Nude Photography for Merit Making: An Analysis According to Buddhist Principles

บทคัดย่อ

This paper aims to study an issue of taking nude photography to make merit. Ideas and principles were analyzed from the Tipitaka, Commentaries, and other related documents and research. Findings showed that taking nude photography for charity (good deed) is not considered to be an occupation that is against the Precepts (Silas). However, it is an unwholesome occupation (bad deed); Papa; against the wholesome courses of action or Kusalakammapatha). The nude models' announcement to pose for nude photography and donate revenue from a sale of the photographs to Wat Phra Baht Nam Phu Temple to help support AIDS patients is, then, to "do an unwholesome deed to gain money for wholesome charity" which is comparable to "slaughtering cows, buffaloes or pigs to celebrate an ordination of one's son". Objects of donation are pure only when the receiving monks meet three criteria. That is, they neither see, hear nor doubt that the lay persons do something unwholesome to obtain the objects of donation. However, in this case, the nude models, the magazine and the photographers all announced through media that they would produce the nude photography and offer them for sale at an auction in order to raise fund for donation. As a result, Phra Udom Prachathorn (Alongkot Tikhapanyo), the abbot, refused to receive the donation because it was not pure. If he had accepted it, he would have violated the Disciplines (Vinayas). Importantly, this merit making would not have been realized as a good deed (Punna). The point at issue was not the occupations of the donors but their method of merit making.