The heart of the Buddhist community is the Sangha, the monks and nuns that adhere to the rules of the Vinaya. These rules are very strict and have strict rules that monks cannot touch or control money. In order to support the finances of the Sangha community, lay followers volunteer to handle these affairs so that monks can attend to the very demanding lifestyle of the robed life of a renunciate. Traditionally however, the needs of the wider Buddhist community of lay practitioners and those raised in Buddhist households is less often talked about in the Buddhist community.  Read more... (422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

The social unrest in Myanmar has had many commenters making wild accusations about the role of Buddhists and monks associated with violence. This article aims to clarify misinformation being made about Buddhist views on violence.

Throughout its 2,500 years of history, there have been several periods of extremely violent eras that humanity has had the misfortune to befall. There are many centuries of time when monks had to learn martial arts to protect themselves, their temples, and their community from people with evil intent. The most famous of these are the Shaolin Monks in China and the warrior monks of feudal Japan when armies of monks were known to participate in battles.  Read more... (688 words, estimated 2:45 mins reading time)

Dear Sister Ms. Hannah Beech,

I nationalist Buddhist Monk U Wira Thu is writing this letter to you. When you came to us, we had treated you and your photographer with hospitability. You know we had done our best to help you and your photographer to get what you want.

We had helped you only with the good volition that we want the media and correspondents get the true facts.

We helped you because we respect western liberal media like Times and we expected you wouldn’t make lies to the people of the world. And we did not think you wouldn’t break ethic and responsibility of media.  Read more... (576 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)