Cambodia is a wonderland, but lost her soul?
Cambodia known its peak as the Khmer Empire with a vast territory, a top civilization. Cambodia also known the weakness and powerless era where the country was controlled by two masters at the same time: Thailand and Vietnam. It was about to be eliminated from the world map.
The basis of its bright civilization was based on two religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They are both great in term of high spiritual qualification as well as resourceful knowledge of engineering, construction, astrology, medicine, etc. Buddhism took the second part of Khmer history and continues to the current day. Buddhism is known as religion or philosophy of peace and accordingly Khmers are known as people of peace, calm, and polite. Nonetheless, one wonder how this country can turn into the genocidal atrocity that destroyed the life of millions of its citizen and the whole society structure.
The moral quality is degrading continually; crime, human trafficking, extreme sexual harassment even children, and other violence acts create concerns for everyone. The King father also expressed His concern in his message to the people. One wonders why?
There is no proper reasons to explain it. Some referred to the legacy of the Khmer Rouge doctrines, other blamed the poverty or absence of morality education. In common, many thought that Cambodia is losing her soul. Soul is a broad term; it is difficult to understand what is really meant, what are the components or elements of soul. The clear insight about soul would help us find it back or cultivate the new ones. Anyway, for soul, we can think of something very essential, very basic intrinsically built in Khmers.
In this respect, I consider Buddhism as one of the core values in Khmer society. It was the practice of Great King Jayavarman VII where Cambodia reached the peak of her history. If Buddhism is the core, there should not be a problem of loosing Khmer soul at the current day, because Buddhism is practicing widely in Cambodia and 90 percent of her people are Buddhist.
We need to look deeper in Buddhist practice, if there is something wrong or missing in there. It is really a hard question for the one who is not professional Buddhist like me to deine this difficult question. In this dilemma, I look at the picture of King Jayavarman VI. He sat in the meditation posture. He is really in the mediation position. He meditates. Then look back to Khmer society whether this practice has been carried on in their daily life like their ancestors. There is little fact to prove that Khmers are currently doing so, except some group of the society or persons such as monks (all monks?).
At this point, I question myself whether meditation is Khmer soul? Is it lost? one cannot find a complete answer to this great question. In this regard, I decide to bring this issue for public discussion and debate. To open the forum of pubic debate, I wish to initiate some insight of mediation in this book [to be written] to serve as background to public insight and discussion.
The basis of its bright civilization was based on two religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They are both great in term of high spiritual qualification as well as resourceful knowledge of engineering, construction, astrology, medicine, etc. Buddhism took the second part of Khmer history and continues to the current day. Buddhism is known as religion or philosophy of peace and accordingly Khmers are known as people of peace, calm, and polite. Nonetheless, one wonder how this country can turn into the genocidal atrocity that destroyed the life of millions of its citizen and the whole society structure.
The moral quality is degrading continually; crime, human trafficking, extreme sexual harassment even children, and other violence acts create concerns for everyone. The King father also expressed His concern in his message to the people. One wonders why?
There is no proper reasons to explain it. Some referred to the legacy of the Khmer Rouge doctrines, other blamed the poverty or absence of morality education. In common, many thought that Cambodia is losing her soul. Soul is a broad term; it is difficult to understand what is really meant, what are the components or elements of soul. The clear insight about soul would help us find it back or cultivate the new ones. Anyway, for soul, we can think of something very essential, very basic intrinsically built in Khmers.
In this respect, I consider Buddhism as one of the core values in Khmer society. It was the practice of Great King Jayavarman VII where Cambodia reached the peak of her history. If Buddhism is the core, there should not be a problem of loosing Khmer soul at the current day, because Buddhism is practicing widely in Cambodia and 90 percent of her people are Buddhist.
We need to look deeper in Buddhist practice, if there is something wrong or missing in there. It is really a hard question for the one who is not professional Buddhist like me to deine this difficult question. In this dilemma, I look at the picture of King Jayavarman VI. He sat in the meditation posture. He is really in the mediation position. He meditates. Then look back to Khmer society whether this practice has been carried on in their daily life like their ancestors. There is little fact to prove that Khmers are currently doing so, except some group of the society or persons such as monks (all monks?).
At this point, I question myself whether meditation is Khmer soul? Is it lost? one cannot find a complete answer to this great question. In this regard, I decide to bring this issue for public discussion and debate. To open the forum of pubic debate, I wish to initiate some insight of mediation in this book [to be written] to serve as background to public insight and discussion.
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