Most Cambodian men enter monastery as a way to get out of poverty, or to
continue education. Most will return to civilian life. It has been
like that for centuries. There is nothing wrong with that. If you know
any Khmer Buddhism, you have to address the monk properly. It is very
improper, and very disrespectful to call a monk names even if you think
you he is doing wrong.
Heng Sombat wrote:
It does not takes a Buddhist scholar to the know the basic principle of
Buddhism. Looking at a almost bare body of a female is in violation of
Buddhism already. No!!!!! so-called temple structure got nothing to do
with what I am referring to. I only had problem with the concept of how the
temple was conducted, by having a phony monk as their monk. Some even
called him 'monkey', which just found out from one of the students there
yesterday.
Ranttanaki, I think you are losing touch of Buddhism here. Please
understand the issue first.
sombat
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of rattanakiri
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 1:11 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re : My Letter to the Phnom Penh Post
I assume you are buddhist scholar? so the so-called temple does not
meet the standard of yours?
It does not have the tile roofs with dragon tails like the ones in Cambodia?
Heng Sombat wrote:
Sophan
My name is Sombat Heng resident of Irvine California. I have
information of you when I visited Honolulu. I met you at the so
called temple. You displayed a questionable character. I know you,
but you not know me. You would know me because I was poor and look old.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 23, 2010, at 7:09 AM, sophan <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Everyone;
I don't understand why there are endless arguments and privacy attacks
in here by our Khmer compatriots who have used their anonymous
nickname such as thisbugone, heng sombath, pierre hendri etc. If I was
not wrong, Rattanakiri is Dr. Narrankiri Tith (but please correct me).
My letter to the Phnom Penh Post is not about my dorm stay or personal/
private life. It is about part of my opinion to fully exercise our
citizen rights and freedom of expression in a democratic nation. The
letters are also filtered and edited by the PPP before they were
published. Why do they choose this private life to argue here? Is it
called privacy attacking or knowledge improvement? I want to see any
possible approaches which we (Khmers) can bring productive outcomes to
our community and nation rather than malicious speech.
Otherwise, if someone wants to know what is exactly operating inside
the dorm please click this link:
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/about-ewc/housing/student-housing/
and don't forget to read the "Resident Conduct Code". Look at the
picture and the room inside this link:
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/about-ewc/housing/housing-facilities/
There are 12 floors. The 9th and 10th floor is for male students only,
and the 5th and 6th floor for female only. The rests are for mix and
couples. When I was a monk, I stayed in the 9th floor. During that
time, many Cambodian-Americans living in Hawaii took turn to bring
food and pacchai boun (four necessities) to offer to me almost every
week. I am really grateful and appreciate with their Saddha
(dedication) and Panna (wisdom) in Buddhism.
Overall, I am appreciate and grateful with everyone who have expressed
concerns about me in both personal life and academic study.
Sincerely,
Sophan
On Jan 23, 8:54 am, Pierre Henri de Poipet <[email protected]>
wrote:
It's not fine for monks to live in the dorm with females, only for
normal guys like us.
How can we party, listen to AC/DC, drink Bud, smoke, watch porn and
eat dinner or score if monks are around ?
Joe, from Poipet
________________________________
De : thisbugone <[email protected]>
À : [email protected]
Envoyé le : Ven 22 Janvier 2010, 16 h 57 min 45 s
Objet : Re: My Letter to the Phnom Penh Post
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]>
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]]
On Behalf
Of thisbugone
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 11:23 AM
To: [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]> 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> and
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sophan/<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, ‘…does 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 just
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 Rainsy. When problems arise in the
country,
Samdech Hun Sen is still there. How about Mr. Sam Rainsy? He
leaves the
country when problems come up. Then, his students and his
followers pay
the price since they can’t leave the country like him. Now, I
am not
affiliated with any political party in Cambodia. I am simply
noting that
you only support a given official or bureaucrat when it suits
you. Perhaps
it is easier to get an American scholarship if you are attacking
a socialist
country leader rather than supporting him? Sophan, why try to
divide the
country instead of uniting it? Are you using your Canadian and
US bases to
get asylum to live abroad permanently??
Your articles to the PPP do not help the current issues in
Cambodia;
instead, you are dividing the government and her people. Before
you decide
to sound off your opinion again, you should take a look at
yourself in the
mirror again and think about whether you are helping Cambodia
with your
words and actions, or, by pretending to be some sort of expert
from the
safety of your current North American address, making things
worse for the
people of our motherland.
Savouth Chea
Honolulu, Hawaii
-----Message d'origine-----
De : [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>] De la part
de Heng Sombat
Envoyé : samedi 9 janvier 2010 21:08
À : [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Objet : RE: My Letter to the Phnom Penh Post
Sophan,
The CSALOHA website is very outdated
(http://www2.hawaii.edu/~csaloha/officers.html
<http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Ecsaloha/officers.html>). I do not
...
read more »
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