Pure Land Monastics, Part Three

Question: What kind of training does a new monastic go through?

Response: This depends on one's teacher. Since my teacher, Master Chin Kung, is a skilled and accomplished lecturer, his students listen to his lectures daily. In my case, since I do not have a translator with me right now, I work on translations with the translation team members and write daily. Some of us also practice giving lectures.

By tradition, the student takes his or her teacher's talks and starts by presenting them. In this way, the audience hears an accurate lecture that has been passed down from an accomplished master, not a lecture written by a beginner who could easily write something wrong. Saying something untrue would have very serious karmic consequences for the lecturer for he or she would have mislead the listeners.

The student then gradually studies different lectures by the teacher, to pull together parts of talks that were given to different audiences. Ancient commentaries are used for reference.

Our other training can be formal; for example, learning to play the musical instruments in a class. Or it may be more informal as a monastic of several years guides a newer one. Also, monastics who have certain skills may informally teach such skills to others.

Comments

[Richard Ingate]

Dear Ven Wu Lin, Thankyou again for your reply. It is very interesting and helpful to have a fuller picture.

best wishes,

Richard