Friday, June 22, 2007

Red Alert !!!

Red Alert ! Especially for ladies ...

Early this year, I read in the papers of a few occassions where a few Buddhist and Ayuverdic practitioners were slapped with accusations of using their religious position to manipulate women... There was one who was accused of molesting a married woman whilst practicing meditation or something to that extent. Another obviously enjoyed the attention from his legions of female fans and accepted lavish gifts from them.

I do not want to make a judgement as to whether they are guilty of all these juicy things that we read on papers. Nonetheless, if we were to come into contact with practitioners who claim to be able to give you the moon and the stars, or invite you to his house for consultation or show you "the way", please question his intention and it's necessity. Especially if you feel extremely attracted to him at the point of contact or for no rhyme or reason, .. that is the time where you need to pull back your horses and look at things logically.

I was nearly the victim of a sick lama 5 years ago. I just started to practise chanting and meditation then and was really wide-eye with wonder on the visualisation and breathing techniques that I could learn. The first time I met him was at one of the Sunday prayer sessions. I was pretty surprised to learn that he was practising lama from Taiwan who left his job to practise Buddhism in Nepal. How pious I thought ! At first, my friend and I did not sense that he was up to no good as we hit it off and we were rather pleased to have the attention of a young and handsome lama. By and by there were tell-tale signs that he had something up his sleeve.

Other than offering to cook for us, he extended invitation to teach us meditation one-on-one in his rented apartment, both of which we didnt take up. On some occasions he also made weird remarks like how long hair could be used as a sexual magnet to lure the opposite sex (he had long hair) and most people were missing "something" in their lives .. etc .. ok, you get the point.

The final showdown I had with him was when he tried to steal a kiss from me. Ok, dun laugh ... this is serious matter ... So at that point, all the alarm bells started ringing and after shaking him off, I alerted the temple committee at once. Thankfully, words spread and the other branches issued a warning notice to the rest of the practitioners cautioning against him. We never heard from him since.

My friends were in a laughing fit after I told them the story with some dramatic expressions thrown in to make it more exciting. But my story-telling ended with an anti-climax when one of them commented that it was a blessing that I was picked as the prey instead of the other pretty & innocent ones. = ( So mean right ??!! Argh ... In retrospect, it's truly a blessing that I didnt fall for his nonsense and it was indeed his bad luck to have met me.

Now, I'm alittle worried to hear of another friend who seems to be in awe with her Ayuverdic doctor although she feels that he is "hum-sub" (lecherous). He also happens to be the same person who hit the headlines on Straits Time Home page for being accused of molesting his student sometime back.

So ladies, please exercise caution and if all else fail, run when you smell danger or something amiss. A woman's first instinct is never wrong ! Dun be fooled !!

Tibetan Nun ~ Om Mani Padme Hom 4:40 PM