Chapter Text
I actually touched on this topic a bit before in Ch. 5 (beliefs about merit, sin, and karma), Ch. 7 (Buddhism ceremony), and Ch. 13 (percentage of each religion), but I think this chapter will be where I put all the Buddhism-related topics in from now on.
There are five religions in total that are officially recognized by Thai law as religions. Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Brahmanism-Hinduism, and Sikhism.
The biggest religion here is Buddhism.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_Thailand
According to the National Statistical Office, in 2018 there are about 93% of the population who are Buddhist, about 5% are Muslim, and about 1% are Christians.
As you may know, Buddhism and Thai culture are tightly intertwined, but what you may not have known before is that, at the same time, Thai people are not a religious bunch.
The most basic thing Buddhism asks people to do is follow five precepts.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_precepts
Don't kill, don't steal, don't commit sexual misconduct, don't lie, don't use alcohol or intoxicants.
Most of us are Buddhist. very few of us actually strictly follow that very basic request Buddhism asks.
Kill some ants or mosquitos, drinking, gossiping, lying. Is it bad? Yes. Do people do it all the time? Yes.
Many would also casually get into other beliefs while at the same time not renounce their Buddhist status.
Someone could say they are Buddhist but also worship Hindu gods, random ghosts, Shinto gods, Greek gods, or whatever at the same time, and no one will bat an eye.
The reason why it is like this, in my own personal opinion, is due to the nature of Buddhism itself.
Buddhism is pretty loose on how one should live their life.
Islamic teaching is pretty clear about how things should be done on a daily basis, right? (Let me know if I'm wrong😅)
Buddhism teaching is pretty much like, Here are some principles you SHOULD learn and do. Go study it and see for yourself if it's good. Interpret it yourself. You don't want to? Ok, it's up to you. How should you live your life? You are the only one who can decide.
And while there are things that are said in Buddhism as good or bad, there are no punishments from Buddhism.
There are social judgments. There are laws. There are effects of it on your body, your mind. And that's about it.
There are no real incentives for people to practice Buddhism either. Other than it would be good for your mental health, there are no rewards. Heaven could be real, or it could be just a fairy tale.
There are no gods or deities out there that will give something to you. They might or might not exist, and that is irrelevant anyway. You still have to do everything yourself.
If you do something good, then you probably get something good, and if you do something bad, then you probably would get something bad, all because of some kind of logic.
The concepts of the afterlife, heaven, and hell are there but not reinforced by society as a whole as something that really exists.
Different from other popular religions, Islam or Christianity, for example, where there are rules from God. What Buddhism has is some guy's teaching.
He is a great guy that we believe in, of course. But he is a teacher who already passed away 2567 years ago, not a god or some powerful being that will personally come at you for doing something or not doing something. The pressure isn't that much.
If we can follow his teaching, then it would be great for our own self. But if we don't follow his teaching, then we don't follow his teaching. We might end up where we regret it deeply, or maybe we won't.
It's kind of like when you know you should exercise but still choose not to, you know?
Ok, now let's talk about Buddha's lore.
Here is the Wikipedia page.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_mythology
And if you want something else, I'm sure you could find some out there.
Here is a short version by me.
There is a prince who one day becomes aware of the fact that life has an inescapable suffering built in with it and wants to find a way to stop the suffering. He left everything behind and went searching for the way, trying many ways from many beliefs that already existed and still couldn't find it.
Eventually, he finds the way himself and becomes a buddha. (The inescapable suffering is still inescapable. We just have to know how to deal with it when it eventually happens.) After that he spends his life teaching that knowledge to people.
There are many miracles in the story. But most people regard that aspect of the story as a fiction rather than a fact. Some may even go as far as to say everything in the story is fictional. (For Buddhism, that is not as controversial as saying that the Bible is entirely fictional. As a Buddhist, you shouldn't believe something just because anyway. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesamutti_Sutta)
It's not important, though. Whether the lore is true or not is irrelevant to the point of Buddhism.
While Buddhism lore is part of Thai culture, Thai society, the core of Buddhism, is about one's relationship with themselves, what we choose to do, what we don't, what we think, and not whether or not those miracles ever occur.
And because it's not important. How much and what a Buddhist believes about our own lore are pretty varied. Some people believe heaven and hell are actual places that we can go to. Some believe that they are all metaphors.
My mom believes in rebirth until one achieves enlightenment but not that heaven and hell exist. I believe in none. I believe that heaven, hell, and enlightenment are all states of mind, and after death there will be no mind at all.
We are close. We talk every single day, but I didn't share her opinion. In fact, I only know her opinion about this now because I just asked her now because I was writing this. Why is that? Because it doesn't really matter. It just isn't.
Next topic. As a queer series enjoyer, some of you may wonder about Buddhists' views on queer people.
Is being queer a sin? According to some beliefs (not a core teaching. Many beliefs that are popular among Buddhists are labeled by a smaller number, but still quite a few other Buddhists, as superstitious and not true Buddhism.), being born as something is due to karma from your past life.
Being born misfortunate is due to bad karma (sin).
Being born as a queer person, which makes your life more difficult, would be due to your past life's bad karma but not a sin in itself.
There are rules about ordaining that prohibit gay or trans people from being ordained. That is a fact. Interpret it as you will.
Personally, I take that it is for the sake of maintaining order between monks. Also, there is a rule that a monk is prohibited from touching a woman to be absent from lust. It's probably about the same principle.
Many of the rules and traditions are about society and not about Dharma teachings.
To be honest, some of them are straight-up just there because of patriarchy and no other reason.
For a specifically Thai version of Buddhism lore (world building, not the Siddhartha Gautama Buddha's life story), you may want to search up ไตรภูมิพระร่วง (Trai Phum Phra Ruang)—Three Worlds by King Ruang.
Here is a link to a site that talks about it.