Thai temple left empty after all monks test positive for meth

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Four monks including an abbot at a temple in Phetchabun province's Bung Sam Phan district tested positive for methamphetamine on Monday, district official Boonlert Thintapthai told AFP.

The monks have been sent to a health clinic to undergo drug rehabilitation, the official said.

"The temple is now empty of monks and nearby villagers are concerned they cannot do any merit-making," he said.

Merit-making involves worshippers donating food to monks as a good deed.

Boonlert said more monks will be sent to the temple to allow villagers to practise their religious obligations.

Thailand is a major transit country for methamphetamine flooding in from Myanmar's troubled Shan state via Laos, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/bad-abbot-thai-temple-left-empty-after-monks-fail-drug-tests/ar-AA14FH6h

[Solly Mack]

1. Those monks weren't hungry.

[SunSeeker]

3. LOL

[KS Toronado]

4. LOL #2

[Throck]

2. Heisenberg?

[NJCher]

5. The story doesn't tell us enough

Maybe at this point no one knows. How did such dysfunctionality enter a monastery?

Why, if a meditation practice is engaged in, would anyone turn to meth?

We have a Buddhist monastery here. I love to see the monks walking the campus and even to the grocery store.

[anarch]

8. I'll offer a couple of thoughts here...

in many parts of Asia where Buddhism is the prominent religion, young men are almost expected to spend a few years as monks as sort of like a finishing school; it is less common for people to keep their vows and wear the robes for their whole lives--in such cases of short-timers they may not be the most accomplished meditators and so on.

Then again, if they are meditating and following the sort of daily schedule that I've observed at most monasteries that I've ever visited (in the U.S.), that means getting up very early and spending long hours either meditating or doing work around the place, and I could see how meth would be an attractive drug and possibly be seen as not really violating the prohibition against "intoxicating drugs and drink"; like, oh, this stuff just helps focus the mind and keeps you from nodding off while meditating.

At any rate, meth is awfully habit-forming, and I hope these monks (and everyone else really) can get off of it and stay off of it, it's terrible.

[NJCher]

10. Ok

That makes some sense, particularly your first paragraph. Did not know that.

[panader0]

13. When I was a teenager (16 in 1966) our family visited Bangkok for a week.

I saw many young monks in their saffron colored robes and begging bowls walking around everywhere.
The Temple of the Reclining Buddha is very cool. I still have Temple Rubbings framed on my wall.
https://www.etsy.com/market/thai_temple_rubbing

[RobinA]

9. Monks

are people too.

[Old Crank]

6. Take the reds man....

I told you he should have taken the reds, man.

Cheech and Chong.

Would have thought downers would be better for meditation, but who am I to know?

[Dorian Gray]

7. I could see a scene

in a tarantino film depicting this.

[usonian]

11. Monks are expected to fast after noontime.

There are other Buddhist belief systems suited to ordinary people; no priests, no temples, just enlightenment of ordinary people, based on the teachings in the Lotus Sutra, which came after the hinayana practice adopted widely in southeast Asia. And those villagers can obtain not just merit, but enlightenment thereby.

Details upon request.

[Midnight Writer]

12. Don't mind me. Just imagining someone on meth trying to honor a vow of silence.

[appalachiablue]

14. Methmonks, jeeze..