The Monastic Path: Early Days

Question: I would like to become a monk but do not know how to do so. My primary wish is to be able to help others. Can you please give me some advice? I have become a vegetarian and begun to simplify my life.

Response: I will respond from my personal experience as an American nun whose teacher is Master Chin Kung since I cannot speak for others.

First, we need to look around and then choose the school that is most suitable for us. For me that is Chinese Pure Land. For you it might be Theravada or one of the Mahayana schools: Zen or Tibetan, or perhaps Pure Land, for example.

Next, we need to find the right master for us. This is not to say that some masters are better than others, only that we need to find the one that we have a strong affinity with and can best learn from. Meeting this individual depends on our causes and conditions. If the time is not right, no matter now much we search, we will not meet “our” teacher. If the time IS right, we will quickly find our teacher.

Then you need to spend time at the Buddhist temple or center to see first hand how the monastics live and practice to be sure it is a lifestyle that is truly suitable for you. Also, the master and the monastics need to observe you to determine your aptness for a monastic life in that particular sangha. If you decide that, yes, this is the right practice and teacher; you formally make your wish to become a monastic known to the master.

Whether this happens depends on the seeds you have previously planted.

Not knowing if we will meet the right conditions or not, the best thing to do is essentially what you have already begun to do. Studying Buddhism, becoming vegetarian, not engaging in activities that will distract you from what you truly want to do—help all living beings to end suffering and find lasting joy—will help you to focus on creating better causes.

To get the fruit we need to plant the seed.

You need not wait to become a monk to accomplish your goals of helping others and yourself to be free from samsara. The difficulties you face in daily life can provide you with an opportunity to begin helping others right now. Your example can touch others. You might not even know it is happening, but when practicing to be a good Buddhist, you act kindly and carefully with a sense of quiet happiness, others will notice and some will be touched. It may only plant a seed in them but that’s all we can hope to do—reach a few people on a deeper level and plant some seeds in others.

Your sincerity in wanting to help will plant the causes you need to become a monk. I do not know when they will mature. But, if your bear your wish in mind as you work at your practice, dedicate the merits to all beings, and strive to be a better person, someday your goal will be accomplished.

as a diamond grinds

 

The evil a witless man does by himself,

born of himself

and produced by himself,

grinds him as a diamond grinds a hard gem.

~ Dhammapada 161 ~

Rules - Who Needs Them!

Recently in a discussion, the subject of rules came up. Why do we need them?

While they may seem restrictive, rules help to restrain chaos. When in Malaysia, I had spoken about driving in the United States in one of my talks. Later, an audience member came up to me and said that when he and his wife had visited the US, they had been amazed by American's behavior at four-way stop intersections. Out in the middle of open country, with no one other car in sight, people stopped at the stop sign! They then proceeded on their way. The speaker said in Malaysia, the situation would have been very different. 

Rules enable us to know what to do. Following them, we are able to relax, confident that we have done what is deemed correct. 

Imagine visiting a country where you had never been and not knowing the local customs. You'd be worrying all the time if you were doing the right thing or if you were offending others. If you knew the rules for how to behave, you could relax and enjoy the new sights.

Rules can be liberating since we do not have to spend time puzzling over what to do or worrying that we might have done something inappropriate.

She Who Hears the Cries of the World

A very long time ago, Avalokitesvara, Guanyin in Chinese, vowed that if she ever became disheartened in saving sentient beings, may her body shatter into a thousand pieces. Once, after liberating countless beings from the hell realms by teaching them the Dharma, she looked back down into the hell realms. To her horror, she saw that the hell realms were quickly filling up again!

In a fleeting moment of despair, she felt profound grief. And in that moment, in accordance with her vow, her body shattered into a thousand pieces. She beseeched the Buddhas to help and many did. Like a fall of snowflakes they came. One of those Buddhas was Amitabha. He and the other Buddhas helped to re-form her body into one that had a thousand arms and hands, with an eye of wisdom in each hand. In this way, she could better help all sentient beings.

Guanyin Bodhisattva is also known as "She Who Hears the Cries of the World."

Right now, our world is crying for help. She is listening.

Are we?

Either Way—It's Us

 

Everything is manifested by the mind and altered by the consciousness. In other words, with our thoughts we create the world.

As Buddhists, we learn that our thoughts of craving and greed result in floods. Angry thoughts result in fires, and ignorant thoughts are the cause of disasters involving wind.

Causality: every cause will have a result. As we continuously crave more material goods and experiences, the results will likewise intensify. As we become more frustrated and upset by our failure to gain all these objects and experiences that we want, we become more angry.

Look around. What are you seeing more and more? Recording-breaking floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, drought.  

The other way?

It's another way of seeing the causality. The more electronic gadgets and more exotic goods we want, and the more we travel looking for new experiences, the more we're impacting the environment.

Negatively.

We buy more "stuff." This "stuff" comes from nonrenewable resources, which are being rapidly depleted. Producing "stuff" creates toxic waste that seeps into the earth, works it's way into our rivers and oceans, and is spewed into our air. The exotic foods have to be shipped halfway around the world on ships, planes, and trucks that belch toxic fumes and pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Non-Buddhist cause and effect. The more we buy, the more we destroy what is natural and in it's place leave our garbage and waste.

Thanks to our greed, we're destroying our world. We. Together. All of us. With our greed, whether you look at greed from the Buddhist perspective or from the scientific facts.

Either way you look at it.

It's us.