The Ren Ci saga

Everyone in Singapore knows about the Ren Ci Hospital saga that is going on now.

I donate to Ren Ci every month. People are not happy to know that Reverend MingYi was being charged with 10 counts including forgery and misuse of funds. I feel cheated as well, at least in the beginning.

I do not believe he is an evil person and that he used donation money for his own pleasure like the NKF saga's "leading character" TT Durai (gold plated water tap in his office!) who was jailed in the end.

I believe like he said, he trusts people too much to do the right thing and he himself never checked.

HOWEVER, for the record, he likes Montblanc AND Louis Vuitton.

I'm like... WHAT??!

His arguement was :
*Quote*
Ming Yi's explanation for his lifestyle was: 'I think we are living in a modern world.'
When asked what he meant by that, he replied: 'The modern world. I think the world is different, right? The world has changed. It's different.'
He added: 'A lot of religious people, not only myself, are very different now.'

and :
Justifying his preference for brand-name goods, Ming Yi said: 'You may say some of these things really last for a long time.'
*Unquote*

Yeah, the worlds is different now alright. It is alright for monks to have mobile phones and laptops because he will need these things to communicate with people faster and do thing more efficiently. But LV???!!!!

A monk is supposed to be 六根清净 and 四大皆空 (something that means free of desires), isn't it??! That's the basic understanding of being a monk! Granted people are not perfect. A monk is a human too. He might have times where he succumbed to the temptation of this material world. But still, I cannot agree to a monk carrying a LV on the street. It is NOT a necessary item.

I think we should have LV robes. He'll definitely be the first to buy them. Like those all black robes that Arab women wear which could cost up to thousands, stitched with Swarovski crystals, hundreds of crystals.

Anyway, Rev Ming Yi is not what I want to talk about here.

Some people and friends are saying to me, it's ok for monks to have branded goods. That, he is a human too. He, is NOT just a human. He is a MONK. A monk is not a normal person like us. Why do people think that it is ok for monks to have branded goods? I have to repeat myself here, I know monks have temptations too but as an outsider, why there are people among us that see nothing wrong with it?

Yes, I am opinionated. But this is such a common sense! Is it not? That a monk should try not yielding to temptations! Whether he successes or not, is one thing. But why are we agreeing to him need not try??

If it's perfectly ok for a monk to own branded, materialistic stuffs, he might as well go and get married and have kids (a buddhist monk does not get married).