Ayya Tataaloka on the eight "Principles to be Respected" by nuns (garudhammas) and the formation of the female Buddhist Order (bhikkhuni-sangha). The additional monastic rules for women are a "definite historical impossibility." Their origin stories in the Vinaya contradict the famous story of the Buddha's stepmother (the first female to be ordained) and how she was reluctantly granted admission. The venerable nun is at a dialogue seminar in 2008 addressing the topic of the nun's disciplinary code.
A Painful Ambiguity - Ajahn Sujato The Buddha is said to have laid down eight "Principles to be Respected" (garudhammas) as a prerequisite for female ordination...The eight are like a dam that holds back the floods (buddhanet.net).
Ayya Tathaaloka and the Buddhist nuns of the Alliance for Bhikkhunis (bhikkhuni.net)
Global Congress on Buddhist Women, Hamburg, Germany
Special rules for females that subordinate Buddhist nuns to monks (garudhammas or "heavy offenses") are not what they first appear to be.
American Theravada Buddhist nun Ayya Tattaaloka reveals what her research, as well as that of other Buddhist scholars, found. There appears to be no gender difference. (How could that be? We are all led to believe women are subordinate to men in the monastery).
Both monks and nuns have sanghadisesa (calling for a meeting and subsequent meeting of the Sangha) disciplinary rules, which are rather heavy.
In the same way, both males and females have "heavy offenses," that is, garudhammas.
2
3
4
Ayya Taathaloka (videos); Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly, originally compiled on 9/17/10
PERTH, Western Australia - Ajahn Brahm -- an enlightened Western Buddhist monk from England living in Australia after a decade in Northeast Thailand (Isan) at Wat Pah Nanachat, the International Forest Monastery -- talks about the banning of his United Nations' speech on gender equity, equality of the sexes.
Viewers who support Wisdom Quarterly and women's right to full
ordination in Theravada Buddhism as well as supporting Ajahn Brahm's work striving for the equality of females within all Buddhist schools, particularly his more traditional and monastic tradition, are encouraged to consider signing the online petition here.
Sangha: nuns, monks, female, male supporters.
Traditionally, it was thought that women could no longer secured fullordination due to a rule the Buddha laid down when his foster mother ordained. However, evidence found in the background stories (Vibhanga) of the Nuns' Disciplinary Code (Bhikkhuni Vinaya), research by the Theravada nun Ayya Tathaloka, shows that those rules or garudhammas are a historical impossibility. Had the Buddha laid them down with all the fanfare in front of the Shakyan women as is claimed, questions would not have arisen regarding etiquette between male and female monastics and ordination, as those would have been settled issues. But that questions did arise, as recorded in the stories accompanying the formation of each rule, those sexist and patriarchal garudhammas could not have been preexisted. The function of these additional rules seems to be little more than to subordinate female Sangha members to males and was clearly in the interest of monks to have hastily inserted at some point in time.
Let's invite Ajahn Brahm to present his gender equality paper at the 2015 UNDV conference
3,242 signers so far. Let's reach 10,000 United Nations' Day of Vesak (UNDV)
Supporting Buddhist women at the U.N.
Nuns are necessary for a complete Sangha
We,
the undersigned, are astounded and deeply disappointed by the banning
of Ajahn Brahm's paper on gender equality at the 2014 United Nations' Day
of Vesak (UNDV) conference in Vietnam.
The paper was clearly aligned with the UN’s Millennium Development Goal 3
(Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women), which the UNDV is
committed to uphold through its connection with the UN. Moreover, Ajahn
Brahm's paper had already been approved for presentation when it was
suddenly banned 36 hours before its scheduled presentation.
We value free and open dialogue. We therefore ask that the UNDV,
in accordance with Millennium Development Goal 3, promotes dialogue
about the participation of women in contemporary Theravada Buddhism by
inviting Ajahn Brahm to publicly present his gender equality paper at the next UNDV conference in 2015.
Isn't there a grammatical error in the title? No, there is not. For it is not the Buddha's mother we are discussing. It is all of them and therefore this shall be the Buddha's Mothers' Day.
Which all? There is, of course, the Buddha's biological birth mother, Maha Maya Devi (Queen Maya, literally "Great Illusion"). She was reborn on earth, gave birth to the Bodhisatta (the Buddha-to-be), and passed away seven days later.
Prince Siddhartha Gautama (Pali Siddhattha Gotama) was mothered -- adopted, raised, and cared for intensely -- by her sister, Queen Pajapati Gotami, the co-wife of King Suddhodana ("Pure Giving"). She for her efforts years later was rewarded with a very rare distinction: she became the world's firstBuddhist nun, Ven. Maha Pajapati Gotami, and reached enlightenment.
Most Buddhists interested in history or genealogy will know this much, as much as it may come as a surprise to others. But there was a third very important mother figure in the Buddha's life. The texts call her Nakulamata the Gahapatani, mata meaning "mother").
The story goes that one day as the Buddha was walking in northern India with his attendant Ven. Ananda (his Scythian/Shakyian cousin or possibly son in some traditions), he came by a village. And there sat the elderly "Nakulamata" and "Nakulapitu," Nakula's mother and father. Seeing the Awakened One, they became overjoyed and started to shout, "Son! Son! After a long time, you finally found time to visit us!"
Ananda became confused because the Buddha did not correct them. He warmly greeted them like a son. They lamented that he had been away so long, leaving them alone, but at least now he was back. Ananda's consternation grew. "What do they mean in calling you 'son,' venerable sir? Surely, your mother is in Kapilavatthu, the Land of the Sakas [Shakyas, Indo-Scythians]."
Then the Buddha explained that for 500 ("many") lives, these two had been his parents, and indeed this woman many, many times through many rebirths had been his mother.
Nakulamata appears on a list of the Buddha's eminent lay females. The story goes that a father and mother (husband and wife) were householders in Sumsumaragiri in the Bhagga country. When the Buddha visited their village, staying in Bhesakala Forest Grove, they went to see him. They immediately fell at his feet, calling him "son" and asking why he had been away so long. It is said that they had been the Bodhisatta's parents for 500 previous births and his close relatives for many more. The Buddha taught them, and they became stream enterers (the first stage of enlightenment). The Buddha visited their village again when they were old. They entertained him, telling him of their devotion to one another in this life and many previous lives, asking for instruction on the sort of karma that would keep them together in the afterlife (many future rebirths). The Buddha referred to this in the assembly of the monastic community, declaring them the most intimate companions among his disciples. More: Nakulapita Gahapati and Nakulamata Gahapatani
I dreamed a great double tusker entered my side, and I knew I had conceived.
Why did Siddhartha's mother pass after a week? Legend has it that the only she took rebirth on Earth in the human plane from Tusita on the fortunate deva plane was to give birth to him. Mission accomplished. She then returned to that world. And the Buddha went to Tavatimsa (Sakka's Heaven of the Thirty-Three) to hear him teach the Abhidhamma as the Buddha, leading to her and many other devas' attainments of insight and enlightenment.
The Awakened One came back home and taught them, and they became awakened. Therefore, the Buddha offered the greatest thing any son or daughter could do for a mother or father: dhamma-dana.
The Gift of the Dharma — the giving of enlightening teachings, known as dhamma-dāna — according to the Buddha, surpasses all other gifts. This type of giving, sharing, generosity includes those who elucidate the Buddha’s teachings, such as monastics who recite sutras from the Tripitaka or preach sermons or explain them, teachers of meditation, unqualified persons who at least encourage others to keep precepts, or helping support teachers of Dharma and meditation. The most common form of giving is material support, charity, donations, gifts of food, money, robes, shelter, and medicine [41]. More
It's not hard to get woo-woo. It's easy. Behold: Y'know, come to think of it, Siddhartha had another mother who saved him, Mother Nature (Bhumi, Tierra, Gaia, Urth, Mat Zemlya). One day, the wandering ascetic was striving and struggling under the bodhi tree. Mara didn't worry, didn't bother to step in. But then Siddhartha remembered that at age 7, at the Ploughing Festival of the Scythians/Sakas, he spontaneously entered meditative absorption (jhana) from past life practice. The wandering ascetic realized that this was the way to awakening, to enlightenment, and faulted himself for fearing pleasure (piti), realizing that the bliss that results from absorption is blameless and supersensual.
He determined to take up samadhi(practice of the four material absorptions), which his first yoga teachers, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, had taught him six years earlier. Mara took notice. He began to intervene as an obstacle. He took on the form of an ogre (yakkha, rakshasa), chief of an entire army of ghouls and monsters to chase him off his meditation seat at the base of that tree. Mara challenged the ascetic: "What gives you the right to sit there on my spot? Get out of here!" Rather than fearing or fleeing, ascetic Siddhartha made a mudra (hand gesture), pointing at his Earth Mother (earth witnessing mudra).
Kisa Gotami: The mother who could not let go: After losing her only child, she became desperate, unhinged, and asked if anyone could help her. Her sorrow was so great she went crazy until a man out of kindness pointed her to the Buddha, the Master Physician, to bring her child back to life. He would have medicine, she was assured, and he did.
Ven. Patacara, foremost exponent of the Vinaya: A harrowing and unbelievable story of childbirth, motherhood, and loss has been attributed to her in some ancient Buddhist texts and in others has been attributed to Kisa Gotami.
Kisa Gotami: I failed as a mother! My baby's dead! - Let's make a cure. Get mustard seed... - I can do that! I'll be right back! - from a house not touched by death. - OK, that should be no problem.
.
Siddhartha, Sujata, and Punna at offering
He was born under a sal tree as his mother gave birth, Queen Maya, gave birth standing like a tree spirit/dryad (salabhanjika). Then he went into spontaneous absorption sitting in the shade of another tree at the Ploughing Festival, age 7.
Ascetic Siddhartha as emaciated as a spirit
Then years later as a wandering ascetic, leaving the Group of Five wandering ascetics, he continued his struggling under another tree. But now it was too late; he had gone too far and was collapsing, malnourished and exhausted by his striving through painful austerities. Who should appear but a woman, Sujata, who pledged to make offerings to a tree [spirit] if she could become a mother. Realizing a miracle had occurred and she was now pregnant, she took an offering of milk rice to emaciated Siddhartha, mistaking him for the spirit of that tree. This kept him from dying, turned him around, led to him renouncing extreme austerities, and put him on the road to buddhahood, supreme awakening with the ability to teach.
Sujata (Sujātā, Nandabala) was a farmer's wife, who offered dana in the form of food (kheer, a milk-rice pudding) for the wandering ascetic Siddhartha under a big old tree, ending his six years of asceticism. Sujata's servant/attendant, Punna, had gone to clean up around the tree ahead of the offering when she spotted Siddhartha under the tree and mistook him for a dryad in the flesh. His emaciated appearance did not look human, but rather he seemed as withered as bark.
Had this mother not stepped in to nurture him?
Wrongly believing him to be tree-spirit who had granted Sujata's wish to get pregnant, Punna ran to get Sujata, who came with the offering. That gift (dana) gave him enough strength to cultivate his path-of-practice, the Middle Way that avoids extremes of sensual indulgence and extreme asceticism, develop the absorptions (jhana) that temporarily purify the heart/mind and give rise to supernormal perception, and attain enlightenment (bodhi) by systematic practice of Dependent Origination, after which he became known as the Buddha, the "Awakened One" [1, 2, 3]. Why was Sujata so fortunate as to generate such incredible merit? It is said that in a previous life, she had met Padumuttara Buddha, who made a certain predicting that one day she would be the first lay disciple of a future buddha [4]. Now it had come to pass because by going for guidance (sarana) to him, she preceded even the man on the road as the Buddha went to find the Group of Five at Isipatana and teach them. More
One need not stop here when traveling Woo-Woo Road. There was another key mother in Siddhartha and the Buddha's life, namely, Princess Yasodhara (Bimba Devi), Prince Siddhartha's wife and the mother of their child, Prince Rahula.
She did not stop becoming important when Prince Siddhartha renounced the world and left worldly riches, power, and fame behind. She took on a much more important role when she asked to ordain as a Buddhist nun with the Buddha's foster mother (stepmother, aunt, adoptive mother, primary caretaker) Queen Pajapati Gotami. The Buddha's former wife became famous in her own right as the fiercest spiritual disputant in all the land. It became her custom to travel to a town, set up a broom, and anyone who knocked it down was thereby challenging her to debating contest, all of which she won. So prominent was she that sexism in the monkhood (bhikkhu sangha) seems to have led to reciters and scholar monks burying her in the texts by giving her many names: Yasodhara ("Gracious One"), Rahulamata ("Rahula's mother"), Ven. Kaccānā Bhikkhuni (later Theri), Bhadda ("Gentle") Kaccānā, Bhadra Kātyāyani, Sundari (not to be confused with the Buddha's sister, Sundari ["Beautiful"] Nanda aka Janapada Kalyani), and so on. (It seems Christians took the same tact in the Bible, burying Mary's significance by confusing various Marys).
Seven mothers are enough, but in addition to Maya, Pajapati, Nakulamātā, Sujata, Bhumi, and Yasodhara (Bimba, Rahulamata), who would be the seventh? Certainly, there's a devi (goddess, "shining one," angel, deity) out there who helped young Siddhartha and/or the Buddha, who nurtured him, supported him, saved him, or so encouraged him that he was able to accomplish his aim of supreme enlightenment (samma-sam-buddhahood) to teach countless humans and devas and help countless others by alleviating a mass of suffering.
Thus have I heard. The Buddha was staying in Savatthi, and there he said: "Inconceivable is the beginning of rebirth (samsara). No beginning point is seen from which time beings, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, have been reborn and continue wandering on [from life to life, world to world, sphere to sphere].
"It is difficult to ever find a being who has not already been your mother at some time in the past or pother...
"Why? Inconceivable is the beginning of rebirth. No beginning is seen from which time beings, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, have been reborn and continue wandering on.
"Long have beings thus experienced suffering, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling cemeteries — long enough to become disenchanted with all formation (composite fabricated things), long enough to become dispassionate, long enough to find release." More
Sex is bad? Don't look at it. Don't think about it. And whatever you do, don't wish for it. That's what our parents teach us, but that's not what theBuddha taught lay Buddhists.
According to an eminent abbot in Theravada Burma, the words "unlawful sexual practice" would be more clear and effective than simply "sexual misconduct" for defining the Pali term kamesu micchacara.
In the Pali language discourses expounded by the Buddha, he described altogether 20 types of females [not 10, Jeffery Kaung?] with whom males should avoid having penetrative sexual intercourse.
See Buddhism's "Sexual Misconduct" Defined for the ten types of females who are off limits, at least from the perspective of ancient Indian society and possibly universally. We are awaiting Kaung's list of 20.
Every male who is engaged in these forms of sexual relations with any of these females was said to be guilty of dire misconduct that results in the worst kinds of karmic consequences.
But for females, not every female from the given group of 20 is similarly guilty. In other words, only 12 women from the group are guilty for engaging in sex, and most of these females have already been married off or become "owned" by a particular male and his family.
[It should not come as a surprise to Western readers that women were treated like chattel in European marriage contracts until very recently, and the practice is followed to this day in many places including Asia and India in particular.]
The rest of the females in the classification are not guilty since they are not married or have no contractual "owner" yet. Besides, in some of the Buddha's sutras, he encouraged most lay disciples to practice celibacy.
Believe it or not, females have sexual agency
[We do not know of a single discourse that encourages lay celibacy except as an occasional practice for uposatha lunar observance days and periods of intensive Buddhist practice, such as meditation retreats, temporary ordination, or as the natural consequence of spiritual attainments such as the blissful absorptions and the permanent liberations beyond stream entry and once returning. Please specify, Kaung. We would be very happy to examine these sutra references.]
However, the Buddha said that if one fails to be completely celibate, because s/he is already married, then one should always refrain from "unlawful sexual practices" in his/her everyday life -- as a person with clean feet [avoids a puddle of urine on the road].
Besides, the Buddha also described four (4) features that lead a sexual
relationship between a male and a female to be "unlawful conduct."
In fact, the Buddha had already mentioned in his discourses how it was
"noble" [enlightened] for one [with noble attainments] to stay celibate. However, he said that if one could not
practice celibacy because he/she was already married...
[Kaung, if you cite these sutras, we can respond and clarify. Maybe the Buddha wants everyone to be happy, and maybe celibacy is the supreme vehicle/teaching (brahma-acharya) toward that, but it's not something he said lay Buddhists should do or had to do.
Living beings are reborn into this Kama Loka, this "Sensual Sphere," because of their sensual cravings. Denying them or forcing celibacy on people is not the way to transcend craving and make an end of suffering in this very life.
To be reborn into the more blissful Fine Material Sphere or the Immaterial Sphere or the supremely blissful attainment of making an end of all rebirth (enlightenment and nirvana) requires seeing things as they really are, seeing sensuality as it really is, penetrating the impermanence (anicca), disappointment (dukkha), and impersonal (anatta) nature of it articulated in the Four Ennobling Truths.
We want living beings to be happy, the Buddha wanted people to be happy, and you probably want people to be happy.
Truth is the way to that, not oppression and imposing rules on how people have to live. If we are wrong, please show us.
We can show how open-minded the Buddha was, how the Dharma is a path that avoids extremes and leads beyond sensual craving to super-sensual bliss and then insight and liberation from the bondage of all craving, aversion, and delusion.
We arrive there, step by step, not by behaving like ascetic renunciants. There is a much easier way to let go than brute force and self-denial -- and that way is "calm and insight," blissfully happy meditative absorptions and systematically contemplating the 12 links of Dependent Origination.
"There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way!"]
Males, Females, and Sex
Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
The Buddha, Battambang, Cambodia, S.E. Asia (Kim Seng/captainkino.com/flickr)
We have already been responding to Jeffery Kaung's letter in brackets. But let us go more deeply.
Kaung, everybody should always avoid "unlawful sexual practices." One need not avoid sex; yet, one need always avoid misconduct in regard to satisfying one's sexual desires. And that is easy to do... except in a repressive society that denies one sexual access. Our societies, East and West, now deny us, or try to deny us, legitimate avenues of sexual expression outside of marriage. That may make sense in conservative parts of Asia, as in rural or small communities, but it does not make a lot of sense in urbanized city environments which emphasize the individual to the detriment of extended familial affiliations.
This has to apply to females just as much as males even if India was already a patriarchal and sexist society that assumed sexual agency only for males. Females have the same agency and, therefore, are liable to get in the same sort of karmic trouble as males. Who can believe that when, for example, a man has sex with a married woman, only she is guilty of cheating on her husband? From a literal and closed minded reading of Buddhist texts (i.e., AN X.206), only he would be guilty. She would be said to have seduced him into a great deal of karmic trouble, but no mention is made of her infidelity to her husband, presumably because she has no agency and therefore no ability to make an intentional choice to cheat, which of course is ridiculous.
And with regard to child molestation, which is a severe form of "sexual misconduct" or "unlawful sexual practices," a female can certainly molest just as a male can. Would anyone in this day and age think, "Oh, she's a female, she has no sexual agency, so she can't possibly be guilty of intentional sexual conduct, how much less misconduct"? It's preposterous. Wisdom Quarterly speculates that it was the sexism influencing the Dharma, and not the Dharma itself, which left us with this one-sided set of rules for males only. We hear precious little about the nuns, Buddhist females at the time of the Buddha, or Buddhist girls and women today.
That is our era's sexism continuing to diminish women aided and abetted by the sexism of the past, and the male Monastic Order, the Bhikkhu Sangha, has much to answer for keeping this unequal state of affairs in place. The status quo, which the Buddha did so much to overturn, was quickly set back up and given legitimacy as if the Buddha had participated in oppressing females when he was the first world-teacher to elevate them to equal status.
If one says that the Buddha didn't go quite that far, but instead subordinated them to the Monastic Order, then one has not read the Bhikkhuni Vinaya (The Nuns' Code of Discipline with its origin stories explaining each rule), which enumerates ahistoricalgarudhammas or "additional nuns' rules" that could NOT have come from the Buddha (see the scholarship of Ayya Tathaaloka).
The Extra Rules for Nuns Ven.
Tataaloka (Ayya Tathaaloka) on the eight "Principles to be Respected" by nuns
(garudhammas) and the formation of the female Buddhist Order
(bhikkhuni-sangha). The additional monastic rules for women are a
"definite historical impossibility." (See alsoThe Buddhist Nuns of California)
But we are all taught that he offered eight or more additional rules to his stepmother, Maha Pajapati, the world's first Buddhist nun, who gladly accepted them to wear like a beautifying head dress or hair piece. Someone, likely sexist male monastics, inserted those to ensure the supremacy of the male Monastic Order. The abbot from Burma you quote without naming is neither likely to realize that nor admit it if he does.
Stay far away from fools, and instead associate with the wise
Avoiding fools and
Associating with the wise,
Giving respect to the deserving,
This is [among] life's highest blessings.
Sattigumba and Pupphaka
Asevanā ca bālānaṃ, paṇḍitānañca sevanā;
Pūjā ca pūjaneyyānaṃ
etaṃ maṅgalamuttamaṃ.
Maṅgala Sutra
That's a good bird! - Thank you, sir.
These lines verses from the "Blessings Sutra" uttered by the Buddha who was asked, “What is life's highest blessing?” He spoke of 38 blessings. However, this first verse is perhaps the most important. We are smart to distinguish the fools from the wise.
The Commentary to this verse explains: Fools commit unskillful karma (demeritorious deeds of body, speech, and mind).
The wise create skillful karma (meritorious deeds of body, speech, and mind). The wise develop virtue (sila, morality, ethical conduct).
Lay Buddhists keep Five Precepts, Eight Precepts on fasting (lunar observance) days, and Ten Precepts on retreat or during intensive practice). Monastics vow to adhere to 227 Precepts, including eight more for females who follow the garudhammas.
When a wise person hears about or recollects the Five Precepts, or a wise monastic hears about or calls to mind the 227 Precepts, that person becomes happy.
When one hears of the unskillful karma created by breaking precepts, one becomes happy because of not having broken those precepts and knowing that bad karmic results (resultants and fruits or vipaka and phala) will be avoided.
When one hears of skillful karma due to virtue, one becomes happy, knowing that welcome results will come. This is true for "wise" people, according to the Bālapaṇḍita Sutra (MN 129).
I'm not a fool. I'm drunk -- and loving it. 🤢🤮
Fools (bāla) are described in the same discourse:
Suppose a fool is sitting in a council hall, street, or crossroads, where people are discussing what is proper and suitable. And suppose that fool is someone who kills living creatures, steals, engages in sexual misconduct, lies (deceives), and uses intoxicants that occasion negligence. That fool thinks:
"‘These people are discussing what is proper and fitting; those things are found in me, and I am seen in them!’
"This is the first kind of suffering and sadness a fool experiences in the present life.
"Those who fail to uphold the Five Precepts [which are useful for all humans of whatever religion or philosophy] for lay practitioners or 227 for monastics become fearful when they hear these precepts and the negative results from breaking them. They are called fools."
Actually, the ones who become afraid have some hints of wisdom, for they know they should change [so as to avoid future suffering].
I'm starting to think you might be a bad influence on me. - Shut the front door, Birdbrain.
.
It is the ones without fear who do not become afraid at all when hearing these things who are absolute fools. They are the most dangerous because they hold wrong views and act on them. They are dangerous because they believe the unskillful actions they do are actually skillful, and they spread these wrong views with others.
The Commentary to the Maṅgala Sutra, "The Discourse on Blessings," says that this is like a house on fire, burning: It easily spreads to neighboring houses.
Spiritual development starts with being morally wise. After morality is developed, one is capable of developing stillness of mind (samatha, samadhi).
Those who have developed stillness (samadhi, unification, concentration, coherence) have completed the second part of “being wise.”
The third part is to develop insight knowledge or vipassana. One must have the ability to focus, be calm, and remain still to develop insight knowledge. And one must have virtue (morality) to develop focus (non-distractedness).
That is why it is said that virtue, stillness, and wisdom (sīla, samādhi, and paññā), in this order and not in any other order, is the path to enlightenment.
The highest level of insight is the glimpsing or realization of nirvana (Pali nibbāna). And the highest level of attaining nirvana (while still alive) is full enlightenment or arahant knowledge.
While a person yet lives, this is called enlightenment with remainder because one is still experiencing the results of previous karma, while no longer accruing any new karma. All intentional actions at this point are called kriyas or "simple (functional) actions." They do not bear fruit. When one enters final nirvana or parinibbana, this is enlightenment without remainder.
An arhat (arahant) is someone in whom passion (greed and clinging), aversion (hatred and fear), and delusion (ignorance and wrong views) are completely destroyed without remainder. These are the noble ones who have laid down the burden, who have made an end of suffering and rebirth here and now.
Where do I ordain?
Wanting to practice a direct path to enlightenment free of all worldly distractions, many people ask where to ordain. To find a proper abbey, look for spiritually wise monastics. While this is difficult to discern by merely looking, morally wise monastics are easier to detect.
One cannot be spiritually wise without being morally wise. Therefore, start at a place where both the monastic rules (vinaya) and meditation are regarded as important.
Rotten apple
[In the West, one bad apple rots the entire barrel.] In addition to a burning house spreading fire to another, the Maṅgala Sutra Commentary speaks of rotten fish spreading rot to nearby objects.
One who ties up putrid fish
with blades of kusa grass
makes the kusa grass smell foul:
so it is in the following fools
(It 68, 9-12, Ja IV 435, 28-29, JaVI 236 4-5).
Maṅgala Sutra Commentary: In contrast, the commentary explains that if one were to wrap tagara jasmine flowers with leaves, those leaves would become wonderfully fragrant.
One who ties up tagara
with leaves [fallen from a tree]
makes the leaves sweetly fragrant:
So it is in following the wise
(It 68, 13-16, Ja IV 436, 1-2, Ja VI 236, 6-7).
Maṅgala Sutra Commentary: This is literally used to explain that whatever is near to us can easily “rub off” on us. Perhaps the best example of this is our language or accent.
Not long ago, if someone were from New York City or Long Island, one could easily tell by the way that person talked.
My father is from the Bronx, and everyone who hears him speak knows it. This is becoming a thing of the past because of TV and internet videos that are homogenizing us.
Think about it. Television and internet media affect us in deeply rooted and subconscious ways. They affect the way we speak without us realizing it. If they can affect the way we sound to others, why would they not impact our attitudes, beliefs, and morals without us realizing it?
As internet algorithms choose more and more polarizing and extreme material to present to us, those things will become a part of us. They become the new normal. They already have.
We are encouraged to associate or live with the wise, with those who are higher than us in terms of morality and wisdom. This is very important because it will be easy for this to rub off on us, such as the fragrance of flowers.
The twin parrots Buddhist birth story
The Sattigumba Jātaka is listed in the Commentaries quoted above to explain this point.
It is the tale of two parrots born as twins. A storm comes, and they are separated shortly after birth.
One bird is raised by a gang of thieves, the other by hermit wandering ascetics. The king comes across both parrots at different times. The first encounter is the bad parrot who speaks of stealing and killing, while the other speaks of sharing and kindness. The king is moved by the difference between the two.
This story may seem hard to believe, but we can find examples of parrots on YouTube that point this out. Believe it or not, many parrots are in need of shelter. Enter “parrot + a location” into a search engine and see the many organizations looking for new nests for their avian orphans.
The video above is about a rescued bird who lived with bad people and witnessed a terrible crime.
This parrot witnessed the murder of its owner. It became a key witness at the trial in the human world. Likewise, there are numerous channels with loving parrots who obviously had loving owners, such as this one:
Hey, give me a kiss. - Sure, 'bout time you asked. Hey, WTH? Why you you little love-blocker!
Hello? What the H do you want? - Les, is that U?
This post by Bhante, now edited by Wisdom Quarterly, is dedicated to Bhante’s cousin, Les Brodie, who died. He had a well-trained talking bird and told me about what a joy it was to have it. It had its own bike, and the bird would often pick up the house phone with its claw on the first ring and imitate his voice, “Hello? Uh huh...ummm...yes...uh huh…”
Apparently, sometimes his friends would have whole conversations with the bird without Les knowing it. He was a very special bird, and his person was not so bad either.
If we are parents, our children are our parrots. They are watching and listening whether we like it or not, and they will mimic and model themselves after us.
Moreover, WE are all talking birds, parroting whomever we follow and associate with. Those with whom we associate rub off on us like wrapping around stinky fish or fragrant flowers. So it is wise to be wise in choosing our associates.
Avoiding fools and
Associating with the wise,
Giving respect to those worthy of it,
This is life’s highest blessing.
Pa Auk Sayadaw student Bhante Subhuti (americanmonk.org), 4/22/22; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly orig. published June 3, 2024
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