How to become a monk: Why or why not?
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Can girls join? - Yes. Bhikkhuni Sangha lives! |
Casual practitioners of the Dharma, the Teaching that Leads to Liberation, is a lot like that of a Buddhist monk or nun only more intensive, unrelenting, not easily hidden from. In our ordinary life, we can take a break and get away from ourselves (turn on and drop out), so progress is slow but easier than having to be at it, keeping our nose to the grindstone all the time. By the way, women are not "female monks" (bhikkhus). They are nuns (bhikkhunis). In referring to both simultaneously, we call them monastics. They are all samanas, "wandering ascetics," in the ideal; in practice, many have become temple priests and priestesses like the Brahmin priests of the Buddha's day.
Strive to see ultimate reality (mentality-materiality)
so "letting go" (nekkhamma) happens all by itself,
Pa Auk Sayadaw would say, agreeing with Ajahn Chah
How to become a monk: Why and why not?
Now a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu, samana, bhante), living a simple life in Buddhist Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka, he shares the continuing story.
ABOUT: Phra Dan (Ven. Dhammarakkhita, Bhikkhu, not yet tens years in the robe to be an Ajahn or official Thai "Teacher") is a Theravada Buddhist monk who lived in India from 2020, Thailand, and now Sri Lanka.
Dan was born in Sussex, England, in 1967. Educated by French Catholic monks, he was a successful businessman in estate agency and financial services during the 1980s and 1990s, married, divorced with three adult sons.
The year 2000 marked change and travel, including a visit to South Africa, returning to the UK in 2003 to continue different work and business activities until 2012.
Gradually materialistic values turned to renunciation (nekkhamma), intentional simplicity, and meditation, living nomadically in an old Ford Transit van full-time for three years.
This sort of van life and meditation led to Theravada Buddhism and to the ancient (back to basics movement called the) Thai Forest Tradition, a Theravada Buddhist monastery in the UK.
During 2015, travelling the Buddhist Circuit, the holy sites in India, deep faith (saddha, confidence, conviction) reinforced a zeal for Buddhist ordination.
In 2020, after five years of intensive meditation practice between Thai Forest monasteries in Thailand and England, Dan was ordained in India, where he lived for three years, until returning to Thailand in 2023, and now living in Theravada Buddhist Sri Lanka.
Sabe Satta Sukhi Hontu. Please subscribe and be HAPPY, too. #englishmonk
Phra Dan, Bhante Dhammarakkhita, English Buddhist Monk (YouTube) July 12, 2023; Pat Macpherson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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