Buddhist Community Outraged Over Demon Beating Incident.

Both parents of a 3-year-old southwest Harris County boy beat him with bamboo sticks and poked his feet with chopsticks in a violent attempt to remove demons from his body, a prosecutor said Tuesday in a court hearing. Assistant Harris County District Attorney Darin Darby, citing a witness statement from the boy’s 6-year-old sister, on Tuesday presented new details of the attack on Saturday to state District Judge Debbie Mantooth Stricklin in the case against Phung Tran, 36.

She and her husband, Jacky Tran, 35, are charged with injury to a child with serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony. He was arrested on Saturday. His wife was charged on Monday. Both face up to life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors say the parents, Buddhists and vegetarians, believed demons entered the boy through meat he ate.

HOUSTON – Houston’s Vietnamese and Buddhist communities are outraged over what they claim is a distortion of their religious beliefs. "We don't want to be looked upon as sharing the same kind of beliefs and actions as that man. Everybody condemns that action," Vu Thanh Thuy of Radio Saigon Houston said.

The Vietnam Buddhist Center in Sugar Land also condemns Tran’s actions. They wanted to make it clear that Buddhism does not teach anything about removing demons, especially at the painful expense of another human’s life. "I think he has a problem with his mind. I don't think it has got anything to do with religion," Lien Tu of the Vietnam Buddhist Center said. In fact, the major landmark at the Vietnam Buddhist Center is a 720-foot tall statue of the Bodhi Safa. In Buddhism, this is the goddess of peace and mercy, which is the opposite of the religious claims being made in the case of Jacky Tran.

The communities want to send the message that Buddhism is about alleviating suffering, not causing it, especially when it comes to a helpless 3-year-old boy.

James: It is my view that demons aren't real and that they are better understood as parts of our illusory self. In other words we all have Buddha nature but demon nature as well. Buddha taught us that we must take ownership of our ill fortunes and realize we are our own saviors and demons. We must take responsibility for our actions and problems--not conveniently shift the blame onto some invented bogeyman.

"By oneself, indeed, is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself, indeed, is one purified. Purity and impurity depend on oneself. No one purifies another." (Dhammapada, chapter 12, verse 165).

I've said this before but personally I find belief in demons to be dangerous as people can justify just about anything in the name of fighting an amorphous, unverifiable "demon." Such beliefs can too easily lead to placing our focus and attention outside of ourselves and allow us to blame our weaknesses, mistakes and problems on this idea of demons, which in many ways has become a scapegoat for a rampant ego. Now, I'm not saying that believing in demons always leads to this kind of behavior and if you believe demons are real and beneficial to your practice and are otherwise a very peaceful, non-violent, reasonable being than I have no quarrel with you.

As for this particular case we can clearly see that they are not practicing Buddhism but rather a very perverted, twisted and deranged immitation. In the first place vegetarianism isn't mandatory in Buddhism but second I want to know where the 3 year old got meat from if the parents were vegetarian? The main thing that I wanted to underline with this post is that Buddhism does NOT teach violence and is often seen as the most peaceful religion on Earth today. Of course there will be wackos who do this kind of stuff and try to call themselves Buddhists but that does not take away from the underlying message of Buddhism, which is peace, non-violence, love, respect and kindness.

---End of Transmission---

Animal Cruelty. Enough is Enough.

WARNING: If you are sensitive to any description of animal abuse then you might not want to read this post.

If you don't know by now, there has been a massive meat recall here in America because of treatment of sick and crippled cows. There was an undercover investigation at a slaughter house including hidden video which showed horrific and inexcusable treatment. I didn't want to post the video here on this blog but if you really want to see this disgusting video then click here. I warn you though that the images are very disturbing and shocking. Don't see watch this video if children are present and can see the screen. It is not fit for children's eyes. It's not even fit for the eyes of adults but those who are perhaps a bit out of touch as to what goes on in slaughterhouses--I suggest you watch it.

In one part a crippled co is picked up by a forklift and dumped later onto the ground from about 4 feet in the air. Other clips from the video show lame, undernourished cattle being poked and prodded with an electric pole. Still another shot shows a worker kicking a crippled cow in the head over and over. In addition it shows a cow lying on the ground being pulled across the ground by it's leg which has been tied to a chain in an awkward and clearly painful manner. Then there is footage of cows being blasted in the eyes and noses with high power water hoses which keeps them from being able to breath properly and ends up drowning some.

Not only are these animals being treated with the most cruel intentions possible but their meat is possibly very dangerous as their sick and cripple bodies lie in their own fecal matter which can contaminate the meat with salmonella, mad cow disease and e-coli just to name a few.

The news agencies are reporting that these animals aren't being slaughtered in a humane way which begs the question, "How is there a humane way to slaughter an animal?" In my opinion there is no humane way to kill animals because it is murder in my eyes. Would we consider killing and eating the flesh or another human being humane and justified? Absolutely not and so if you believe in interconnection then we are in fact not only killing animals when we eat meat but also killing apart of ourselves in the process--not the least of which being our compassion and love for all beings.

The company has a contract with the government to ship the meat to schools for children's lunches as well as used to feed the needy and elderly. It is shameful that American tax payer dollars have been paying this company as the business has been abusing these animals and as if this incident wasn't bad enough, this kind of practice occurs in many slaughter houses across the country.

When will we stop abusing and torturing our animal friends who have at one time been our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and children if you believe in rebirth and inter-being. I am not here to condemn those who are meat eaters but let me just say this one thing, think about that meat which you are eating and sincerely ask yourself, "Could I kill the animal who's flesh and muscle I am eating?" If the answer is no then you might want to make a change in your eating habits. I know I'm being a bit in your face meat eaters with this post but I needed to speak up on the animal abuse that goes on every minute of every day.

Avoiding eating meat is in keeping with Right Livelihood because if everyone stopped eating meat then no one would have to work in the business of killing animals. Buddha didn't mandate that Buddhist be vegetarians but it is strongly recommended to avoid adding to the suffering of all sentient beings. In specific, the Mahayana branch of Buddhism urges those wishing to follow the Bodhisattva path to avoid eating meat to build more compassion in one's heart.

In this day and age there are plenty of eating options that still give you plenty of protein without having to eat meat. If you want to know of some of those ideas then email me and I will give you some suggestions.

~Peace to all beings~