Posts Tagged ‘monk’

I was recently asked whether the word Ajaan can be used for people who are not ordained, and rather than limit the answer to one person, I thought I would share it with all of you who might be interested in the subject.
The word Ajaan, or actually “Aajaan” (อาจารย์) as the Thais pronounce it, comes [...]

Buddhists are all about letting go, not clinging to things, it is true. But we’re also all about understanding things, which we believe is what leads us to be able to give up clinging. If you don’t really take the time to understand something, you can’t really expect to give up clinging it. [...]

More fun with Buddhist Monasticism.
So I really did think a bit about the whole woman ordination thing while in the forests of Thailand… here’s some more thoughts:

It seems pretty clear in my mind that we (men monks) shouldn’t be eager to ordain women; it doesn’t say much of an ascetic that he turns around and [...]

I really don’t have enough time to do justice to this topic, and probably should have known better than to stick my nose into it so close to a trip abroad, but hopefully I can just close up here with a few points that I’ve come up with, maybe right, maybe wrong.
First, some points in [...]

EDIT: I think I’ve had my mind changed on the matter… please read this post as well:
http://yuttadhammo.sirimangalo.org/posts/modern-monkwarfare/
One day I’ll write an article about the Bhikkhuni situation… probably by then it will make me the black sheep of the international monastic community.  But that is something about which I’ve never cared before, so why start now?  [...]

For most of the Wat Pa Phong theras, the intellectual argument over the validity of bhikkhuni ordination is not the point. Their lack of knowledge of the latest studies on the subject is, in their eyes, irrelevant. To them the issue is that Ajahn Brahmavamso reneged on commitments implicit in his ownership of a Thai [...]

Here’s my opinion on the Bhikkhuni thing:
I think we should look at the options… breaking rules is not cool, ever. But there are ways of changing the rules I think, at least temporarily… the Buddha left the sangha in charge and, as I said, I don’t see any reason for not putting it to a [...]

An interesting topic, and indeed history in the making; new Bhikkhunis in Australia and a schism in the Thai forest sangha… I’m not sure which is of more significance:
History in the Making « Go beyond words: Wisdom Publications’ Buddhist Blog.

On my ordination day, I thought, “I’m the perfect monk.” After about a month of messing up, I realized that I really had been mistaken, but now I was a really good monk, after one month. Then, a year later, I realized I’d really been naive. But now, one year into it, [...]

This cartoon is into Nirvana. « the rut..