For two days I lived closely with the Laotian Theravada Buddhist monks of Luang Prabang—following them at dawn barefoot through the city streets, sharing mindfully silent meals, listening to their chants and prayers, and trying to understand what being truly happy means for those who have chosen a life of very little yet full of meaning.
I spoke with the novices (samaneras), meditated in the temple, and met Obee, a young monk (bhikkhu) who speaks English and has chosen to open up to the world to share, with simplicity and kindness, the essence of the Buddha’s Theravada Teachings (Dhamma).
This isn’t just a spiritual reportage. It’s a journey into another way of living, where every gesture is a choice and every moment of silence is rich with meaning.
🙏 Thanks to all the monks of Luang Prabang for welcoming us, to Brother Obee for words that linger, and to Oliviero Rusconi who, with discretion and heart, opened every door and allowed us to hear these rare, delicate, and wonderful stories.
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Why a 31-year old Singaporean techie chose the monk's life
(Handful of Leaves) Oct. 14, 2025: Handful of Leaves Podcast. Rich in Buddhist Singapore, from dating girls to reading about Elon Musk to thinking about politics, he was in search of meaning in his early 20s. All that changed when he read about the Buddha and his monastic followers.
Handful of Leaves had the awesome opportunity to speak with noviceSamanera/AnagarikaPhra Ryan before he took full ordination. Here’s his story of becoming a Buddhist monk at the prime of his career in Singapore's tech industry.
This is also how young only son Ryan, with family members of a different religious faith, arrived at this path of Buddhist monasticism. #BuddhistWisdom #MindfulLiving #FaithAndPractice
ABOUT:
Halfway through his university studies, Ryan embarked on a spiritual journey into the deeper meaning of life and found himself drawn towards Buddhism. It was during a silent retreat in the Australian bush at a Theravada monastery, which marked the beginning of an eight-year journey into monkhood. This is his story.
(00:00) – First week as a Buddhist novice (monk-to-be): nervous then relief
(01:30) – Meeting Ajahn Dhammasiha and first retreats
(03:00) – Life as an anagarika and his family’s reaction
(05:00) – Growing up privileged and searching for meaning
(07:05) – Parents’ and friends’ response to his ordination
(09:10) – Luang Por’s [Senior Monk's] teaching: life without mindfulness is crazy
(10:00) – Goal of practice: freeing the mind from clinging/attachment
(11:15) – Wearing the robe [Banner of the Arahants] and facing “imposter syndrome”
(12:09) – Choosing Wat Marp Jan [Monastery] under Luang Por [Ven.] Anan
Special thanks to Handful of Leaves' sponsors:
Buddhist Youth Network, Lim Soon Kiat, Alvin Chan, Tan Key Seng, Soh Hwee Hoon, Geraldine Tay, Venerable You Guang, Wilson Ng, Diga, Joyce, Tan Jia Yee, Joanne, Suñña, Shuo Mei, Arif, Bernice, Wee Teck, Andrew Yam, Kan Rong Hui, Wei Li Quek, Shirley Shen, Ezra, Joanne Chan, Hsien Li Siaw, Gillian Ang, Wang Shiow Mei, Ong Chye Chye, Melvin, Yoke Kuen, Nai Kai Lee, Amelia Toh, Hannah Law, Shin Hui Chong, Dennis Lee
(Nick Keomahavong) Many people are looking for the opportunity to become Buddhist monastics, especially Buddhist monks at Thailand's Wat Phra Dhammakaya.
Temporary ordination
All ordination is temp up to enlightenment
There is a specific program for international practitioners who want to become monastics for a few days or weeks is called IDOP, which is short for the International Dhammadayadas Ordination Program.
This program gives Westerners the opportunity to live and train as Theravada monastics. The program is in English and welcomes males from all over the world, not limiting itself to Buddhists.
The Rains Retreat is a time for them to continue their monastic training, living a life of Dhamma and meditation.
Life for them slows down as they experience what it is like to truly live the life of a monk. This video was created to give an exclusive inside look and education into what is the annual three months Rains Retreat is like for all Theravada Buddhist monks.
American nun Ven. Tathtaaloka
Thailand also has maechis, or "Eight or Ten Precept Nuns," for females motivated to become monastics. These options are rarer than the traditional male samaneras and bhikkhus. But recent developments have restored even FULL ordination for women in Theravada Buddhist countries so that they can live out the life the Buddha made possible by establishing the Dhamma (Dharma) for their benefit just as well as that of males.
Wisdom Quarterly (EXTENDED COMMENTARY) orig. pub. 12/12/10, 11:40 AM
Prince Nanda was young. He was the Buddha's brother [of the same father, King Suddhodana, but with different mothers, who were biological sisters, and Nanda's mother, Maha Pajapati Gotami (who later became the world's first Buddhist nun), adopted Siddhartha seven days after his birth, after his mother, her older sister, Maha Maya, passed away, which is when the younger sister took over her duties and raised Prince Siddhartha to be king of the Scythians/Shakyians].
One source says Nada was 16, which was the marriable age among the Scythians/Shakyians, who were later thought of as kshatriya warrior/noble caste members, the administrators at the time. Sixteen was the age Siddhartha, who at age 35 had a great enlightenment (maha-bodhi) to become the Buddha, "the Enlightened One," was married off to his 16-year-old cousin, Bimba Devi (Princess Yasodhara).
Brahmins (priestly caste members, who underwent a rigorous period of study as brahmacaryas under a guru to learn Sanskrit and the Vedas, the ancient "Knowledge Books" of the Indus Valley Civilization and proto-India) were expected to be celibate students, unlike modern Brahmins.
Don't think about, no, don't think about it. Don't name it. Breathing in, breathing out...
The best teen "sex" comedy ever made. It's The Scarlet Letter that shows us ourselves!
Because Nanda was young and not enjoined to be celibate, Scythia prudently prescribed marriage. He, as well as Prince Siddhartha, were not restricted to monogamy, however, not even our modern serial-monogamy.
The brothers and their royal cousins had "dancing girls" and female musicians and what seem to have been harems (ensuring palace pleasures for polygamist royals). Lust and warriorship were ways of life for Scythians/Shakyians and later Indian rulers.
This was Central Asia after all (not Nepal but ancient Gandhara, now Afghanistan, as Dr. Ranajit Palrealized), which continues these traditions. It's the same in the American "caste" system, not only the ubiquitous middle class.
Goodness knows. Perhaps Shakyian princesses had dancing boys (or girls) of their own. It is certain that all six of their senses were indulged with banquets (tastes), perfumes (smells), art (sights), music (sounds), baths and foot massages (tactile sensations), elaborate clothes and conquests (mind). Princes certainly had concubines when they ruled.
The point is, lust for sensual desires was the name of the game. So we say: Do it when you are doing it, and abandon it internally when you have given it up externally. To do otherwise is a sure way to misery.
Our Judeo-Christian mores, transplanted from the Near and Middle East, have been heavily influenced for millennia by contact with Buddhism. Ancient Jews were in Kashmir, India, and in places along the Silk Road from at least the time of the Buddha. So what happened in the Greater Indian Empire ("Maha Bharat") influenced what went on in Egypt, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and later Greece, Rome, Britain, Israel, and America, from East to West.
Chanda, what are these strange visions I'm seeing? - Real life, Prince.
But the message has been corrupted. We Americans are averse to discussing lust. We cringe. We blush. We're humiliated to talk about sex, sexuality, or even nudity.
We overcompensate in certain parts of the country, flaunting our pornography and "liberalized" attitudes toward free love, sex, and pleasure. But just under the surface, we exhibit as many hang ups as most of the rest of the world, which looks to the Great Western Empire (America) for how to act and think.
Wisdom Quarterly says, enjoy pleasures when indulging them, AND temporarily abandon lust if serenity and insight are a meditative aim.
What are those two up to? - I don't know, but it looks like they're having fun. Shall we? - Let's.
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Why only temporarily? Wisdom Quarterly is different from other Buddhist websites for one thing: We taught a young American the Dharma and saw it eventually result in literal enlightenment.
This took place in this decade. (Many people say there's no chance for enlightenment nowadays. Yet, we have seen it and have come to know of at least 21 other people to attain one or more stages of enlightenment). The person we personally helped was nice, neither angry nor dumb, yet lusty. Shockingly, this person continued to have and enjoy lust AFTER attaining.
That's not the popular conception of what the tradition teaches, but it is in the texts. In the Buddha's time, most of the people who attained were ordinary householders. Monastics were intensive practitioners and some of them became teachers if they were able. Whenever the Buddha taught, which was just about daily for 45 years, someone in the audience would come to realization. Most of them were invisible devas (the majority of the audience).
Monastics had a better chance than ordinary humans, but since ordinary humans outnumbered monastics, more ordinary humans reached one or more of the stages of awakening. This, of course, led many of them to seek ordination but not all of them. Many more stayed householders, with homes, spouses, chidren, and ordinary responsibilities.
We are not surprised, at least we shouldn't be (but still are sometimes), because there are a lot of examples of this in the ancient texts. Lust is set aside to attain, but it comes back unless one advances to the point of outgrowing the Sense Sphere (kama loka).
The many kinds of stream enterers (enumerated and explained in the Path of Freedom or Vimuttimagga and the once returners can carry on as before; only the nonreturners and arhats have internally changed so much as to not be able to carry on like ordinary Sense Sphere inhabitants. That is why nonreturners do not return to this world of the ordinary senses in the human world or lower Sense Sphere heavens. They are reborn in the Pure Abodes, Fine-Material, or Immaterial Sphere planes.
Not everyone who gains liberating knowledge-and-vision becomes a monastic. This leads to the paradoxical situation wherein worldly monastics have abandoned lust, but not noble (enlightened) lay practitioners.
It was this way at the time of the Buddha. Most people did not become monastics even after attaining one of the stages of enlightenment.
Even the deva-rulerSakka (King of the Devas), is a stream enterer. He is the leader of two worlds in space, the World of the Thirty-Three and the Realm of the Four Great Kings (Tavatimsa and Catumaharajika deva loka, literal extraterrestrial worlds we do a disservice to if we dismiss them as "heavenly fantasies" in Buddhist cosmology).
Sakka has not completely given up lust. He is concerned and involved in human and non-human affairs on Earth and the longevity and success of the Buddha's dispensation.
Maha Moggallana, the Buddha's second chief male disciple, had to shake Sakka and the partying devas (always finding diversion up there the way the rich seem to do down here) in their aerial spacecraft/heavenly mansions (vimanas).
Lust is that way; it is not fully abandoned until the the third stage of enlightenment.
Wisdom Quarterly's own earthly friend, advisor, and newest teacher attained not the first but the second of the four stages of enlightenment.
The idea of only four stages is, however, a simplification; there are in fact finer distinctions that can be made: The Path of Freedom (pp. 308-309) explains that there are TEN STAGES: three kinds of stream enterers, the once-returner, five kinds of non-returners, and the arhat.
Lust will not yet be permanently abandoned until the stage of nonreturning (anagami). But to get to that stage, with a limit now placed on future suffering, there had to be a temporary letting go of lust.
Without setting aside lust (as well as ill-will and delusion) during meditation, there is no chance of staying serene (accessing the meditative absorptions or jhanas), developing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (practicing "right mindfulness"), and gaining liberating-insight. Our friend accomplished this in just four intensive months on retreat.
Is there any better, more permanent happiness than sensual lust?
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This meant temporarily leaving behind the home life and its all-consuming concerns. It was the same in the past: Many if not most of the people who attained a stage lower than full enlightenment at the time of the Buddha were living and continued to live at home.
The need to set aside lust and other distractions is emphasized in the Buddha's teaching on the Five Hindrances to meditation, which cloud the mind and obstruct any possibility of insight.
Jhana ("right concentration," samma samadhi, defined as the first four absorptions, in the Noble Eightfold Path) is the way to suppress the Five Hindrances, the first of which is lust, and other more subtle mental defilements (asavas and samyojanas). But vipassana ("liberating insight," wisdom, direct knowledge) is the way to uproot them.
One would be considered a literal "saint" in most religions by simply suppressing the defilements in this way, even gaining the psychic powers (abhinna, iddhi) that "prove" one's saintliness by doing so.
But uprooting these defilements, which often does not involve the development of psychic powers, is what makes one a Buddhist "saint" (an arya, a "noble one"). By achieving even the first stage of Buddhist enlightenment, one finally puts a limit on suffering (to no more than seven more lives). One has known-and-seen nirvana directly. One is destined to become fully enlightened and liberated from rebirth and every form of suffering within at most seven more rebirths.
(That may amount to a much longer period of time than it first appears: If one is reborn in any of the many celestial deva-worlds, where lifespans are measured in aeons (kalpas), the number of years to enjoy the senses is difficult to calculate in human years. Even the lowest celestial world has more and better pleasure to inspire lust and clinging, with access that lasts much longer).
What stands in the way of that? Lust. To be successful one needs to set aside a pleasurable thing for a much more pleasurable thing, which may sound like a paradox. This is generally only possible to do in the human world and the lower deva planes (sensual heavens), because otherwise the superior heavenly pleasures are too great in those worlds and the danger in them too hard to see.
How can we set lust aside even for a moment? Force, willpower, guilt, shame, submitting to someone else's control? No, these won't hold. The only way to set aside, abandon, let go, and detach from our innate lust (and the other hindrances that obstruct serenity and insight) is contemplating the disadvantages of lust or contemplating the many advantages of letting go.
If we "contemplate" (anussati, prolonged and well-rounded mindfulness, sati -- recollection, consideration, reflection), the heart/mind effortlessly lets go of what we cannot let go of using mere willpower.
Temporarily abandon lust. (Normally, we do not even dream of doing this even temporarily because it's the only happiness we know). Any kind of "permanent" abandoning will come by itself. There is no need to do it permanently. Do this:
Just for this moment, consider the repugnant aspects of sensuality: Lust shrivels up.
Just for right now,love(forgive and accept) someone who's done something to offend, hurt, or harm you: Anger wilts.
Right in this present moment, be mindful (bare, unembroidered awareness) of whatever is given attention (with no discursive thinking, evaluating, or judging): Delusion is dispelled.
The Dharma is immediate, unaffected by time. The relief happens right away. It invites one to come and see, to test, to experiment with and experience. The Kalama Sutta is the most popular original Buddhist discourse in America (according to Wisdom Quarterly). But it is often misunderstood to mean, "Do whatever, use common sense." It's not "common" sense. It's something one can see without blind faith, belief, or trust in a foreign authority, yet that's just the beginning: There is still truth to discover and preserve.
The Buddha's son, Ven. Rahula, also suffered from intense lust at 16 (according to Ven. Dhammadipa, 2008 BAUS lectures), which is when his father had him apply himself to meditation to break through by temporarily laying that burden down. (It's there to pick up again later if one wishes).
Rahula saw that he, his father, and Ananda all had the "marks of great men" (lakkhana) and were therefore destined to be world-monarchs over the entire subcontinent or this world (this cakkavala as cakkravartin kings) or to become buddhas, depending on whether or not they renounced the world.
His son Rahula had renounced it (at age 7), under his father's prompting (his father being the Buddha, returning after seven years absence to become enlightened himself), but his brother Nanda had not. Both gained the unsurpassable bliss and safety of personal enlightenment. Both did it by sidestepping the lust that was arising as humans in the Sense Sphere.
Maha Pajapati (the Buddha's adoptive mother) and Janapada Kalyani (his half-brother's fiance) also contemplated. And their minds became calm, dispassionate, detached from craving, grasping, and clinging. This temporary freedom allowed them to win enduring freedom.
Even the Buddha's father, King Suddhodana, became fully enlightened -- in spite of the fact that he had lived sunk in sensual pleasures and administrative responsibilities, overseeing and defending Shakyian land holdings other clans wanted to overtake.
How did the Buddha's brother, sister, son, wife, adoptive mother, biological mother, father, and cousins become enlightened whether they had joined the Sangha or not? They did it the way everyone does, by settling and unifying the mind (with the first four jhanas or levels of Zen) then contemplating the Four Foundations of Mindfulness with that concentrated mind. It all starts with temporarily setting aside the craving called lust.
Wisdom Quarterly tells the story of each family member
English begins at 0:42:44. The initial chanting is in the exclusively-Buddhist language of ancient Pali (Magadhi), a kind of simplified Sanskrit widely spoken in the Buddha's day. It is now only used by Theravada Buddhists, monastics, and scholars.
Learning the Basics of Sane Asceticism
It takes merit to feel called to ordain as a monk.
"Color the Clay Sculptures," Episode 21, is the 21st day of True Little Monk, a wisdom training program for novices or monks-in-training.
It is the last day of the third week to learn about the concept of “love.” At dawn the novices and their monastic mentors gathered for morning chanting, part of the daily routine of monastic life.
After chanting they go for alms in the nearby community and the tree tunnels as usual. Although it rains, there are lots of people waiting to offer food, which for them is a way of making merit.
The first novice was the Buddha's son, age 7.
Before their alms meal the novices learn breathing meditation by placing bamboo sticks on their heads for posture and stillness.
Mentors teach them the basics of Buddhism's 13 "sane ascetic practices" (dhutanga) although, due to their age and maturity-level, they are still not allowed to make pilgrimages to the forest.
In the afternoon the first activity the novices undertake is to create their own Buddhas from clay with Mr. D. (Mr. Dusadee Rukmanee), a skilled sculptor whose works are inspired by his interest in Buddhism.
They then learn to color the clay sculptures with Ms. Phatcharamon Sawana, a teacher and motivational mentor, who also shares her inspiring experience on getting through difficult times in life.
Buddhist monastics (bhikkhusand bhikkhunis, monks and nuns) are shrouded in mystery, but there is no reason for this. They are open and approachable. Let's not bother them. Let's take a look at them behind-the-scenes.
They are secluded, almost invisible, hidden from the Western world. This short documentary is an attempt to allow a brief glimpse into the life of a monk (life being similar but harder for female ascetics) and a look into a monastery.
The monk's life may be misunderstood by many, so this video gives us an exclusive look into that world. It answers questions like, Why monks do the things they do, why does anyone ordain, and how does one train oneself?
Speaking from first-hand experience, the monk's training and monk's life are NOT easy. No self-development is easy. Making a commitment to a disciplined regular practice is NOT easy. But that said, each day we continue to make a choice to pursue this path to enlightenment.
Enjoy this look into a private and exclusive life of self-development. Please feel free to leave thoughts in the comments' section.
Interested in ordaining through the International Dhammakayada Ordination Program (IDOP)? Download a free guide below. Apply online at ordinationthai.org.
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IDOP: What is the Ordination Program?
The International Dhammakayada Ordination Program, or IDOP, gives individuals the opportunity to become temporarily ordained Buddhist monks. The temple is located at Wat Phra Dhammakaya, the world’s largest Buddhist temple in Pathum Thani, Thailand. This is approximately one hour from Bangkok near the international airport. The address is 40 Mu 8, Khlong Song, Khlong Luang Patumthani 12120, Thailand.
Why ordain at Dhammakaya?
They ordain at Dhammakaya for many different reasons, essentially to have an authentic experience of life as a Buddhist monk in an environment that preserves the 2,600-year history of monastic life in the Buddhist sangha. “Peace is the essence of happiness, and that essence is the true nature of all beings.” The benefit of training as a monk in IDOP is the effect of experiencing the inner essence and peace that exists in all human beings through the practice of Dhammakaya meditation.
Ehi bhikkhu means “Come, monastic!” With these simple but portentous words, the Buddha founded the Monastic Sangha, the Order of Monastics (monks and nuns, bhikkhus and bhikkhunis), which has preserved and practiced the Dharma (Doctrine) from that day to this.
With that “Ehi bhikkhu” the Buddha conferred ordination on the first monastic, Ven. Kondañña, at Isipatana (the “Resort of the Seers,” Sarnath, in the Small Animal Park) near Varanasi. At the conclusion of the Buddha’s first discourse, Kondañña had asked to be ordained, and the Buddha, simply by calling him a "bhikkhu," transformed him into one.
The Buddha went on to say: “The Dharma has been well expounded. Practice the supreme life rightly to make an end of suffering.” That was the ultimate, the highest aim of becoming a monastic then as now: liberation from all dukkha, the disappointment/suffering of repeated becoming in the endless cycle of rebirth called saṃsāra (“continuous wandering on”).
Samsara: Wheel of Life and Death (Tibetan thangka)
During the Buddha’s life and ever since then, the procedure to become a Buddhist monastic evolved into a series of steps often involving large numbers of monastics and lay people. Modern ordination ceremonies clearly express the interdependent relationship of monastics and lay people supporting each other in their efforts to put an end to suffering.
The monastics by their conduct inspire confidence in lay people. The householders, in turn, show deep respect for the Order by honoring the individual monastics, who in turn determine to make themselves worthy of the respect and support they receive from them.
The Buddha could only ordain a few monastics with the phrase “Ehi bhikkhu.” Such instantaneous ordinations required that the person had cultivated certain pāramīs (“perfections,” qualities necessary for the realization of enlightenment) in the past.
Chief among the good karmas (merit, profitable actions) needed for the Buddha to accept someone as a monastic in this way, tradition says, was having been a monastic in previous lives and/or having helped others to ordain.
This is one of the reasons why lay people in Burma (Myanmar) ordain temporarily and why they obtain such lavish help from lay people, notably their families, when they undertake temporary ordination.
Because they are closely based on the Code of Monastic Discipline (Vinaya Piṭaka), the ordination ceremonies in the different Theravada Buddhist countries are almost identical.
Whether the monastics expect to remain in robes for the remainder of their lives or are "temporary" monastics (a common practice in Burma and Thailand) makes no difference to the procedure. But national variations, especially in the lay aspects of the events, do lend color and specific points of interest to this solemn ceremony.
In January 1994 a mass ordination of foreign males was held in Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar) under the combined auspices of the Department of Religious Affairs and the International Meditation Centre, Rangoon.
This event -- unusual in its location, scale, and international scope -- is described below along with a summary of the week these meditators were in robes.
All the detailed arrangements of place, transport, requisites, and the like had been made by the hosts beforehand for seven boys aged 9-14 to become novices (sāmaṇeras) and 49 men and one Burmese man to take the full (upasampada) ordination.
They would remain in robes for about a week, in accordance with the Burmese custom of temporary ordination. In that Buddhist land it is considered essential for every Buddhist male to become a novice as a boy and a monk as a man at least for some short period of his life. The reason for this is to earn a very high kind of merit (puñña).
Buddhist monks walking in single file.
Everyone in this group to be ordained were meditation students of Mother Sayamagyi and Sayagyi U Chit Tin, direct disciples of the late Sayagyi U Ba Khin (S. N. Goenka's teacher) and renowned lay teacher of insight (vipassana) meditation in Burma.
They were associated with the international meditation centers in the insight-meditation tradition around the world. The small original IMC, located atop a low hill in suburban Rangoon’s diplomatic area, was the focus for most of the activities. More
Thai woman offers dana to group of temporary monks (novices) in Thailand (Bugphai).
Buddhist "Lent" is a time for intensive study or practice. A samanera (lit. "little monk") quietly reads in Burma. Novices, usually aged 7 to 20, temporarily go forth to try monastic life (Anek Suwannaphoom/flickr).
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Golden Thai Buddhas (drhill/flickr.com)
With the rapid progress of science and with the shrinking
of the world, Buddhist leaders of Theravada Buddhist Thailand, monastics and laypeople, are
awakening to the necessity of imparting broader education to members of
the Monastic Order (Sangha) if it is to serve Buddhism as the historical Buddha intended: "for
the gain of the many, for the welfare of the many."
As a result of the
new outlook there now function in Bangkok two higher institutes of
learning exclusively for monastics and temporary novices (trainees). ...Inclusion in the
curriculum of some secular subjects compatible with Monastic Code of Discipline (vinaya) is among the notable features of these two
institutes.
The aim is to give an all-round education to monastics in order
to enable them to be of better service to the cause of Buddhism amid
modern conditions.
There are monks and more and more nuns in Thailand; they practice long-term. Mostly, there are novices, who
enter the Monastic Order temporarily, many for a period of three months
during the Rains Retreat or Vassa, called Buddhist Lent (explained below).
Buddhist novices in Burma offer candles to seated Buddha statue (notjustnut/flickr.com).
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Their education is brief and devoted
to the main tenets and features of Buddhism. Such people enter monasticism either by their own genuine intention to gain for
knowledge of the Dharma, others who enter out of Thai custom, or the two reasons combined.
Monastics of this kind return to lay
life again as soon as Lent is over.
This is the reason why
accommodations in monasteries and nunneries (wats) are usually full during the Lenten
period of the Rains Retreat.
Nowadays, owing to the pressure of modern life, the custom of
temporarily entering a monastery is not so rigorously observed by people
living in urban areas as by those in the countryside. The custom has its
parallel in Burma, Cambodia, and Laos where Theravada Buddhism
prevails.
What do they do for Buddhist "Lent"?
Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit
Theravada monk kindly taming a wild elephant (Nudiat69/pornhashtag.com/flickr.com)
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The traditional Asian rainy season known as Vassa is often glossed in English as the Rains Retreat or Buddhist Lent.
It is "Lent" by analogy to Christian Lent (which Vassa predates by many centuries).
For the duration of Buddhist Lent, monastics remain in one monastery or temple grounds (vihara). In some monasteries, monastics dedicate this period of three lunar months to intensive meditation.
Some Buddhist lay people choose to observe Lent by adopting more
ascetic practices than usual, such as giving up meat, abstaining from alcohol, or breaking the addiction of smoking.
While Vassa is sometimes casually called "Buddhist Lent," some object to this terminology. And the Buddha's birthday -- which also falls on the day of his great enlightenment and passing into nirvana -- probably should not really be called "Buddhist Christmas," but the West needs the shorthand.
Commonly, the number of years a monastic has spent in monastic life as a fully ordainedbhikkhu or bhikkhuni is expressed by counting the number of Vassas (or rains) since ordination.
Lent begins on the first day of the waning moon of the eighth lunar month, which is the day after Asalha Pujaor Asalha Uposatha (the fasting or lunar observance "Dharma day"). It ends on Pavarana, when all monastics come before the community (Sangha) and atone for any offense or monastic rule infraction that might have been committed during Lent.
Lent is followed by Kathina, a festival in which the lay Buddhists express gratitude to monastics. Lay Buddhists bring gifts, donations, and offerings of support to temples, especially new robes for monks.
No rain, but we follow the same dates.
The Lent or Rains Retreat tradition predates the time of the historical Gautama Buddha. It was a long-standing custom for mendicant ascetics
in and around Ancient "India" (when it was many independent kingdoms and clan territories) not to travel during the rainy season as wandering ascetics might
unintentionally harm crops, insects, frogs, or even themselves during their
travels.
Many Buddhist ascetics now live in regions of the world that lack an actual rainy season. Consequently, there are places where formal Lent may not be typically observed. The 2016 dates for Vassa were July 20 through October 16. More
What is a Buddhist wat?
Monastic temple complex aerial view with central reliquary, stupa/pagoda, laid out as map of the cosmos, Wat Phra That Luang, Vientiane, Laos (Sasin Tipchai/Bugphai/flickr.com).
.
The central reliquary or stupa
The word wat means monastic-temple complex. It is the
residence of monastics and novices. There are about 21,000 wats in Thailand. In Bangkok alone there are nearly 200. Some
big wats in Bangkok have as many as 600 resident monastics and novices.
Wats
are centers of Thai art and architecture. Thai culture, to a
considerable extent, flows from wats. Temple lands and construction on them is donated by royals, wealthy people, and the public in
general.
The wat is the most important institution in Thai rural life.
The social life of the rural community revolves around the wat. Besides
carrying out the obvious religious activities, a wat serves the
community as a recreation center, dispensary, school, community center,
home for the aged and destitute, social work and welfare agency, village
clock, rest-house, news agency, and information center.
It is headed
by an "abbot" (chao avas) who is responsible for the
maintenance of the wat discipline, the proper performance of religious
services and rituals, and the general welfare of residents. Besides
monastics and novices, there are also the "temple boys" in wats, who assist
monastics and novices in various ways, such as bringing and arranging food,
cleaning dormitories, washing saffron robes, and so on.
Usually these boys are
related to resident monastics in one way or another, and their stay is free
of charge. Most of them are students whose homes are far away and who
would otherwise find it impracticable to get an education. This is
especially so in Bangkok where accommodation is difficult to get and
where all higher seats of learning of the country are situated.
The
census of 1954 revealed that there are as many as 119,044 temple
boys in Thailand. The social institution of
the wat, a gift of Buddhism, therefore contributes to the social welfare and progress of Thai Buddhists.
Apart from engaging themselves in sutra studies and observing
the disciplinary code in general, monastics are expected to be
"friends, philosophers, and guides" to people.
Teaching face to face or on the radio is one of the most common ways by which they help the promotion of moral stability. To reiterate, Buddhism
emphasizes the necessity of leading a virtuous life in
order to obtain happiness in this life and lives hereafter. More
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