Maybe Sophan himself would know the truth but maybe he just saying
that to cover his azz to make himself looks good.
~ Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 24, 2010, at 8:04 AM, Chon Chumleas <[email protected]>
wrote:
Suggested mankhood test:
If during that time, many Cambodian-Americans living in Hawaii took
turn to bring
food and pacchai boun (four necessities) to offer to him, then he was
a monk.
If the first statement is true then the second one must be true and if
your second statement is false then the first one must be false.
On Jan 24, 8:26 am, [email protected] wrote:
Are you saying that it is okay for a monk to live in a dorm? Glad our
monks at our temple didn't use to live in a dorm before when they
were
in school.
Are you christian? If so, I understand. I rest my case.
~ Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 22, 2010, at 11:31 PM, rattanakiri <[email protected]>
wrote:
The international student housing is like similar to apartment.
everyone has her or his own room. How can you criticize someone
whom you do not even know their circumstances. because he said
something you do not like. grow up, dude. Are you gonna go their
build a house just him to live? You know how expensive housing is
in Hawaii?
thisbugone wrote:
Off campus housing is not the same as the dorm. What kind of pills
are you taking while writing the email below? If one chose to be a
monk one must follows by its religion.
On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 8:55 PM, rattanakiri <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I went to college once. I know these co-ed international
student
dorms are like an apartment building. Everyone has his or her
own
room. This is far from what you have implied. Even if he decided
to live off campus, it is the same setting. Each apartment
complex
is going to females and males residence. Where do you think he
should stay? Freshmen dorm?
Heng Sombat wrote:
Hey Rattankiri,
You miss the whole picture here. Monks are subjected to
be a
pure person
that we all respect and trust during his period of serving
his
monkship
regardless young or old. If you claim that it is fine for a
monk to live in
the same dorm with female(s), I must say that you have lost
track and you do
not have any believes in Buddhism. Or you are pretending to
be Buddhism. Or
you are an idiot just like what "thisbugone" said. Please
check with your
parents about Buddhism before you response.
Sombat
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf
Of thisbugone
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 11:23 AM
To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]
>
Subject: Re: My Letter to the Phnom Penh Post
Monk and women can stay together lol. You must be an idiot!
On Saturday, January 16, 2010, rattanakiri
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
wrote:
Some people may not realize it but speak ill of someone
including making a
harsh and quick judgement unfairly on someone is
unbecoming a
buddisht. Remember, Buddha teaching speak rightly only.
In a poor country like Cambodia, monastery life is a way
out of poverty
and a chance for a proper education. In fact, many
celebrated
Khmer leaders
and scholars owed their career to their days in as a
monk. I
think not any
Cambodians would be shocked if a monk rejoins his civilian
life. Cambodian
buddhists offer money, food to monks in order to receive
good
karma,
blessing. Should the monks refund the money, foods back
if he
returns to
civilian life. Would you expect the monk perform a return
of
good karma,
blessing back to heaven from those people? Give me a break.
Savouth Chea wrote:
Aloha,
As a resident of Hawaii, which Sophan Seng claims he
represents, I wanted
to share my observations, thoughts, and also questions about
his motives.
Unfortunately, I didn't like what I saw of him, and I only
foresee further
disruption.
Sophan Seng came to Hawaii to further his education back
in 2006. The
first time he set foot in Hawaii, I introduced him to some
Cambodian
community members since he was a Khmer new to the island.
Some knew his
background from the past and had their opinions (good but
mostly bad), but I
tried not to take people's word for it. As months
progressed,
however, I
came to see that the warnings I had heard were true. First,
he used the
Buddhist religion to advance himself rather than becoming a
monk selflessly
in dedication to Buddha. How do I know this? While
attending the
University of Hawaii, he lived in a co-educational
dormitory.
One may think
this is not a big deal nowadays, but should a monk put
himself
in the
company and living quarters of females? Is this
appropriate?
He often
flirted with young female members of our community and made
inappropriate
comments - causing some of our youth and their parents to
become very upset!
He was affiliated with a so-called ‘temple’ in Hawaii,
and
performed
Buddhist ceremonies. That was reasonable because he was a
monk, right? But
in 2009, he visited Cambodia from Hawaii, ostensibly still a
monk, but came
back to the United States only a couple of months later
with a
wife! Prior
to his trip back to Cambodia, he told members of the
community
in Hawaii
that he was going there to represent and gain support for
the
temple and the
Buddhist religion. The ‘temple committee’ gave him
$400,
and some
individual people also gave him money, since he was a monk
and/or student.
Poor him, right? When he came back with a wife, people
were
shocked. Did
he care? Apparently not. He did not attempt to explain
himself nor
apologize for using the monies to go back to Cambodia to get
married. No,
he used religion for personal gain. Sad but true.
To people that do not know him, Sophan Seng represents
himself as a
‘community facilitator.’ To be a facilitator, ideally
one has
to be
neutral, or at least try to maintain neutrality.
Instead, he
openly
expresses his opinion about Cambodian politics. In fact,
even
as a monk,
whose studies are supposed to focus on learning and
internalizing Buddhist
principles and the path to peace, he chose to pursue a
degree
in /political
science/. Most if not all of the articles he has written
to
the Phnom Penh
Post (PPP) discuss politics. At the close of each of his
articles, he
signed "Sophan Seng, University Hawaii at Manoa, United
States," or
"Cambodian Students of Aloha" (the University's student
organization). This might indicate that his opinions echo
those of other Khmer at the
University of Hawaii. They do not. Again, he is not
representing the
university, Khmer in Hawaii, or the United States of
America.
He used these
closures to make himself look good with outside parties.
Not
all Khmer in
Hawaii (or elsewhere in the United States) agree with him.
In his previous correspondence, Sophan stated, “If you
want to know me
more, go to these links.” The links he provided,
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~csaloha/officers.html
<http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Ecsaloha/officers.html>
<http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Ecsaloha/officers.html> and
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sophan/
<http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Esophan/>
<http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Esophan/>, are
links that were self-created -- using the university-
related
resources
(originally created for the use of the student group as a
whole) for
personal gain, again. Was the information he put on the
site
approved by
the majority of the students in the organization? Has
anyone else
affiliated with the CSAloha used this site for personal
boasting? No. Not
even the founders, myself or Mr. Chanthoeun To, ever
considered using this
site to toot our own horns. The purpose of CSAloha, ‘…d
oes
not represent
any political or religious ideologies both on/off campus.’
Yet he used the
university-based name/group to send articles about
politics to
PPP and other
media. Like Mr. Heng Sombat mentioned in his email, ‘He j
ust
wanted his
name to be read in Phnom Penh Post.’
Most of the articles he wrote to the PPP from Hawaii
attacked the current
Cambodian government and sided with opposition political
parties. Hmmm . .
. Sophan, when you were in Cambodia, did you write any
articles to the PPP?
Or did you simply enjoy yourself there and then come back
to
the safety of
the U.S. to criticize Cambodia? Why attack the government
of
your own
country? Do you just use your country for personal gain as
well? Samdech
Hun Sen has been a Prime Minister for years. He lives in
Cambodia most of
his life, unlike Mr. Sam
...
read more »
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