Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Soy
Buddhism teaches that we all come to this world naked, when we die, we will not take anything with us with the exception of the sins and good deeds that we perform. Therefore, true Buddhist believers should not fight each others to fulfill our greed.
Buddhism is the state religion and it is worshiped by Buddhist Khmer families in general. For example, during each year’s Pchum Ben celebration, no Cambodian families would miss visiting a pagoda, whether they are rich or poor. However, when you compare the current social problems in Cambodia and the [intrinsic] value of Buddhism, one can see that the majority of Cambodians only worship Buddhism superficially only, they do not worship Buddhism out of their heart or out of their true belief at all. Why is that so?
The 15 days of the Kan Ben and Pchum Ben celebrations ended on Tuesday. Each pagoda in the kingdom was busy receiving Buddhist devotees. People from all creeds tried to visit a pagoda to celebrate Pchum Ben. This action seems to show that Cambodians are true believers of Buddhism, of sins, of “retributions” which are part of the Buddhist core.
Based on the busy traffic in pagodas during the Pchum Ben season, it is hard to believe that the Cambodian society is riddled with so many social problems because Buddhism provides a just philosophy that everybody can believe and worship. The foremost philosophy that Buddhism teaches to people is: “Do the right deeds and you will reap good deeds, do the wrong deeds and you will reap bad deeds” during this lifetime or during the next lifetime. However, Cambodia had continuously met with unending war and genocide, as well as major and minor problems.
Analysts who follow the situation of the Cambodian society have pointed out 2 major issued that we should reflect on. The first issue is the fact that a number of Buddhist followers worship the religion without clearly understanding the teachings of Buddha. Any religion aims to direct people to perform good deeds, but the problem stems from the fact that the worshipers do not practice their belief properly because they do not understand and they twist religion for other purposes. The second issue stems from the fact that people are using religion only as a shield, but they do not truly believe it in their heart and they do not practice it according to Buddhist meaning at all.
