Sometimes you want some karma goodness without any of the inconvenience.
Lamyong Tiengtham wanted to make merit yesterday but was stuck at work, like so many coming down from the holiday high. Rather than let the impulse pass, she let her fingers do the walking for her, sliding them across her smartphone screen.
Not much later, a Foodpanda deliveryman was kneeling, camera phone pressed to forehead, to vicariously stream a monk’s good tidings in a moment captured in images that have spilled across the Thaiweb.
Digitally enabled spiritual succor reached a new level with Lamyong’s decision to make a remote offering by sending food to the monks at Trang city’s Wat Nikom Prateep because she just couldn’t get away from her work.
“We’re living in an era when we can make offerings to monks without seeing each other’s face,” wrote temple monk Itthiyawat Chotipanyo Suweerawarawut, who shared the story online. “Buddhists make merit through delivery applications and have the food sent to the temple. The monks receive the food from deliverymen, and then we pray to wish them well via a video call.”
Not to miss the chance for some choice hashtagging, Itthiyawat ended his message #Disruption #WorldSpinsFastHeartFullofDharma.
While some heaped shame on the whole thing as overly reliant on technology or said the 63-year-old woman was just “too lazy,” it received mostly positive comments from netizens citing convenience and the ways of the modern world.
“This is quite creative because I don’t usually have time to go to a temple,” Jaranee Khamtubtim wrote on Facebook.
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