It's very common for young men to spend a year or two at a monastery in Thailand, and this is indeed quite respected there. These are young men in their teens a

It's very common for young men to spend a year or two at a monastery in Thailand, and this is indeed quite respected there. These are young men in their teens and twenties, with the same emotions, feelings, temptations, and even susceptibility to influence as other young men of their age. I'm quite surprised though at the abbot being busted so easily (maybe he should have been smarter?), they are supposed to be disciplined senior monks who serve as teachers and mentors and set an example for moral conduct according to the Vinaya. In fact, the fifth of the basic five precepts for lay-people ("Sura meraya majja pamadatthana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami") which is in fact voluntary, explicitly talks about refraining from any intoxicants (drugs, alcohol) that may cloud the mind. Every novice monk or monk-in-training must compulsorily conform to this precept, let alone the senior monks and the abbot. It is also interesting how the other senior monk Luang Po Tuanchai mentioned in the article made claims about powers of omniscience and was driving around drunk. Making such claims [1] is in fact one of the four *disrobing offences* in the Theravada school followed in Thailand and in other countries. Note that the appellation "Luang Po" or "Luang Por", sort of like "venerable father" is typically used for senior monks who command significant respect and veneration. Seeing such a senior monk fall in this way obviously hurts the sangha (monastic community) and their relationship with the lay-people. Thai people in general respect and venerate the monastic community, and I can see how such behaviours by even senior monks and abbots start to erode faith and trust, and start to cause schisms within the faith itself. These incidents are not surprising though. Even in the past few hundred years in Thailand, monks like Acariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera [2], Acariya Mahā Boowa Ñānasampanno [3], Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu [4], Ajahn Chah Bodhiñāṇathera [5], and several others not just clearly saw the cracks and problems with the traditional Buddhist structures and administration, but actually set out to do something about it and they did this in very powerful ways. These types of incidents have been happening on record right from the early days of the Sangha and even during Sakyamuni's (Buddha's) time, which is why the monastic rules for monks and the sangha were gradually developed and refined into a very comprehensive, clear and unambiguous structure [6] [7], not just for the sake of "making up rules" but to ensure that the sangha and the lay-community would co-exist in harmony and support each other. These rules are __supposed to be__ followed by all monastics, though some centres appear to ignore them when it suits them. [1] https://bswa.org/teaching/vinaya-four-disrobing-offences/ https://bswa.org/teaching/vinaya-four-disrobing-offences/ [2] https://buddho.org/about-the-author/ajahn-mun/ https://buddho.org/about-the-author/ajahn-mun/ [3] https://forestdhamma.org/about/ajaan-maha-boowa/ https://forestdhamma.org/about/ajaan-maha-boowa/ [4] https://www.suanmokkh.org/buddhadasa https://www.suanmokkh.org/buddhadasa [5] https://ajahnchah.org/ https://ajahnchah.org/ [6] https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/vin/sv/bhikkhu-pati-intro.html https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/vin/sv/bhikkhu-pati... [7] https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#bmc https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#bmc