LOEI – The Sangha Supreme Council will send investigators to look into reports that a popular upcountry monk has violated Council rules by using bullshit in his sermons that it had not pre-approved.
The council’s action comes after allegations that Phra Somchai, known to his followers as Luang Phor Porsrisuriya Khemato, a famous monk at Wat Romportitham in Loei’s Nong Hin district, has been using his own bullshit when speaking to laypersons.
Moreover, Phra Somchai’s bullshit has attracted attention and negative coverage because it predicts imminent destruction from massive natural disasters, causing panic among the public and disrupting the Buddhism market in Thailand.
“Buddhism must operate under strict rules if it is to maintain its highly marketable illusion of offering people a path to happiness and prosperity,” said Amnart Buasiri, director of the Secretariat of the Sangha Supreme Council. “For that reason, monks must adhere to Sangha-approved bullshit only.”
Although the complete text of Council-approved bullshit is not available to the public, it is generally believed that it includes restrictions on how much doom to predict, how much prosperity to promise in return for donations to the temple, and minimum standards of vagueness in all promises.
Phra Somchai’s predictions that continents would collapse and that Thailand would be underwater except for certain mountainous areas that included his own temple, and that these events would happen in March, have caused panic among his followers and led many to abandon their homes and move into the temple.
By giving his bullshit a specific deadline by which his predictions would fail, Phra Somchai will “damage the credibility of Thai Buddhism bullshit,” according to Amnart.
Additionally, making his patrons abandon their homes and their jobs would disrupt capital flow and put additional expense burdens on the temple, both of which violate the Council’s temple-operating regulations.
If found guilty of breaking rules, Phra Somchai could be defrocked according to the terms of his contract under Thai Labor law.
However, many observers feel that the charismatic monk’s engaging style of preaching will assure that he can find bullshit-selling work outside Buddhism.
“Thai Buddhism has always frowned on its bullshit being too ostentatious or individualistic,” said Khannita Phenpinant, professor of religion at Thammasat University. “You can’t just make up doomsday predictions that fit the news and expect people to not notice when you’re wrong. That only works with American Christians and third-world Muslims.”
“But if Phra Somchai insists on selling obvious bullshit to Thais, he could always try politics.”
