Namo Buddhaya,
setau saya Dhammakaya ini memang aliran yg kontroversial, dan oleh banyak pihak dianggap sebagai CULT theravada,
sumber dari Bro Triyana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Phra_Dhammakaya
Public accusations of 1999–2002
Wat Phra Dhammakaya has experienced its share of controversy. In 1999[2][3] and again in 2002[4][5] the temple's abbot, was accused of charges ranging from fraud and embezzlement to corruption. Social critic Sulak Sivaraksa criticized the temple's abbot for promoting greed by emphasizing donations to the temple as a way to make merit.[2] Julian Gearing of Asiaweek commented that Widespread negative media coverage at this time was symptomatic of Wat Phra Dhammakaya being made a scapegoat for commercial malpractice in the Thai Buddhist temple community in the wake of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.[6] Apologies to Wat Phra Dhammakaya were published in full after the Thai newspapers and TV channels concerned were successfully sued for slander in the period 2001-3.[7][8][9][10] In 2006 The Thai National Office for Buddhism cleared Wat Phra Dhammakaya's abbot of all accusations when he agreed to donated all funds to the name of the temple.[11] He was subsequently restored to the position of abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya
Ya namanya organisasi yang sukses pasti ada yang senang dan tidak senang, mari kita lihat sekarang :
Present
Under the leadership of president Phrarajbhavanavisudh (Luang Phaw Dhammajayo, b.1944), the image of the Dhammakāya Foundation has made a recovery, and in 2004-5 had received further recognition for its contribution to world peace from organizations such as the World Health Organization, the Thai Senate, and several peoples' associations in the South of Thailand. The Dhammakaya Movement continues to influence millions of people in Thailand and worldwide to practice Dhammakaya meditation. The movement has set up Dhammakaya Open University in Azusa, California in 2003 to offer degree courses in Buddhist studies. It has also encouraged Thais to quit drinking and smoking through the activities of Anti-Drinking and Anti-Smoking program. World Health Organization (WHO) presented the 2004 World No Tobacco Day Award for this work on 31 May 2004[16] [4]
The movement has expanded branches to over eighteen countries worldwide and is promoted via a Buddhist satellite network or Dhamma Media Channel (DMC.TV) with a 24 hour-a-day Dharma and meditation teachings broadcast to the audience worldwide.
Accusations that the Thai Government had financed activities at Wat Phra Dhammakaya were made in a letter by Sulak Sivalaksa on 10 May 2010[17] but the government gave a press release on 12 May 2010 to show these accusations were unfounded[18]
Nampaknya Mr.Sulak Sivalaksa agak sentimen dengan organisasi ini tetapi Pemerintah Kerajaan Thailand dan PBB tetap mendukung penuh, jadi siapa yang keliru
Omong-omong anda ada bukti apa tidak kalo organisasi ini termasuk cult, silahkan berikan disini
Wat Dhammakaya, considered by some to be a breakaway Buddhist order, has aroused suspicion ever since its following began to swell some 30 years ago. The temple's founder, Luang Pu Wat Paknam, proclaimed he had re-discovered a lost path to enlightenment through intense meditation. The prospect of reaching nirvana proved a huge draw for thousands. “All the knowledge that Buddha has, even that which is written in books, it comes from a very tiny spot within oneself, right about here” says one devout Thai follower, pushing an elegant finger into her torso just above her belly button.
Contributing to Dhammakaya's otherworldly aura, its logo - and indeed the temples themselves - are unnervingly . At lunchtime, hundreds of monks appear to be eating under a giant flying saucer some 100 metres (yards) in diameter.
Several temples dot the massive complex, including the Dhammakaya Hall, covering 16 hectares (40 acres) and which can hold services for nearly a quarter million people. Temple staff describe it as the largest public building in the world. Often it is nearly full, they say.
Critics say Dhammakaya is a huge money-spinner, with followers strongly encouraged to donate vast sums, including their homes or land, to the temple in order to accrue merit.
Six years ago the temple's abbot, Dhamachatyo, was accused of amassing a billion-dollar fortune and was charged with embezzlement.
An Englishman who now teaches at Dhammakaya says much of the temple's work has been misunderstood, with several other temples around the country expressing “jealousy” at its runaway success. “They do a lot of good but never tell anyone.” he
says.
Phra Nicholas admits the earlier scandal's reverberations are still felt.
“As organizations grow, it's as if you come across a ceiling where, if you hit it, you're seen as a threat on a political level. In Thailand and perhaps in other countries, once you exceed that threshold you're put under a lot of scrutiny.”
With most of the charges against the abbot now dropped, Dhammakaya can go about promoting its brand of Buddhism here and abroad, embracing modern technology to push its message through the Internet, its own satellite television station and multi-media.
“Dhammakaya is on the leading edge of Theravada Buddhism in that we aren't afraid of using modern technology. It's necessary if Buddhism is to remain relevant in the modern world.”
He insists the temple is not proselytizing, but merely spreading its message of peace through meditation.
When asked directly if the temple solicits excessive donations from the faithful who may be eager to cast off their material excesses to gain merit, the farang monk turns philosophical.
“There are those who have become wealthy since becoming Dhammakaya followers”, Phra Nicholas says. “What goes around comes around. By giving to others, it comes back to them. This is a lot of the driving force for people to be generous.”
The movement promotes a meditation technique called Vijja Dhammakaya which uses breathing rhythms, mantra recitation and visualisation of a crystal ball as a focal point of concentration.
Dhammakaya claims this technique can lead followers straight to Nirvana, which they describe as a permanent blissful realm where Buddha and other enlightened ones reside after death -- an interpretation some scholars say is a serious distortion of the accepted wisdom based on Theravada teachings.
This technique was “discovered and popularised by the late Luang Por Sod Chantasaro, also known as Phra Mongkoldhepmunee, who was abbot of Pak Nam Pasi Charoen Temple in Bangkok, who was the first to define Dhammakaya and teach it.
There Luang Por Sod began the Vijja Factory, an intensive, around-the-clock group meditation for an exclusive group of disciples. One of the movement's legends claims the supernatural energy produced by the Vijja Factory protected Bangkok from bombing during World War Two
Though dismissed by intellectual Buddhists, a belief in the supernatural has always been part of popular Buddhism, says Dr Apinya Feungfusakul
.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/general/general644.html See her article
After Luang Por Sod's death in 1959, his disciples split into competing camps. She says one faction, led by a group of monks from the Wat Pak Nam temple and Phra Phromkunaporn, abbot of Sraket Temple, set up a meditation centre called Vijja Dhammakaya Buddhist Meditation Institute in Ratchaburi province in 1982. But it is nun Jan Khonnokyoong's meditation students, led by Kasetsart University student Chaiyabul Suthipol, now Phra Dhammachayo, who raised the Vijja Dhammakaya to new heights when they set up Phra Dhammakaya Temple in Pathum Thani in 1975.
sumber:
http://www.buddhismaustralia.org/cults.htm