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I was both appalled and disappointed when I saw this article approved and posted on the Buddhist Channel website (a prominent Buddhist website)

Ven. Ming Yi – Should he be disrobed for his financial misendeavour at Ren Ci Hospital?

It is indeed sad and disappointing that the once famous and inspiring Buddhist monk in Singapore has broken his precepts and break the hearts of his faithful lay disciples and supporters.

Ming Yi has already been punished for his mistakes. Should he still dorn the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk or should he renounce monkhood to prevent bringing the religion into disrepute?

Though regretful, Ming Yi’s actions have not tarnished the name of Buddhism in anyway. The Buddha taught human beings a method to achieve real and eternal happiness. The dhamma, or the teachings of the Buddha, is simply a path leading to the eventual goal.

I am not well versed in the Mahayana school to comment on whether Ming Yi should disrobe. In the Theravade school of Buddhism, to which I belong to, the monks are restrained under the Patimokkha, or a code of conduct comprising of 227 precepts formulated during the Buddha’s time more than 2,500 years ago

According to the Patimokkha, there are four parajikas (defeat) or rules entailing explusion from the Buddhist order or Sangha if they are broken by a monk: – engaging in sexual intercourse with a female, stealing, murder and “boasting of a superior human state without direct knowledge.”

As long as Ming Yi did not commit any of the above offences, he does not need to disrobe at least according to the Theravada school.

I do not see how embezzlement and the making of false accounts are not considered as stealing, and according to the Patimokkha (Theravadin Monastic Code of Conduct):

Accepting gold or money, having someone else accept it, or consenting to its being placed down as a gift for oneself, is a nissaggiya pacittiya offense. (NP18)

Obtaining gold or money through trade is a nissaggiya pacittiya offense. (NP 19)

The Vinaya Rules were set in place by the Buddha to serve 3 main purposes: First, to ensure peace and well-being within the Sangha (Monk) Community itself; Second, to foster and protect faith among the laity, on whom the monks depend for their support; Third, to help restrain and prevent mental defilements within the individual monks.

Though each of the above is a nissaggiya pacittiya offense (which does not entail disrobing, but requires the monk to forfeit the article obtained, and make a confession to a fellow bikkhu or group of bikkhus before he is absolved from the offense), under the Theravadin context, his dealings with money has not only rendered him irrelevant as a monk, whose primary purpose is to renounce the world and devote his time to the study and cultivation of the Dhamma, but it has most importantly eroded the faith (which the Vinaya outrightly sets out to protect) lay people have on the Sanghas.

I shall not be drawn into the polemic debate as to how and what he should be doing, but this post is written to underscore the flagrant mistakes made and to straighten out the wrong views some people might be harboring, since  I could not reply/comment on the article posted on the website.

P.S. This post does not discount the fact that he should be forgiven albeit all his wrongdoings.

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