A Buddhist Story

A Buddhist Story

I was seeking alternative religious practices to what my mother believed, (she was a strong Catholic) because I didn’t feel that her religion was working very well judging by the way she treated me as a child in her care. I had two children at my feet, I was a single mother and hungry for answers regarding the inner self and the role spirituality plays in our lives. I was also dyslexic and therefore, the Holy Bible was far too difficult for me to read – a slow reader at that.

In Western Australia I was introduced to a Buddhist Monastery that was situated high up in the mountains with breathtaking views. They chanted up there and meditated daily, however, what I loved the most about their practice was they were not money orientated and worked on a barter-trade type system as much as practically possible. It’s amazing how all their good will towards the community pays their bills with interest; during retreats, ‘Lay People’ were donating phenomenal amounts of money, putting it in an envelope and then dropping it in an unsecured basket by the front door situated at the back end of the hall unguarded and funnily enough it would sit there all morning until the monks were ready to deal with it – money was certainly not a priority to them. Nobody would dare touch it out of respect if nothing else. These monks were amazing givers to the community and they believe in doing things for free because of the Laws of Karma that they live by and if you look at that donation basket each morning, they are not wrong. I always had a tendency to self assess, independent by nature, and due to my mother’s abusive behaviors towards me, I was disinterested in Catholicism but always loved the Statue of Our Divine Mother.

I used to visit the monastery weekly giving the daily offering and then learned how to meditate their way. It was very challenging at first, as I found their style of meditation undisciplined however, it was very effective. The Monastery was very popular with Asians and especially Thai people, who came from their country all the way to Australia just to Visit this Buddhist Monastery that everyone boasts about. Unfortunately they brought with them their subservient culture, which conflicts with the Australian Way and I had to address this with the head monk and it was obstructing my freedom to some degree. The Thai women would bow down to the ground, kissing the feet of the Buddhist monks as they walked passed, sit at the back row (giving the best seats to the men who sat at the front like arrogant kings) …and during conversation with the practicing monks the men would give them eye contact and be counted as equals, while the women would look to the ground like slaves with no voice. ‘Well F**Ked if I was going to do that shit’, I said to the kids and instructed both my children to copy the men not the women and I was leading the way. My son was 2.5 years old and my daughter was almost 6. We were getting dirty looks from all except the monks who observed and remained quiet; I continued my fight for equality irrespectively and found the reaction from others who opposed strongly, quite entertaining from time to time.

One day a Thai women (I think she was, it’s hard to tell sometimes) said to me, ‘what do you think you’re doing’ and I told her that I am behaving like an Australian women because that’s what I am and under no circumstances am I going to grovel to man’s feet like a slave, it spoils my make-up (I don’t really wear any but threw that in as a joke because these Thai women pack their faces with that shit)!!!

She started gossiping to the other women, just like they do in Malta, an old bullying system that excludes anyone who’s different to their method of thinking and then turned her back on me. Kristen, my daughter was panicking and wanted to go home because she didn’t feel she could stand up to this woman, who was shoving her big boobs around the room like she owned the place (and she had an ass to match). I held my daughters hand and affirmed that I would take it up with head monk when we all head upstairs after lunch, who just finished (that same morning) giving a talk about the equality of souls and how a soul has no sex and he addressed this in-front of everyone; it couldn’t have come at a better time. Kristen was saying, ‘OMG Mum you’re going to get us all into so much trouble, can’t you just keep your big mouth shut?’ and I said, ‘f**k no baby doll, we’re all equals in Gods eye’s and if they were practicing their religion properly, they’d see that too’. The bell rang and we finally got called upstairs. I pushed my way to the front through the men as usual - who were starting to get used to it - with my baby doll Kristen in my hand and when everyone was seated I put my hand up. Kristen covered her eye’s and the head monk said, before I even got a chance to speak, ‘Ohhh Hmm, this is going to be a big one isn’t it?’ …and I told him to put his seatbelt on, which he found humorous. I had a really good relationship with this monk and gave them all eye contact when talking to them; he was originally from England and became head of this particular monastery. I said, ‘Ajan, can you please tell me something?’, he said, ‘yes, go on’. ‘Ajan, if the soul has no sex just like you preached this morning and we can be reborn into any sex the next time round (in the next life), is that right?’, and he said ‘yes, go on’. I said, ‘then why are the women subject to so much discrimination in this monastery where they have to bow down to the ground and kiss the men’s feet, refrain from eye contact with monks and sit in the back row and treated like they don’t exist, while their selfish husband live like kings at their expense?’…and do you realize this is Australian Soil that you have built your monastery on?’ Everyone went dead silent and Kristen was about to walk out humiliated, when Ajan asked her politely to sit back down to hear his response, and it was A RIPPA!

He said, ‘Anne, if you want to bow bow, if you don’t don’t, if you want to look at the person you are speaking to then do so, it shouldn’t matter whether they wear a robe or jeans or a skirt, and finally if you want to sit at the front – I’ve noticed you take the same corner seat each morning when you come – then sit there, it’s all yours; in fact we’ll start reserving it for you. This monastery is for everyone and we do not judge. What the Thai women do is their culture and has got nothing to do with Buddhism what so ever, as it is not written in our scriptures. We give everyone the freedom to choose.’ OMG you should have seen the look on the faces of these women sitting in the back row, they took new life in an instant; they thought it was Buddhism that they were practicing but it was just a load of bullshit and it took an Australian to point it out to them;;; and what do you think happened the next day, and the day after that and forever after that. The women stopped bowing down to the ground and started pushing in front of their husbands to take the front row – I mean it makes sense as they are smaller and I don’t how the hell they saw anything from the back row – their husbands eventually got used to it and stopped winging. The head monk started making jokes and cracking everyone up about it for quite some time after that and congratulated me for speaking up about something that was on everyone’s minds. He added, ‘next time you want to say something, I’ll give you the microphone because it’s your gift’.

I will never forget that monk, he was super awesome and Kristen loved him too but Blake only visited once because he would get bored too easily; meditation is hard for two year olds.

Then after three years of practice (not quite three, a little under) we went back to Melbourne and knocked on my mother’s door after six years of being absent from the family. She opened the door to a woman with an orange robe and shaved head and for the first time in her life, she kissed me and started crying because she thought I lost my mind and was brainwashing the kids. She recommended I visit the Psychiatric Hospital for an assessment; my dad laughed, he had an open mind and told my mother to calm down, as it’s only religion. I changed into jeans at my father’s request to keep the peace but continued my practice; my mother never approved of anything I did so what difference does it make, it was all thanks to her that I stopped worrying about other’s people’s opinion of me. When I was training in Martial Arts, she used to try and scare me with horror stories about how I am going to ruin my reproductive system doing a sport like that; in fact to the contrary, it was all thanks to my years of training that my body sprung back like a into shape after childbirth and I had no problem enjoying sex after motherhood. Me and the kids had six peaceful years without her and their father’s in our lives and we were tight net, close family unit of three; I was celibate at the time by choice.

Not long after I returned to Melbourne, I hit another low because that police officer that I blew the whistle on for sexual assault, was waiting for my return with vengeance and boy did they come after me like a pack of hungry wolves; a case stretched out 7 years long based on corruption and they tried everything and when I say everything, I mean everything but I was always two steps ahead because in Buddhism I learned to build the mind and think with my heart when my mind is stressed. They never closed this case against me because they were operating on false accusations, I mean if I was a danger to children and the community, don’t you think that after 7 years I would have killed someone or seriously injured them by that time, hmm interesting isn’t it?

Yet there were no such medical reports nor evidence to back up their bullshit; of course but once the case was closed, they had doctors kissing their ass who were taking tax free bribes under the table to deem me insane. They couldn’t figure out what I had and made it up as they went along; first it was schizophrenia, then it was manic depression, then psychosis, then I was accused of religious insanity and the list went on… my lawyer said that if I was a man they would call me a pedophile as well! Kristen closed that case for them because she wanted out and I don’t blame her, it was tough for those kids to endure police corruption for seven years, the victimization bled into every area of our lives and even into the school system which they attended; and one day those coppa bastards will die a painful death if I don’t get a chance to bring them to justice myself. They framed an innocent woman and they know it and yes I smacked my kids, everyone has, even they smack their kids but there is a difference between discipline and abuse, and I was a good mother even my mother used to say that when we weren’t in a heated argument; she said I was a better mother than my sister because I’ve got time for my kids and she hasn’t. I never spoilt my children like my sister and taught them gratitude before plentitude.

(Someone in Malta upon airing my concerns of police corruption said to me aren’t you afraid of the MAFIA and I said ‘absolutely not, what’s there to be scared of – my grudge is not with them, it’s with that mother-f**ker of a cop, a pathetic excuse for a detective who shouldn’t even be in that job behaving like that!’)

Once I returned to Melbourne, I was at the centre of police corruption once again, complaining to authorities, the police commissioner and the ombudsman (…by then this ass-hole lost his job for doing the same thing to someone else, sexually assaulting another women after I blew the whistle on him …and his brother also a police officer, got promoted into the Federal Police Force Headquarters I was told by a very reliable source).

This is when I realized there are holes in Buddhism too; when things go wrong in life you’re all alone once you become independent from God and that’s dangerous. In fact it was the Missionaries of Charity in Melbourne who gave me and the children back our faith, putting the Rosary Beads Back in our Hands where they belonged.

Thank God!