Expert: Joe McSorley - 3/8/2004

Question
greetings,

i am a buddhist. i lived at malaysia at south east asia. i don't really know whether you have been to Thailand or not. however,in Thailand they have this belief on the ghost child, call "kuman thong". i am rather amazed an confused to find that such things are related to Buddhism monks. during one of my visit to a local temple(in malaysia) i saw a miniature amulet of the kuman thong. the process of obtainning it, is to buy it, and then pass it to the monk of the temple, and he will chant the prayers... i also found out that in thailand, a monk was caught stealing a dead foetus and was disrobed....he was trying to create another kuman thong...why can such things be seen in a buddhist temple and how can a monk actually summons the kuman thong spirits...why would a buddhist monk do that. for your information, according to the legend, the ghost child was created by roasting a foetus until it is shrinked down to a very small size and then, summon his spirit to an amulet...please enlighten me.....

Answer
Dear Daniel,
  You are asking me to defend or to justify the practices of a sect that I do not agree with nor do I know anything about.  I would guess that this is some old folk religion magic that got blended in with Buddhism.This is very common with all religions.  The Christian holidays occur miraculously on the events of the pagan holidays of those  they were converting. It's an attempt to not aleinate the culture you are influencing. It's not about the religion but what effect you want the religion to have. This is what happens when you lose the essence of the religion for the ritual and the power that comes with being in control.   This is why Zen appeals most to me because it strips away all the superstition and ritual that arrived after the historical Buddha. We are to reach the same awakening as the historical Buddha, outside of words and letters.  There is no room for this type of magic in authentic Buddhism.
Quite honestly I don't know how most Buddhists can justify their beliefs and not just the bizarre ones like this. There are thousands of Buddhists who chant for material goods and business success which is totally incongruent with the original teachings.  Many do not teach the 4 Noble Truths or the Eightfold Path yet consider themselves Buddhists.  Others will justify themselves by using some obscure quote from some isolated 'master' in history and then to base their new interpretation on this. The fact is that humans will justify anything they do and create some twisted rationale for it.  I find this everywhere there is humanity.  The poet Dunne said that man would 'corrupt the stars in their paths' if he could and one day he  just might.  Christians have justified war, persecution, torture and genocide in their history as Muslims and others have in theirs.  Is it coherent with their founders? Most likely not but that doesn't stop them from doing so.  Humans are ignorant, and here is your answer, but we as individuals knowing this must overcome our own ignorance.  
  Take care,
       Joe