buddhist to a
Buddhist monk, or nun, spiritually-developed person or other sentient being. It
is not charity as presumed by Western interpreters. It is closer to a symbolic
connection to the spiritual and to show humbleness and respect in the presence
of normal society. The visible presence of monks and nuns is a stabilizing
influence. The act of alms giving assists in connecting the human to the monk
or nun and what he/she represents. As the Buddha has stated:
Householders & the homeless [monastics]
in mutual dependence
both reach the true Dhamma….
—Itivuttaka 4.7[1][note 2]
In Theravada Buddhism, monks (Pali: bhikkhus) and nuns go on a
daily almsround (or pindacara) to collect food. This is often perceived as
giving the laypeople the opportunity to make merit (Pali: puñña).
Pattanikujjana
sutta
Bhikkhus, to the lay disciple endowed with
eight things, if the Community desires could turn the bowl upside down. What
eight?
Makes effort for, the non-gain of the
bhikkhus, ill being of the bhikkhus, for their non-dwelling, scolds and abuses
bhikkhus, disunites bhikkhus, blames the enlightened one, blames the Teaching
and blames the Community of bhikkhus. Bhikkhus, to the lay disciple endowed
with these eight things, if the Community desires could turn the bowl upside
down.
Bhikkhus, to the lay disciple endowed with
eight things, if the Community desires could turn the bowl upright What eight?
Does not make effort for, the non-gain of the
bhikkhus, ill being of the bhikkhus, for their non-dwelling, does not scold and
abuse bhikkhus, does not disunite bhikkhus, does not blame the enlightened one,
the Teaching and the Community of bhikkhus. Bhikkhus, to the lay disciple
endowed with these eight things, if the Community desires could turn the bowl
upright.”
A. VIII. 87, 7.
