Everything you want to know about monks...but were too nervous to ask!-qYmhjKVe

From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qYmhjKVe_v8

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

hi my name is sister kama and i'm from

the damasuca meditation center in

annapolis missouri

we thought it would be fun to put up a

youtube about all you ever wanted to

know about buddhist monks and the

etiquette that revolves around them

but you were afraid to ask or you didn't

have somebody that you could ask so

today i have a couple of monks with me

who are very qualified

one is uh most venerable bonti vimala

ramsay uh mahatera meaning he was an

over 20 year monk who is the founder of

dsmc

and uh a qualified member of the sangha

to give you some answers and the other

person is

venerable padilla

terra who

comes to us from the sri ratana buddhist

center

located in anaheim california and he is

also associated with the vin gorilla

royal temple in sri lanka who basically

uh works at the preservation of the

majima nikaya

so this should be some interesting

questions for us to listen to

the salmoneri

or samanera

they're called

the

young

monks

in this tradition that we're starting

here

any person that comes and wants to

ordain

they have to be a salmonera or salmoneri

for one year

the age that they can start at

is eight years old

to get higher ordination you have to be

at least 20 years old

to become

a terror

and actually you're not a terror yet

terra is a term that means a 10-year

monk

and mahatera means a term of being a

monk in good standing for 20 years

some of the training that you you learn

as a samanera or saminary it doesn't

matter whether it's male or female is

you have to learn certain chants you

have to understand what it means to be a

monk

you have to understand that

everything

as far as the monks in buddhism

has to do with seniority

and elder monk always

has

the

the highest respect

so a samanera

when he comes into a room of higher

monks

ordained monks

the salmonera doesn't talk

the saminera listens

unless directly talk to

and

the senior monks are the one that

converse with each other

and the junior monks

generally sit and are quiet

and attentive to whatever is being said

unless they're addressed

directly this is a very polite way of

interacting

the

first five years of becoming

a salmon era

no excuse me the first five years of

becoming a biku or bikuni you stay with

the same teacher he's called your

upajaya

this is called a beginner monk

for the first five years after five

years you're called a middle length monk

and then after 10 years you're called an

elder

so that gives you some idea of what the

the tradition is so there is a line a

chain of seniority there is definitely a

chain of seniority

so you just gave me how many years it

actually takes for the level of

ordinations to occur and showed us that

there was a chain of seniority

now

this chain of seniority it operates the

same way in

all monasteries but

the same way so

someone asked is there somebody like the

pope

involved in buddhism

there's many popes in buddhism

and it's the senior monk the senior monk

at the top of the line

the the longer they have been a monk the

more more respect they get

but there's no one one person that's the

authority unless you would consider the

buddha that person

okay the authority person is dhamma and

vineyard for all the buddhist monks are

not okay

now some people asked what what is this

about staying in white and wearing white

on retreat does this really does it help

your meditation or what what actually is

that about

okay

it sets you apart

it lets you know that you're no longer

living by your ordinary rules

so when you wear white

that means you're trying you're you're

taking at least eight precepts

and you're trying to follow these

precepts much more closely than you

normally would at home

if you do this when you come here

you will

be wearing white

while you're

on retreat but if you want to extend

your stay

we keep you in white but you have a

different

title

and that would be

anagra

okay

now

why why do monks not say thank you when

you give them something what do they say

instead and what does that mean

monks don't say thank you

because if i accept a gift from you

and i say thank you that is a personal

gift of one from one person to another

when i accept a gift from you and i

don't say thank you

i am the representative for the buddha

and all of the arahats and all of the

sangha from the time of the buddha

and i represent them

and

i say

well done

i say sadhu

and

that means whatever gift you give to me

it's a gift to all of the sangha oh

that's pretty neat

and

i share it with all the sangha

so it's not a personal gift right it's a

double generosity coming from the person

to you and you giving that merit to this

song

right so when i when i don't say thank

you for something

and i and i acknowledge you

and i might say sadhus sometimes i do

and sometimes i don't

but even when i'm quiet

i'm being the representative for the

buddha

and all of the sangha members so you get

much much much more merit

so the math is looking out for us so the

monk is definitely looking up right

okay here's one question i'd like to ask

what how does a monk

ask a layperson for something to be

given to them or

a service that they need to have

performed what is the proper way for

the layperson i'm sorry for the monks to

ask the layperson

to help them how do how do we find out

what they need that kind of thing

what is it that do you need anything we

can ask you the delay person right

okay so we can come and say is there

anything that you need

okay okay that's good but if a monk

wants something

say there's uh

something runs out on the table and you

know that another monk would want

something

then i would say is there any

i think ask

and you don't come back do you want this

i see

you your answer is either yes or no

uh-huh instead of do you have you would

say is there any

i see so it's

there is a tradition

that you say uh

you asked the capia who is the attendant

at that time

and the bante they they say

capiavante

when they give it to you

and that means i'm i'm giving you this

whatever it happens to be i see i see

now now what happens if there are um

actually what is a copy of what are

their duties

is intended

whatever whatever

a monk needs to have happen they do it

for them okay

do they have more than one sometimes in

in multiple stairs of course

does it not narrow down to one person

how um

how are disputes handled

between the monks

if there is a dispute between two monks

if that ever happens how is that

how does that work

you had some good ideas that you weren't

really studying no you

well they go to the abbot

and they discuss yes

and they discuss

what the problem is

and generally speaking

the habit comes up with a solution

that is agreeable for everybody

and also a bit about kind

of it can

but can give the permission for a

special monk for

that kind of that so he can do it

instead of there about oh assign a monk

a job like

be the manager of disputes for the

monastery so that might happen one no

many first many months

yeah okay that's that's good

what is a preceptor

somebody that keeps the precepts

either five precepts or eight precepts

it's someone that

is taking their

practice seriously

and keeping the precepts whether anybody

else is around to see whether they break

them or not

that's the buddhist at least

five percent at least

who

would like to follow the buddhist path

at least five percent he have to protect

his life

and these five are

not to kill yes any living beings find

purpose

and

not to steal take what is not given and

prone

sexual left him to not to have wrong

sexual activity meaning anything harmful

to someone mentally or physically

in a situation

okay and the photon is the

challenge

and a speech

and fourth fifth one is

drugs

get rid of drugs and alcohol right now

let's let's stop there for a minute and

that one some people have said oh we

can't take medicine anymore that has

alcohol and this means this really means

recreational drugs and alcohol you can

still take medicine if you need to yes

okay

but not abuse it but not abused of

course of course

but if you're sick and the doctor wants

to prescribe something that's okay okay

i see what you're saying

okay um

now here's one you came to visit

damasuke meditation center what do monks

carry with them

what do they own that they carry with

them

when they travel

yeah it is

normally

monks carry with their belongings

belongings means

three robes

and the arms ball

and

water water is greener what is

that that kind of

most important for the

monk basic right

basic

living breakfast

these days a lot of monks carry books

with them yes

for this yeah to get off the weight away

from the weight of the books they'll

have a computer

that's the excuse

okay

what are protections

we hear monks talk sometimes about

what protect about how important

protections are but what are protections

protection means

probably

i'm thinking

yeah

you know

actually the parity means

the sunk some kind of suit

for

direct

taught by the buddha for the

monks and

none it is a

it is

help

for

with basically the

loving kindness

and myth

without lime kindness and metha

you your whole life you chant parity

you cannot

get the protect from the parity the

protection

protection from the party

protection us

as we

as we chant as we practice that no

actually as you practice them

chanting is

some kind of remind

how do you practice today and your life

right the chanting it's important that

it has material that is a reminder of

the teaching yes that's how we learn to

remember the teaching

if we go outside of that we

are

doing something else right

so that was the answer to why monks do

chant also

if you have

fear in your mind if you think of the

good qualities of the buddha the dhamma

and the sangha

that will alleviate the fear

it will help the fear to be overcome

so it brings peace to your mind

but there's an awful lot of monks

that they say it's the vibration of the

chanting that's most important and it

isn't it's the understanding of the suta

that you are reciting right

right

now um

that's an important point because a lot

of people have gotten lost in chanting

by melody and i think westerners are

very almost addicted to the melodies in

our songs and they want to

to keep

that in their mind rolling it around and

around and around so

so chanting is a kind of the first step

of memorizing the teachings yeah the

first step for that

do monks ever have holidays

and do they get vacation time i had to

snicker when i heard this because i

thought being in there every day is a

holiday

every day is the holiday and

there's plenty to do at the same time

and every day is the working day yeah

yeah

we we are told that certain monks are

fully enlightened era hots do you know

if a person is an era how do you know if

a person is an era hot or not and we

could refer them to

some fruitas too

well

it's very difficult to tell whether a

person is truly an aarhat or not you

have to listen to them

you have to be around them for a very

long period of time

to see how they act in different

situations

there has been some that i've been

around that they they claim are a hot

ship and if i'm i've been around them

for six months or more

and i see them get even the slightest

bit of anger arising

then that means no they they've

overestimated themselves

which is pretty common

now

here's a question if the buddha didn't

want us to make statues of him why did

why are buddhist statues allowed

why are they allowed because people make

them

yeah i i was writing the person and

saying you know in almost every um

religion when you go to the temple of

whatever faith you're thinking about

there's all different kinds of people

there that are there for um

many many reasons and um one group of

people really wants to

pay tribute to the statue and see

something visually another one is

totally engrossed in

chanting and practicing the teaching

the eastern cultures are very big into

bowing to the buddha image but they're

not bowing to that image

they're bowing to the ideas behind the

image

so there that it's used as a reminder

right

okay

how long does a monk ordain for can it

be a short time

that depends a lot on the tradition

if you're from sri lanka it should be

lifetime

if you disrobe

after

after a period of time it is frowned on

that you take the roads on again

in burma

there's people that ordain

for the new year

every year

right right and there's such a thing as

temporary seminary

and temporary

oh that's right uh listen that um uba

kim

was a temporary figure right

as a businessman

and

in sri lanka the government is

ev every month's

government gives some facility for the

monks

so if if some monks disrupt

he have to inform the government

government will cut every facility for

most persons he raises support

in a country where i i noticed this was

true in in some of the european

countries where the government is

involved with religion whereas in the

united states it's separated church and

state so

we don't have to uh compete or anything

for

but we're we're seeing the necessity of

coming up with some kind of more

official

recognition of the monks

because we're so new at starting

the sangha

it hasn't been necessary

but we're going to have to come up with

some kind of official

documentation to prove that you are a

monk

and

because seniority is so very important

on that documentation it will have the

exact date and time of your ordination

so you can prove that you would remark

going back to the buddha images at the

center what we're doing

in the meditation hall there will not be

any buddha images

there will just be the image of a bodhi

leaf

with the dhamma chaka wheel

in the bodhi booth and what's the symbol

of the dominant chakra wheel and the

leaf

when the when the buddha would go out

on his touring

after the three months he would start

walking and going here and there

um nsm pendica came to him and said that

an awful lot of people get very sad

because they came a long distance to see

the buddha

and he wasn't there

uh they they planted a bodhi tree

out in front of

the sawati

from the original bodhi tree

that he became enlightened under

and

they used that as the symbol of

enlightenment or awakening

the wheel

means

to remember the eightfold path

this is the way leading to the cessation

of suffering so that's a univ we could

probably safely say that these two

symbols are a universal

symbol that exists within all three

branches of buddhism the vajrayana

mahayana and theravada groups and not

offensive to anyone

and as it turns out that is what our

logo is for the center

and that is what his logo is in sri

lanka

right which is which is pretty amazing

yes

same logo well it's it's a great irony

that you're with us because here because

venerable is teaching from

the majima nikaya directly most of the

work we do is there and then we use the

samya tsunukaya you know to support that

a great deal but

and then here you are coming from a

monastery that's very old how old is the

monastery in sri lanka my monastery is

three hundred 2300 old so for two

thousand three hundred years this

monastery has been in sri lanka with the

primary objective of preserving the

nikaya texts yes so we could say that

you're kind of familiar with them

yes that's why i

i really like to want this

summertime because he always

based on the maji manifest

during this period i never miss the any

number

that's true you were here every single

night

that's wonderful so there's this this um

this link between the two places that's

wonderful

um so what do monks do all day long and

can you summarize what their their

duties are for us give us an idea

all

not only all day monks can divide this

like a day

monk's life

the basically months have monks have to

practice

the

the path

to the

path to the succession of suffering

so and also

that means they want to meditate

to understand realize what is the buddha

buddhist

and also they have to

teach them

to the

society the

the left people

and every the monks need to

behave their character as a model person

model supreme model person to the

society

in in whole life

amongst

com monks life

they have to do that kind of thing

but

nowadays

we we can

separate day like

you know the

we can do the monastery things

for the monks monastery

duties right and we can

do our practice by all

and we can teach them some some

period of the day

and

we eat together

we work together

we practice

together

that's why we called sangha

right

so um

here's a question um

who who pays for the temples when

they're built

always

practice the dhamma

and they support

the

if if he need

money to the monastery they support from

the money and facilities you need food

and yeah the taking care of

maintenance and what the needs of you

and then what did what do the people get

back you and i had a discussion fairly

recently about what happened during the

tsunami

when that happened that great

devastation happened what did the monks

do it depends uh

the

the culture

but

the buddhist monk

especially respect the human human being

if any human being get some painful

location

we have

we have to help them for get rid of that

painful location

that is

the that is the compassion

during the tsunami you spent time

digging people out of the rubble oh yes

you handled food

and

gave them food and they gave them water

and and cared for them as best they

could and you and i talked about it um

you know every funeral that happened the

monks went to and talked about

impermanence and taught

how impermanence works and that a wave

is a wave and what the wave did was

what waves do and

saw things essentially clearly and the

people were able to

come back stronger and faster than in

some societies it is easy for monks

because monks have

in my mouth don't have any attachment

for any place or any person

so if they are if if some

if somebody need our help we can go

there directly and we can help that

person know that society right

so that's that's it and they and

structurally they supply a very large

system of psychological support for the

people

yes the dhamma buddha dhamma is

completely

like kind of

psychological

things it deals with mind right

it's practical

yes very applicable and usable

not only the technical team it's not

only it says in the books

the monks are the example of music the

practice of it

well do monks charge fees to teach the

people

hopefully not

the dhamma is free right but there are

some monks that are

they think that that's the only way that

they can become prosperous

monks

if they are teaching the dhamma

and spending their time with dhamma

they are supported

they are helped by other people not out

of a sense of obligation

but out of a sense of

i want to help

monks receive many things

out of kindness and respect for what

they're doing in the example that they

are setting

well do monks ever marry people

this was a question

but they can

when in

which is similar to what we're starting

here right

monks

are invited

for a meal before the wedding

and they will chant and they will

give blessings for people

but during the actual wedding they are

not present

and

so they come

they

are

offered food by the by the people that

are going to be married right

and they're they're giving all of this

merit and this happiness

and the monks will

give them advice

there are going to be times when there

are disagreements

don't speak at the same time

you listen attentively to what the other

person says

and then you say thank you very much and

this is what i think

now that when you talk at the same time

you're talking this other person is

talking at the same time you hear what

you say they hear what they say

but you don't hear each other

so the monks are trying to set the

example for the family life so there is

honest and real communication

so what i'm hearing here is buddhism has

something to do with peaceful

coexistence

great deal okay

that's how the monks handle their

problems

in the monastery when they have problems

with each other

they don't both talk at the same time

they don't yell at each other they sit

down and discuss

this is the way i think it should be

and it's not that way or i want it to be

this way and it's not that way

and the other monk would will come in

and say thank you

now he has a chance to talk and there

can't be any interrupting

so it's real communication that we do

it's kind of like seeing a team

evaluation in industry or a team

evaluation in business but there's

always respect and cooperation to do

this

there's that's that's the key thing of

buddhism is the respect

and the higher you are in in your

seniority the more respect you have

but that doesn't mean that that there's

a monk that's 30 years

doesn't have respect for a monk that's

that's one year right

they're teaching respect to each other

all the time

and that that's what the

the

feeling of happiness that happens when

you come to a monastery is because of

that mutual love and respect

okay um

how do you greet a monk

or a nun

can you shake hands with them

monks don't shake hands

monks don't touch women

well there's an energetic thing that

happens when you shake hands

and

it's best not for monks not to shake

hands

but as far as you're coming into a

monastery and greeting a monk

you put your hands together put your

head down

and say

hello

so this is probably

it's a polite proper when you're

entering a shrine

but

but a lot of times

easterners will get down on their hands

and knees and bow

but it's not really necessary

it's the cultural things it's it that's

a cultural culture

but it is

it is polite

to put your hands together and

acknowledge

okay we're going to go into a little bit

about

the rules now

people have several questions about that

but how many precepts do monks follow

that's a loaded question in the vinnia

they say there's at least six million

roles

but the main roles there are 227.

and now that is for months that's for

monks and the nuns

300 and

11. 300 at 311 i was going to say 12 and

then it didn't sound right and so the

seminary or the sun

but

we have to polite as much as much as we

can

for the society

we have to remind that kind of rules and

otherwise

we have to any kind of reason we have to

choose

what is the best way to do it politely

right in this situation okay

now there's the seminary and the

salmonera the novice is the same thing

right

uh they have they're following

they're following ten rules rolls

but

in the monks rules

there are rules about eating

and there's about 80 rules about

the

etiquette of eating food yeah okay

because they are

all together eating in the same table so

they're exposed to those and they learn

about that so they have to understand

that if you're eating in your bowl you

don't look at somebody else's bowl and

see what they're eating whether you want

some of that or not

you don't watch somebody chew

because they chew in different ways and

then you start forming uh

opinions about them i don't like the way

they chew they're not a very good monk

so there are those kind of roles and

there's rules about how much food to put

in your mouth you used to tell us about

the peacock egg yeah

and we cannot

the bad like kind of the

bad sound for the you don't make a lot

of sounds

you don't smack your lips you don't lick

your fingers you don't uh

belch

things like that

well how many monks um

remember all those rules

do you how how do you how did the monks

remember all those rules it's the

question not how many but how do the

monks remember all those rules the first

five years of becoming a monk is

learning the rules and learning how to

incorporate it

but if you see another monk breaking a

role and it's not a major role

you don't criticize that monk

you show respect

now if if a monk breaks a rule what

happens

there are remedies for breaking the

rules

and we

have to go to

an official place

and we have to confess

and there's a little ceremony that monks

do with themselves

and

basically

the senior monk says do you see that you

broke that rule and the other monk said

yes and the monk said

please be more careful in the future

don't break that rule again

okay so that's how we

we handle it right now if

if a monk breaks a rule and doesn't tell

anybody that they broke it they can wind

up having a guilty mind

and that's going to affect the way they

see the world

so we are very honest

with each other

when can a monk handle money

and how can a monk be handling money

and i think this is a good question for

you because you're like the treasurer in

the monastery so

do you do how does that work

you know

the handling money in in in sri lanka

and our tradition

they're handling money

for their day-to-day

day-to-day life but we cannot do the

business with money

but we have to do some kind of

things

in the monastery and our

things

in in sri lankan tradition

the chief monk of the

country a more

long time ago

the monks meet together

the monk meeting

and they decided to handling money

without attachment for the

monash for the operations yes

and if we have big project for the

monastery we have to

use the kapia karaka for that kind of

thing

would you say that the most important

part of this is that

the idea of not handling money is

uh if you're handling money and you get

preoccupied with it thinking about it

all the time begin worrying about

investments and all this you're moving

into the householder side of things and

also the handling money is the one of

the problem biggest problem

in this world today sure so

every every monastery the chief monk is

guide how to how to handle the monastery

monastic money for the monastery

works and how for operations operations

i think we need to start a little bit

sooner by what is the definition of

money

if somebody gives me a piece of paper

it's a piece of paper right

okay it doesn't become money

until i have a desire

to have it be used in a particular way

right

so the way that it's solved for donating

money to a monk

is to put it in an envelope

right and he he will

give blessings for that

whatever amount it is it doesn't really

matter right

and then that monk can give that

the envelopes over to

someone else to count

right so that's not breaking a rule

absolutely right

and and i think in modern times a lot of

the solution for this came with the

debit card of just being able to

use the debit card and not be counting

well it depends on on

what

they're getting with the debits oh yeah

money now we are we use the north

right

the long time ago they use as gold as

money right so it's the technology thing

right but the same problem now same

problem absolutely and same mental

attachment right same issues

are there

when when people start hoarding it and

they want to get it just for themselves

get something just for themselves

then that's not as good

because they're thinking about that all

the time and that's going to

cause a problem

so money comes in and what do i do with

it i give it i give the envelope to

someone else to take care of that i

trust right

and then that that goes into the

monastery fund

for

the support of

the electric bill yeah the probe

you have to use the forest

and the

the places without person people

but

we can accept them

the means

the castle

black mentions

so like kind of that

so but we don't have get attacked with

it attached right

but we can accept them

right if if the king like to give his

palace

we can accept that palace

it all revolves around attachment and

craving and clinging

in this situation which is dangerous

somebody give somebody would like to

donate something for the buddha's

dispensation

to some reason

we cannot refute refuse we cannot refuse

a gift

as long as we know the gift came in a

wholesome way yeah

right like i was saying the other day we

don't want a gangster coming up giving

us their drug money

yeah we won't accept that

but when it's done with a pure heart

then we will accept any gift

whether we need it or not

i have enough socks to prove

if anyone wants to understand about the

socks need to go to the website and

listen to some of the talks and you'll

eventually hear the story of the

manifestation of socks when venerable

was cold in australia this manifestation

is still

plaguing me plaguing

and we can use the gift as we like you

know that we can give the other peoples

and the other monks yes

we are back now with our interview at

damasuke meditation center and we're

going to go look at the

section called it's about the rules

how many precepts do monks have to

follow and

nuns have to follow in seminaries and

lay people how does how does that lay

out

delay people have how many precepts

normally

lay people have to observe the five

percent

the five receptor is the symbol of the

buddhist

lay person

so every precept you know the salmon era

salmoneri

every preset based on the

five percent

so the five precept is the best on

buddhist life okay okay and that's

not to kill

not to steal

not to have wrong sexual activity that's

harmful to a person mentally or

physically um not to

lie

or to use gossip or harsh language or

center not cursing that part of that and

then not taking drugs or alcohol because

that will weaken the mind to break those

other precepts right

because the alcohol and drugs people use

mental and physical

fund

they they have to get

alcohol and they get some kind of

fun then they have a tendency to break

the other precepts when they take that

if you if you have any any kind of uh

sickness

doctor

we can get some drugs

with the doctors

so it's not a problem if there's a

little alcohol in the drugs

if it is used for the medicine

the reason that we try to keep the

precepts as closely as possible because

they lead

when you break the precepts they lead to

having a mind full of anxiety

fear

depression

restlessness all of the things that are

the problems with the daily life

so to be happier you have these

preachers so you keep the precepts so

you don't have this cloud

going around your head

another guilty feeling see the society

what is the problem the problem is

people break the five percent

exactly exactly we can see this all

around us

actually

there's a study that has been done about

people that use foul language that they

curse

and they are always in the lowest level

of society people that curse and they

they use foul language

they're

unrefined

they're filled with anger and anxiety

they're basically very unhappy

so using the keeping the precepts means

watching

your mind too

before you break a precept you be

conscious that

that's what your mind wants to do at

that time

okay then you can make a conscious

decision to do it or not do it okay and

then the person on retreat has eight

precepts and then that's just a

refinement

so that you don't uh

spend your time listening to music and

singing and that sort of thing and we

had we said that was a step earlier we

said this was a first step of

renunciation that you're living in a

different

path in buddhist countries on the new

moon and the full moon

people go to the monastery they take

eight precepts they study meditation

they study sutas they listen to dharma

talks

and that's that's the way they they

develop their spiritual life

and also it help for the monastery but

they do

and then the seminary has 10 and then

the

nuns i think he said had 311

rules and the

monks are following two hundred and

twelve twenty seven two hundred twenty

seven months

because the buddha would have want to

keep the sangha

as a

neat

neat uh order yeah that's why he

he introduced that kind of

i think he talked to me once about the

311 rules are there

um instead of the

227 because a woman's body is different

needs different things addressed

and at the time this was where and there

were some protective issues as well

because of the time in that culture at

that time

that that are good points to protect the

women

okay

and there were a lot more bikunis than

there were bhikkhus at one time in india

we discussed that one time too i

remember that

how do monks remember all these rules

and they by being around

there's there's two ways that we

remember the rules every new moon and

full moon when there is a sangha

and asanga is at least four monks

they come together

the junior monk

recites all of the rules

all the way through the senior monks

will listen to him recite and if they

hear a mistake they will correct the

mistake

puts you on the hot spot

the

monks know the rules by hearing them

every two weeks but also by studying

them

and also by being with their teacher

who is the example and who can answer

any questions about the rules

briefly they knew

they lived as a monk yes that's what

being a mother and there's a

disciplinary line of order for if a monk

breaks the world

certainly it depends on the severity of

the break

there are some some rules that are

not

so important like looking in another

bowl

or one one of the rules is you should

never give a dhamma talk when someone

else is holding a knife

you mentioned that one time

so i mean

and we cannot tell the dumb somebody is

hungry

yeah like kind of things

so when you come to the monastery the

monastery always will open up the

kitchen and make sure that you have food

well that's one of the reasons yes very

good and that's one of the reasons that

we like to encourage people that when

they come to the monastery

they bring food

so it can be shared not only with the

monks but with anybody that's hungry

right

when can a monk handle money

when

what's the definition again

right

what is money if somebody gives me some

green paper

then they've given me some green paper

it's not money until i take that

and

use it for something else

i can accept

coins i can accept paper

i can accept checks

as a gift

i can use it personally if there is a

need

but 95

of the time i wind up just giving it

over to the monastery because that's

what's needed to keep the monastery

going right for whatever's needed

so as far as touching money

it it

always comes back to the definition of

what money is

and whether you're

mentally attached to it right and what

is the intention and what is your

intention

i'm gonna buy a brand new car with this

money uh we don't need a car we got

plenty of vehicles around here

so it it takes away if if money is used

only for personal

wants and desires

then that's the wrong use of money

but if money is used

just as a medium to carry things on so

that life is easier for everyone around

then that's a proper use of money yes if

someone if if a monk use money for their

lay life play family the monastery that

is the wrong thing

so if if

we can use money for the monastery

presents

right but we cannot use we wanna ask you

money for the family for personal rights

for personalization

that's the misconduct with the money

okay can can a monk mow the lawn

no one of the rules of the monks is that

we cannot harm

plants

right and i think i had an experience

with you once in the vegetable garden

where we had a huge fence full of green

beans and it was time to pick them

and

venerable was not allowed to pick those

beans but i was allowed to pick the

beans so i had the pot and he could

point at the bean and say there's beans

that you're missing

and we could we could

we could pick the beans and have them

for food

but you are not allowed to pick the

beans so this is like you can bless the

harvest or come and

help eat the beans but you can't pick

them

okay here's one why don't monastery

monastics reveal anything

about their personal practice or

attainments with laypeople

and do they discuss the their practice

attainments with each other

well

discussing your practice with laypeople

is not a wise thing because you spend

time you have more time to do your

practice

you talk directly about your practice

and then they put you on this very very

high pedestal

and then they start gossiping about you

making stories up

and all of a sudden you can do things

that you never even knew had heard of

before

so we don't talk to

about our practice to laymen

because some kind sometimes lay people

trying to categorize monks right it is

for the one reason for them and they

will they will say well this monk can

get into this jhana so i'm going to give

this special stuff to him but this other

monk that he can only get in his lower

jannah i won't give him much of anything

or you know his teacher yeah and also he

is a family he is the ordinary kind of

that if somebody nearly entered the

he is getting a problem

yeah yeah so that's why

it causes problems and also monks have a

tendency sometimes

to exaggerate a little bit

and one of our main roles is

you can never exaggerate

about your your practice

but when monks get together with monks

because there is a deeper kind of

understanding and they know that whoever

they're talking to is not going to

tell other people right that it's a

private conversation

right

then

among themselves they will say

i have this

this happens that this experience

happens

i can do this

and

the the understanding is such that

everybody will they they know that you

can you have this ability

we have the some kind especially

kind of that every month

not the same kind of monk

you know the

teacher and students that is the main

thing in one monastery

and the other thing is that

the monk will come from another place

for the for the

the rain retreat or something kind of

long term

a period of time

so he is the saddi bharari means he

they live in one place

but not a teacher and a student right

and

some monk he come another tradition

he is

from belongs to another tradition but

they have also lived in that monastery

he is

another tradition so we have to be

careful some kind of thing yes so we

won't necessarily discuss that with

people of another tradition or that are

are coming

for just a shorter period of time

right

but we will discuss it with our close

friends that we do trust right

because you and i did discuss that it

was important to be able to um discuss

your attainments

to attain a level of confidence

that can't be obtained unless you see

other people reaching the same

these are rules for monks that we're

discussing right

laymen can discuss

where their attainment is

at any time

they can discuss with others you feel

that that just got all messed up in the

lay community about not being allowed to

discuss your attainments with anyone

um out of misunderstanding the rules and

not having songha too

real wise to

if you're gonna talk about your

attainment to other people that you

trust them that you're not gonna go out

telling everybody in the world what you

said or

what your ability is right

right right so it's just a matter of

using your head but there is no rules

for layman about not doing it

and i have found that during retreat

it's very helpful for

the some of the layman to get together

if they have similar experiences they

can discuss what those experiences are

and it helps their understanding they

get a new kind of enthusiasm and

confidence by finding out that there

were three or four people who had this

kind of similar experience

yeah that's excellent

uh can monks show their psychic powers

to people and if not why not

it's the same it's the same reasoning

if you do this it is one of the major

rules for them

yeah because if if i have psychic

ability and i show them off are you

going to listen to anything that i say

no i just want to see your psychic

ability

so that's that's when one of the things

that the buddha said don't show this

stuff off right

but among among monks you can show other

monks your ability to do this or that

whatever it happens and if you can use

for that kind of abilities for

somebody's help

you can use it right without

saying without saying anything just do

is it okay for monks to ask for money

for something other than the four

requisites

no it's never okay for a monk to ask for

money

can a monk demand a certain type of rope

you mean i can't have a satin one

i know exactly what you're saying

no yeah if

someone wants to offer a particular kind

of rope like in asia

silk is a very

sought after

kind of cloth

somebody decided they wanted to offer me

a silk rope

right

a silk robe is very expensive

now how can i say no

they want to offer it okay

i wore it one time i couldn't keep the

darn thing on it was slipping off it was

so slippery yeah

so they offered it and i certainly

accepted it but i wound up giving it to

some some other monk that thought that

it was really neat and they knew how to

use it yeah

there are some materials that are very

fine and some materials are

not as as good to wear but whatever rope

is offered

we can we accept

you know it's not a personal gift right

in sri lanka we if if the senior monkeys

die

we we dress the silk rock for the body

oh because our respect

yeah and he's not going to move

okay um

let's see

we're going to move into the interaction

section

um can monks touch women

never never can

nuns touch men never

okay

can female and male monastics work

together

where does this work and where does it

not work

the female and male

they have to work together they make

time we were saying but it has to be out

in the open it can't be in a closed room

so if we're building a cootie and

everybody's staining it that day or

putting the walls together we can work

together doing that kind of work if

we're it's best that we work quietly

right not talking with each other

and um

you said earlier when we talked about

this it's best not to do this in the

same room

right

but if there's an office with a group of

people in it in a large monastery where

you're working on projects

it's not a problem but if there's only

two of you in the room one of you should

leave

and that's that's just the out of

respect for this it depends on the

situation

sure sure

okay what food is allowable after the

noon day meal done

there are certain things that are

allowable after the noonday meal

they are called medicinal

foods

you're allowed salt

you're allowed sugar

you're allowed

honey

you're allowed oil

you're a loud ghee

medicinal fruit

yeah i'm trying to think of the other

ones

jaggery

now you're allowed these things after 12

o'clock jaggery is like a maple sugar

candy i know it's palm sugar palm sugar

candy right

what what happens is

the

monks have hard candy offered to them

and they can eat hard candy after 12

o'clock

as medicine

but what happens is

they don't eat a little bit because they

don't get enough not to eat and they

develop diabetes and this is one of the

things we've talked about that one of

the major problems in the temples that

we've visited across the country

has been the level of diabetes among

monks

and this is happening because of the

richness of the food that is brought by

the families they want to give you the

very best meal they possibly can

and sometimes these it would be like

having the turkey dinner five six seven

days in a row instead of going through

thanksgiving or christmas so i go one

day

and so this is how they gain weight this

is have weighting problems with

problems with diabetes from the sweets

yeah and desserts

and

it's it's something that i think the lay

people have to

understand exists in the sangha

to be aware of it more

don't you think so

that's a good thing

it's is allowable food different from

amongst the different traditions

that's a tricky question and it has to

do with

cultural things

what the thai do is they say well me is

part of milk

and cheese is part of milk

so we can have cheese after 12 o'clock

now the thinking of that is

that

it's allowable

or ice cream is another one that they

say is allowable because it only has

milk in it right

but when it hits your stomach it turns

into a solid food

so technically

they shouldn't be doing that

but they do it because they get hungry

can a meditator ever eat afternoon time

like put food aside at lunch and eat the

rest of it later

it depends on what how many precepts

they take

now now i'll just can i just say as an

example you know we're a training center

and that when venerable

wrote the precepts for the trainees when

you're here in retreat if you are at a

level where you are going to sit for

three or four hours

we are not going to demand that you come

in from 11 to two and

also the food kind of food thing is not

major part of the life it is the

it is the

one kind of uh thing for to maintain the

body yes

different is sick

he have

for example the diabetic person

he wants some kind he he gets to have

some kind of thing

right that's okay

okay

blood it is not the major thing in the

buddhism it's dependent but

the the

the one new name one day

one

you know noonday meal

best for the health for the monk just

eating one time a day you become very

healthy i've been sick less than ever in

my life yeah since i have changed to

that system i can vouch for that and

foodies food is

they are traditions and cultural things

and kind of thing

we're going to move to robes and

clothing now at this time

what are all those robes that the monks

wear and why do they wear them

modesty

to keep gadflies and mosquitoes off

that's why we wear we don't wear them as

fashion

we don't wear them as

uh something to show off

we wear them

just to cover the body and keep bugs and

flying things from biting in

for for the protect the body from the

nature

and and to rot wrap your body up in

if you're cold right right

and also the body is very ugly for the

other people

that's why we cover the body from the

clothes

well how many robes do they um

and uh what are they for

well there's a set of three robes you

have an inner robe that goes from your

waist down to past your knees

to about mid-calf

you have

an outer robe

that's single thick

that's just your daily rope

and then you have it a double thick robe

uh-huh for winter

for

when it's colder

okay

and we can use it for the

video

people ask me like when do you sleep in

your night shirt and i said no you sleep

in my robe

and they asked me uh

do you have sheets on your bed i said no

i put my robe on my bed

and they asked me well can you have a

light blanket i said yeah my double robe

on top

and then i didn't understand you don't

have the double rope

so the robes the robes are used for all

sorts of things

um i've used them for

i've hooked them up to an umbrella to

keep the mosquitoes off so i could sleep

at night make a

tent so there's all kinds of different

uses i use it for a blanket i use it to

cover my body

so it's very easy

to keep a rope

this this is a

fairly new robe but you had one that was

i have one that i've had for 16 years

and it's falling apart because it's

it's getting some thread

that i can't even

can't even repair it anymore

but how many times do you meet somebody

that has

used the

same clothes

exactly the same clothes for 16 years

same color

yeah it certainly made shopping simple

for me to make me purple and just have

me look in the store and see if there's

anything

purple anywhere and just that's all i do

is i glance through the whole entire

store for something purple and if there

is sniffing purple there's no point in

going in

okay um

can the monks wear shoes

depending on the environment

it depends on the environment and the

culture

the cultures in asia are warm countries

so they say no you cannot cover your

feet with shoes it depends because in

western country if we if we

answer the question we cannot use the

shoes uh-huh

what we do

but he can't be doing it because they

that's right in the wintertime you can't

walk around in sandals it doesn't work

it's very easy to get frostbite

so we have to use our head on that kind

of a rule yes

why why do monks shave their heads and

do they do it

themselves or does another person do it

depends if somebody else is around or

not

and also the hair and the hair is very

difficult for the men and we have to

wash it every day and we have to shampoo

it and we have to keep it neatly because

the monks want to go to the in front of

the people

so serving here is very easy

well plus it makes us stand out a little

bit yeah

it makes us look different

and also look different and

when you see somebody that has a shaved

head and a robe you know that they're a

monk right

and that's that's part of it except at

the airport

it's the only place it is the tradition

of the sacros

how does a monk take a bath with his

robe

we have a bathing cloth

and what do the different robe colors

mean

it means that one is one color and one

is another

there are allowable colors for monks and

the reason that some colors are not

allowable is because during the time of

the buddha those were very very

expensive dyes

black

red

bright brown

brown

and one more

blue

i think blue is not allowable no

hard blue light yeah a royal blue like

that it's not allowable

any other color is allowable

the reason that i wear brown robes and

this is the real reason was because i

was in malaysia

and some women wanted to make robes for

me uh-huh and they couldn't find enough

material to make the robes

out of

the wine color that i was wearing

and they came and said can we can we

make you brown ropes yes you've talked

to me about this as a dilemma for the

western male that comes it's extremely

tall and it takes three

regular robes

for venerable to

get one robe out so three

of the normal sized robes

when they make the robe

if they make it with the allowable

colors it doesn't matter what color it

the reason i said yes to brown

was because

i was in the forest a lot

and brown does not show dirt near as

much as bright yeah bright orange

i use this color because we have to we

can find it easy yeah it's yeah you find

it easy you're one of the next they

don't shoot you this the next question

was why why are sri lankan monks groves

bright orange like the thai monks

because it is very easy to find you can

get it from thailand yes and also we

have the we in sri lanka we have the

forest tradition monk

but no no

but most of the monk

the study

how do you make robes allowable

they have to be offered to the monk

the monk

then takes the robe and if he wants to

make it his personal rope because he

accepts it as

part of this uh for the sangha if he

wants to make it his personal robe right

he'll take blue or

black ink

and mark three circles on it

on the corner

and while he's doing that he's saying

this is now my personal rope

this is now my personal rope this is now

my personal rope

that makes that

robe yours personally you're making it

allowable for yourself especially the

cut in the curtain

but

you might have more than one set of

ropes

that were given to you

now you accept it as part of the sangha

you're allowed to keep the

robes for 10 days

after that

you have to give it away if it's

considered a rope uh-huh

but when you declare that these are

pieces of plot

then it's not a rope uh-huh

the only way you make it a rope

is by doing

making the the marks

okay oh i have

a hundred rows right

not knowing the actual number that

sounds like a good number

it's a cloth

but they're pieces of cloth and i keep

them

not because i want to use them

but i keep them for people that want to

come to ordain

and the same

i have

some

requisites for a monk

that means

a bowl

there's a belt

there's

a razor

there's a needle and thread

there's a water strainer

i have these

so if someone wants to come and ordain i

can give them

what is needed

okay

so welcome back we're going to do part

three

about

some questions in buddhism and we have

two monks with us then we're going to

continue asking some questions we have

venerable lima ramsay from the donosuka

meditation center

and

we have bonti seraphta who is here

from the anaheim temple in california

so these questions are about

eating

some questions that came up i think you

might have some fun with these

why do monks eat in bowls and not on

plates

because

when you eat in a bowl

you know the quantity of food that you

need

so you eat the same amount it's the same

quantity every morning each time so it's

easier to keep track of that

can see figure out what your body needs

and then you just try to eat that much

in a bowl each time that's good and what

you're supposed to do in the bowl is mix

all of the food around

so you're not picking one paste over

another

and you're eating

to keep your body alive

so that's the attitude toward food is to

eat to

live and not live

and the ball is the special material for

the mask

the mouse can use it many kind of

work

not only the eating

they use it

as a basket for the

bus

and they can they can they use it as a

storage

storage when you're traveling yes

traveling that's good yes and

they can

use it uh go to the arms round

and

many kind many as a bucket and basket

they can use it so it's a tool yes

during the time of the buddha they

didn't use

uh metal bolts they used clay bowls but

the

fired clay

so they had to be a little bit more

careful with using them or else it would

break

so you had to be very careful so your

mindfulness had to be a little bit

yeah

and you told us that you can take the

new bowls that are metal and you can

burn them over the fire to blacken them

and a lot of the monks do this with the

new balls

if they're not black already yeah

so now this bowl the symbol i just want

to branch out a little bit on this but

the bowl actually became a symbol when

the buddha died didn't it

a symbol for to remember the buddha bye

the shape of the ball

one time somebody asked him

what the shape of a stupa should be

where you put relics of monks and that

sort of thing and a bolt then the buddha

turned it upside down and

put something else a cup or something up

on top of it and said this is the shape

that a stupa should be

so that's how that sort of happened in

the burmese area and they did a lot of

those shapes or is that everywhere it's

more sri lanka more sri lankan okay in

sri lankan tradition

okay um what what can monks eat

food

can monks eat meat

yes they eat food

can when can they not eat meat after 12

o'clock

what is arms around

it's going in collecting the food

and

when it's not baking it's

going around and

allowing people to put food in the bowl

generosity seems important

that's part of the practice

many people want to support monks

because they're wholesome

then

the job of the monk when he's on alms

around is to be radiating loving

kindness to everybody

and focusing on that not what's put in

the bowl

and i think you told us one time that

the generosity

of mind and speech and body helps to

open the heart so that you can do the

practice more easily

and that that was one of the reasons it

was a good part of practice in the

beginning before you practice the

meditation

when a monk gets too old to go out for

alms how do they eat

the monks bring food back to them

at the monastery at the monastery and

they give the elder monk the choice of

whatever

whatever food he wants in

over six months

and quite often

the older monks

the young monks come in and give them

massage keep their circulation going and

wash them and take care of them just

like they were

the precious jewel

and and um some monks oftentimes learn a

lot about healing

the body about keeping their bodies

among themselves because they are

practicing loving kindness and kindness

is always

the very

big influence for the alien

so so what if a monk goes out and he can

get no food on arms around

what do the monks do in western

countries that have

no established

arms rounds

well ideally they start educating people

in a neighborhood

that they walk in their homes around and

educate them to

offer food

people have to learn the value system

that is involved in this alms round from

the person giving the food and the

teaching

being valuable for the person and they

start to teach them what that is yes and

it took over a hundred years in thailand

before the monks were actually

able to go out on monday and get enough

food

how

if i was offering food to you how do i

offer food to a monk

and why does it have to be offered to

the monk

they offer with a lot of respect

quite often when i went out on homegrown

in asia people would

get down on their hands

and knees and bow

and then they would with two hands they

would put the food in a bowl

sometimes that food could be as little

as one peanut

a few

potato chips

it doesn't matter

it's their attitude of respect

that they're developing

why why do they eat once a day and only

before noon and not after because that's

one of the rules

monks are

supposed to be

easily supportable

okay and if we go around at night

we can run into all kinds of things

because it's dark

we can run into wild animals we can

stumble over

logs or holes in the ground or cesspools

when they were during the time of the

buddha

there were opens as pools

so we go in the morning and when we eat

one time a day we stay healthy and also

it is the middle of the day so

we cannot

we can stay without hungry

the

because we get the full middle of the

day

okay

so and and originally the monks were not

eating a breakfast

they were just doing the arms round and

eating in the middle of the day is that

right

and some monasteries when there's a lot

of young monks and they're doing

memorizing and that sort of thing

takes a lot of energy

they go out early in the morning

and

you have to consider

that the people that are donating the

food

they have to get up about two hours

earlier than the monks come

so that they can have all the food

prepared

so they're making quite a

effort effort

to do that

and the young monks can eat

a breakfast and then they can eat a

lunch

i personally prefer just eating one time

a day because i stay more healthy that

way i don't catch colds very easily it's

really true

why do monastics shave their heads

that's definitely why this summer 500

degrees and also it is the tradition of

uh circle

seclusion right right the aesthetics of

the shades

to show that there is someone different

and we wear the robes

because they're just pieces of cloth

during the time of the buddha cloth is

very valuable

and also the hair is very

that's what happened with me i was in

miami before i started this and was

spending money in salons you know going

to fix my hair it was very funny because

my hair was only about an inch long and

i wanted a perfect cut

so i would keep going and i told bunty

how much money i spent that last year

taking care of that and it just didn't

make sense

and also the

you know the

people can recognize especially the is

the monk

i understand that after you shave your

head you have low energy this person

said and i have never noticed this

i don't know where this came from this

idea

some people have a belief in the samson

effect

ah samson's wife yeah they can't get his

hair cut off and he lost his strength

it's

just it could have been that he shaved

his head and he went out on a really hot

day and then got drained

of energy

it's just a story it's not early

okay i i understand the vineya says that

monks can't use scissors to shave but

what is except acceptable to shave the

head

they have a razor

so really any tool that you can use yeah

yeah and it doesn't i don't know where

that

idea came from

okay

um there's there's nothing in the rules

about scissors because they didn't

to cut the hair

right i think we can get a

hair trimmer right and use an electric

razor to keep up with it on a daily

basis

does it hurt your head to shave are you

always cutting yourself and losing blood

and i haven't noticed this

it's just

if you're cutting your own hair you do

it carefully and you learn and you learn

how to take care of that

but if you're using a straight razor and

you've never used one before you might

have some blood coming out

a straight razor is is the favorite tool

in burma

and the way they sharpen their straight

razors on their rope

if you if you want to get

someone helpful

share the head with the

hair you can get yeah

you can ask somebody to help you that's

really good

when it comes to medical treatment do

monks have to do only what is talked

about in the vineyard like using cow's

urine or

or can they or can they have any kind of

treatment in modern medicine whatever is

appropriate

if if you're in an area where there is

no doctors

you have to use what is available and

okay but i want to say that

you

if you use cow's urine

you have to let it sit out in a bottle

in the sun for three or four

days and the smell is not great

you lose a lot of friends

because it comes out through your skin

but it gets rid of skin disease is very

nicely

clears up skin disease that's okay

how much do monks sleep

and when do they sleep

generally

five to six hours

a day

sometimes they sleep only four hours at

night and then they take rest after

lunch because your stomach is full and

you feel

what was the three parts of the night

and the well the first watch of the

night was

7 to 11

the middle watch is when you sleep and

that's from

eleven to three

and then the last watch of the night is

three to seven and you've taught us that

three two seven in the morning is a good

time to actually wake up and sit

because the psychic energy is so quiet

and it's an amazing experience

um can be

now do monks shave their eyebrows

it depends what

sect of

monks they're from

some they want to look a little bit

different

in thailand they have all of the monks

shave their eyebrows because

when movies started to become popular in

thailand

the young monks would take their robes

off and go watch movies

so they they shave their eyebrows off

so that the people running the movie

would say no you're a monk you have to

you can't go to them

that's funny

okay

um we had a question but actually

that is not part of the vineyard yes

that is very much cultural

and there are stories about how the

buddha

would use his eyebrows for different

kinds of psychic phenomena

that was talked about right

thank you

there was a question that we got from

someone in australia who

asked us

it relates to the precept to take solid

food only as a single meal before noon

and he he was saying he noticed in some

monasteries there were overweight monks

and things like that and other monks

looked like they were from a

concentration camp they were so skinny

and

if they

are using a non-solid food such as milk

or chocolate in the afternoon is this

causing this problem

can you tell us what foods are permitted

afternoon and if there is a limit on the

quantity that can be taken

and

is this the use of these

additional foods bending a precept in

any way

well

that's kind of an interesting question

there are

medicinal foods that are allowable for

monks

they have to be they can be offered one

time a week they don't have to be

offered every time they're taken

salt

oil

honey

bee

jaggery

sugar

these these kind of things are allowable

in burma we had this thing that they

made up for monks that was called satu

matu

and it was oil and honey and jaggery

and a little bit of salt mixed all

together

kind of medicinal things they put all

together

and monk can carry that

kind of

thing with the

with their balls and they can make

whatever they

to be quite honest it's not very tasty

yeah

i think i tried it once with something

to try it was but well ghee did not

really appeal to me

we tried the game remember but anyway um

what's happening with monks now is they

say ghee is a part of milk

and cheese comes from milk so we can eat

cheese yeah there's a lot of um

they say

chocolate has is milk in it so we can

eat chocolate

so it does but it's kind of bending the

rules a little bit

do you think that is what is causing the

overweightness in monks and the problem

with diabetes or do you think it's more

in the direction of families bringing

donna and not being conscious that

everybody in the temple is bringing the

richest best meal they can possibly feed

you that's

part of the problem

and uh you have to eat what you're given

so you're you're caught in the monks

like sweet things they get hard candy

given to them all the time

right

personally i much prefer jaggery to

candy

but jaggery is a

palm of sugar

okay

now concerning high and luxurious beds

this is outside of eating but this is a

question someone had

what does this actually mean high

luxurious beds what did that mean in the

time of buddha and if a person had say a

wooden bed on legs with a mattress that

was specially made for their back

and

should they just cut it off to make it a

different height or what's the deal with

this

the high and luxurious beds they were

very superstitious during the time of

the buddha

and they had these high beds and

underneath they had protective carvings

of animals and that sort of thing so the

boogeyman wouldn't come get them that

was good

and the luxurious bed is talking about a

bed that's too soft

okay

if your bed is too soft you sleep too

soundly

you

wind up

waking up with a dull mind

and the point is seeing people walking

around mumbling in the morning i know

about that

okay and

monks

can can

their their bed is supposed to be no

higher

than from the wrist to the floor

the reason monks are like this is

because we don't want to use a lot of

materials right

right

so we

and many many months amongst beds don't

have a mattress on them at all right in

asia they're used to sleeping on very

hard surfaces

so if a person wanted to get closer to

being a recluse i mean they could make

their bed this height

this is for monks and not for lay people

and you don't keep

carved animals underneath your bed right

and that's just superstition that the

buddha was trying

right

when monks travel

they go from one monastery to another

and they go into a monastery that

doesn't have any

individual cootie for them so they sleep

on the floor in them

we've been through that experience yeah

and sometimes they'll just say well

here's here's your room for you and

there's no sleep here there's and

there's no uh nothing but the floor and

you have some

things with you you can put them on the

floor and you're just on the floor

monastery sign room is very holy place

there is no dirt in that

and people never use shoes

in the

in the shine room

the monks can use the shine group for

the sleeping right

yeah

okay um

now we had someone from the netherlands

write us a question um

if you were becoming a mug i know this

is a concern we may have mentioned this

before but but um if if you were

interested in becoming a monk and your

family was concerned about

you leaving the family the question was

is it okay for a monastic to go on a

holiday

to marriages uh to births to deaths

involved with the families

to go on a holiday no no

right because you're exposed to those

things

outside of the presets

go for a marriage or a funeral

the family should invite

the monk for a meal

and then they will

give blessings and whatever

and then they leave and then the

ceremony can take place

and then monks don't take place

in the ceremonies themselves i see okay

now how how and that's not all

traditions this is we're speaking from

the character perspective here

from the vineyard perspective we're

speaking from the vineyard perspective

on this

so some some traditions have evolved

where people want to be married

and within uh having a buddhist ceremony

and that has involved in some of the

traditions

or some of these schools of buddhism but

outside of the original

cultural cultural and they are tradition

yeah cultural and they're their

tradition for years and years and years

how how long can a person remain a

summonery

yeah and that's interesting sometimes

i knew a monk that was a salmonera for

12 years yeah before he finally decided

to take on the road and some monks they

get the high ordination and after later

they

refuse that high ordination step back

you step that and become a formulator

and do you think this is partially

because there are things that need to be

taken care of in particular monasteries

and perhaps not enough lay people to

help with those things some and eric

can handle food and offer food

and take care of many of the things that

the white people will do

right so it's a balancing it can be a

balancing point in a developing country

he got his high ordination when he was

20 years old

but after the after few years

he away from the

uh forward and then

he stepped away at the fourth step he

stepped away from the ordination

and

later maybe

30 years later

he again he get the high ordination from

the mother uh-huh did did he have a

family or not didn't you no no he did

not have it he didn't so that's purely

traveling outside of the country and he

was in countries that

didn't whatever he couldn't understand

what

the restrictions were

because he went to the

fans to rise

that's really interesting

you know there is a book that came out

that was written

about the buddha and

his son rahula

and rahula's wife and son and this is

purely a fictional piece and

it was highly acclaimed by uh

some feminist groups as looking at this

whole thing from the perspective of

yasoda

and as an older woman and her son and

everything

um and his his family and it's pure but

it's purely based on fiction

so uh it's interesting that you should

say that

well the whole thing with the soda was

she knew what the buddha was doing

and she heard that the buddha took on

robes

and so she took on ropes and she heard

that the buddha was only eating one time

a day so she told me one time a day

when he left

and

went out on his quest

yosodro was not

just a woman that was left alone with

the child she was living in a palace she

she would take care of the child just

like she always right but

it wasn't like he abandoned her and she

had to be a single parent yeah this is

this is something i like to emphasize

because

in that type of setting

when he left

this was not a child that was in an

environment with one set of parents this

was a child that was living in a palace

with probably five or six sets of

parents it's his natural parents but his

aunts and uncles and relations because

that's how they live these many servants

and

they brought in

because other children that were the

same age to play with him

the doctors family the boys of that

family their royal family

right so that means

the family has very comfort

and he wouldn't live much differently

whether

uh gotoma was there or not

that's right he lived pretty much like

he did yeah

and um okay let's go on a minute um

she also writes that she knew a tarawata

monk that was living in a zen monastery

and is it okay for a monk or a nun from

one tradition

to always stay in a monastery of another

tradition but practice the their own way

if there's not any problem with that

sort of thing look at this

he's staying in a mahayana temple where

they speak chinese

yeah but they have respect for each

other that is the key to all of buddhism

right you don't get in fights over

philosophy

right you don't argue over philosophy

you you accept the things that are in

common you don't look at the differences

that's really important that's really

really very very important

can i ask you an open question like

where what do you think is the most

difficult thing for

uh the western countries when they i

want to ask both of you this to take

turns what is the most difficult thing

for the

western countries to

establish uh buddhism in a pure sense in

a country in a new culture what is it

that you think is the most difficult

thing

being accepted because you look

different and you act differently

it's a

very

it's not an easy thing

it's a pioneer journey my path has been

rather difficult

i mean i've been in this country now for

11 years

and still there are

people that walk up in the

disrespectfully say well who are you

what are you

and

we have to take care

to not turn them off

with their root question

but

where we live right now people are

starting to accept us

because we're not trying to

convert them to another religion

this is the different significant

difference between proselytizing and

promulgation right the providing of the

information and the pushing of the

information on someone and we don't do

they're finding out that we're actually

pretty nice people yeah and also our

teammates come and see

yeah right

come and see yeah and experience these

days

right i remember we were here for about

five years and someone said one day to

us that a restaurant came over and said

you know

i've been meaning to ask you people why

are you so happy

and that was exactly it you know we just

you know have something that really

helps you to understand the world you

should come and see

and that's

that's really what this is about

so we hope that you got some good things

out of the

questions that we gave you here and i

encourage people

to uh

write in questions to me at sisterkama

yahoo.com

and we can do this again in the future

and add

perhaps another interview

at a later date

just want to make sure that you have

access

to these fine people who are very

experienced with the dhamma and can

sincerely answer your questions

and

thank you all for coming

you

hi my name is sister kama and i'm from

the damasuca meditation center in

annapolis missouri

we thought it would be fun to put up a

youtube about all you ever wanted to

know about buddhist monks and the

etiquette that revolves around them

but you were afraid to ask or you didn't

have somebody that you could ask so

today i have a couple of monks with me

who are very qualified

one is uh most venerable bonti vimala

ramsay uh mahatera meaning he was an

over 20 year monk who is the founder of

dsmc

and uh a qualified member of the sangha

to give you some answers and the other

person is

venerable padilla

terra who

comes to us from the sri ratana buddhist

center

located in anaheim california and he is

also associated with the vin gorilla

royal temple in sri lanka who basically

uh works at the preservation of the

majima nikaya

so this should be some interesting

questions for us to listen to

the salmoneri

or samanera

they're called

the

young

monks

in this tradition that we're starting

here

any person that comes and wants to

ordain

they have to be a salmonera or salmoneri

for one year

the age that they can start at

is eight years old

to get higher ordination you have to be

at least 20 years old

to become

a terror

and actually you're not a terror yet

terra is a term that means a 10-year

monk

and mahatera means a term of being a

monk in good standing for 20 years

some of the training that you you learn

as a samanera or saminary it doesn't

matter whether it's male or female is

you have to learn certain chants you

have to understand what it means to be a

monk

you have to understand that

everything

as far as the monks in buddhism

has to do with seniority

and elder monk always

has

the

the highest respect

so a samanera

when he comes into a room of higher

monks

ordained monks

the salmonera doesn't talk

the saminera listens

unless directly talk to

and

the senior monks are the one that

converse with each other

and the junior monks

generally sit and are quiet

and attentive to whatever is being said

unless they're addressed

directly this is a very polite way of

interacting

the

first five years of becoming

a salmon era

no excuse me the first five years of

becoming a biku or bikuni you stay with

the same teacher he's called your

upajaya

this is called a beginner monk

for the first five years after five

years you're called a middle length monk

and then after 10 years you're called an

elder

so that gives you some idea of what the

the tradition is so there is a line a

chain of seniority there is definitely a

chain of seniority

so you just gave me how many years it

actually takes for the level of

ordinations to occur and showed us that

there was a chain of seniority

now

this chain of seniority it operates the

same way in

all monasteries but

the same way so

someone asked is there somebody like the

pope

involved in buddhism

there's many popes in buddhism

and it's the senior monk the senior monk

at the top of the line

the the longer they have been a monk the

more more respect they get

but there's no one one person that's the

authority unless you would consider the

buddha that person

okay the authority person is dhamma and

vineyard for all the buddhist monks are

not okay

now some people asked what what is this

about staying in white and wearing white

on retreat does this really does it help

your meditation or what what actually is

that about

okay

it sets you apart

it lets you know that you're no longer

living by your ordinary rules

so when you wear white

that means you're trying you're you're

taking at least eight precepts

and you're trying to follow these

precepts much more closely than you

normally would at home

if you do this when you come here

you will

be wearing white

while you're

on retreat but if you want to extend

your stay

we keep you in white but you have a

different

title

and that would be

anagra

okay

now

why why do monks not say thank you when

you give them something what do they say

instead and what does that mean

monks don't say thank you

because if i accept a gift from you

and i say thank you that is a personal

gift of one from one person to another

when i accept a gift from you and i

don't say thank you

i am the representative for the buddha

and all of the arahats and all of the

sangha from the time of the buddha

and i represent them

and

i say

well done

i say sadhu

and

that means whatever gift you give to me

it's a gift to all of the sangha oh

that's pretty neat

and

i share it with all the sangha

so it's not a personal gift right it's a

double generosity coming from the person

to you and you giving that merit to this

song

right so when i when i don't say thank

you for something

and i and i acknowledge you

and i might say sadhus sometimes i do

and sometimes i don't

but even when i'm quiet

i'm being the representative for the

buddha

and all of the sangha members so you get

much much much more merit

so the math is looking out for us so the

monk is definitely looking up right

okay here's one question i'd like to ask

what how does a monk

ask a layperson for something to be

given to them or

a service that they need to have

performed what is the proper way for

the layperson i'm sorry for the monks to

ask the layperson

to help them how do how do we find out

what they need that kind of thing

what is it that do you need anything we

can ask you the delay person right

okay so we can come and say is there

anything that you need

okay okay that's good but if a monk

wants something

say there's uh

something runs out on the table and you

know that another monk would want

something

then i would say is there any

i think ask

and you don't come back do you want this

i see

you your answer is either yes or no

uh-huh instead of do you have you would

say is there any

i see so it's

there is a tradition

that you say uh

you asked the capia who is the attendant

at that time

and the bante they they say

capiavante

when they give it to you

and that means i'm i'm giving you this

whatever it happens to be i see i see

now now what happens if there are um

actually what is a copy of what are

their duties

is intended

whatever whatever

a monk needs to have happen they do it

for them okay

do they have more than one sometimes in

in multiple stairs of course

does it not narrow down to one person

how um

how are disputes handled

between the monks

if there is a dispute between two monks

if that ever happens how is that

how does that work

you had some good ideas that you weren't

really studying no you

well they go to the abbot

and they discuss yes

and they discuss

what the problem is

and generally speaking

the habit comes up with a solution

that is agreeable for everybody

and also a bit about kind

of it can

but can give the permission for a

special monk for

that kind of that so he can do it

instead of there about oh assign a monk

a job like

be the manager of disputes for the

monastery so that might happen one no

many first many months

yeah okay that's that's good

what is a preceptor

somebody that keeps the precepts

either five precepts or eight precepts

it's someone that

is taking their

practice seriously

and keeping the precepts whether anybody

else is around to see whether they break

them or not

that's the buddhist at least

five percent at least

who

would like to follow the buddhist path

at least five percent he have to protect

his life

and these five are

not to kill yes any living beings find

purpose

and

not to steal take what is not given and

prone

sexual left him to not to have wrong

sexual activity meaning anything harmful

to someone mentally or physically

in a situation

okay and the photon is the

challenge

and a speech

and fourth fifth one is

drugs

get rid of drugs and alcohol right now

let's let's stop there for a minute and

that one some people have said oh we

can't take medicine anymore that has

alcohol and this means this really means

recreational drugs and alcohol you can

still take medicine if you need to yes

okay

but not abuse it but not abused of

course of course

but if you're sick and the doctor wants

to prescribe something that's okay okay

i see what you're saying

okay um

now here's one you came to visit

damasuke meditation center what do monks

carry with them

what do they own that they carry with

them

when they travel

yeah it is

normally

monks carry with their belongings

belongings means

three robes

and the arms ball

and

water water is greener what is

that that kind of

most important for the

monk basic right

basic

living breakfast

these days a lot of monks carry books

with them yes

for this yeah to get off the weight away

from the weight of the books they'll

have a computer

that's the excuse

okay

what are protections

we hear monks talk sometimes about

what protect about how important

protections are but what are protections

protection means

probably

i'm thinking

yeah

you know

actually the parity means

the sunk some kind of suit

for

direct

taught by the buddha for the

monks and

none it is a

it is

help

for

with basically the

loving kindness

and myth

without lime kindness and metha

you your whole life you chant parity

you cannot

get the protect from the parity the

protection

protection from the party

protection us

as we

as we chant as we practice that no

actually as you practice them

chanting is

some kind of remind

how do you practice today and your life

right the chanting it's important that

it has material that is a reminder of

the teaching yes that's how we learn to

remember the teaching

if we go outside of that we

are

doing something else right

so that was the answer to why monks do

chant also

if you have

fear in your mind if you think of the

good qualities of the buddha the dhamma

and the sangha

that will alleviate the fear

it will help the fear to be overcome

so it brings peace to your mind

but there's an awful lot of monks

that they say it's the vibration of the

chanting that's most important and it

isn't it's the understanding of the suta

that you are reciting right

right

now um

that's an important point because a lot

of people have gotten lost in chanting

by melody and i think westerners are

very almost addicted to the melodies in

our songs and they want to

to keep

that in their mind rolling it around and

around and around so

so chanting is a kind of the first step

of memorizing the teachings yeah the

first step for that

do monks ever have holidays

and do they get vacation time i had to

snicker when i heard this because i

thought being in there every day is a

holiday

every day is the holiday and

there's plenty to do at the same time

and every day is the working day yeah

yeah

we we are told that certain monks are

fully enlightened era hots do you know

if a person is an era how do you know if

a person is an era hot or not and we

could refer them to

some fruitas too

well

it's very difficult to tell whether a

person is truly an aarhat or not you

have to listen to them

you have to be around them for a very

long period of time

to see how they act in different

situations

there has been some that i've been

around that they they claim are a hot

ship and if i'm i've been around them

for six months or more

and i see them get even the slightest

bit of anger arising

then that means no they they've

overestimated themselves

which is pretty common

now

here's a question if the buddha didn't

want us to make statues of him why did

why are buddhist statues allowed

why are they allowed because people make

them

yeah i i was writing the person and

saying you know in almost every um

religion when you go to the temple of

whatever faith you're thinking about

there's all different kinds of people

there that are there for um

many many reasons and um one group of

people really wants to

pay tribute to the statue and see

something visually another one is

totally engrossed in

chanting and practicing the teaching

the eastern cultures are very big into

bowing to the buddha image but they're

not bowing to that image

they're bowing to the ideas behind the

image

so there that it's used as a reminder

right

okay

how long does a monk ordain for can it

be a short time

that depends a lot on the tradition

if you're from sri lanka it should be

lifetime

if you disrobe

after

after a period of time it is frowned on

that you take the roads on again

in burma

there's people that ordain

for the new year

every year

right right and there's such a thing as

temporary seminary

and temporary

oh that's right uh listen that um uba

kim

was a temporary figure right

as a businessman

and

in sri lanka the government is

ev every month's

government gives some facility for the

monks

so if if some monks disrupt

he have to inform the government

government will cut every facility for

most persons he raises support

in a country where i i noticed this was

true in in some of the european

countries where the government is

involved with religion whereas in the

united states it's separated church and

state so

we don't have to uh compete or anything

for

but we're we're seeing the necessity of

coming up with some kind of more

official

recognition of the monks

because we're so new at starting

the sangha

it hasn't been necessary

but we're going to have to come up with

some kind of official

documentation to prove that you are a

monk

and

because seniority is so very important

on that documentation it will have the

exact date and time of your ordination

so you can prove that you would remark

going back to the buddha images at the

center what we're doing

in the meditation hall there will not be

any buddha images

there will just be the image of a bodhi

leaf

with the dhamma chaka wheel

in the bodhi booth and what's the symbol

of the dominant chakra wheel and the

leaf

when the when the buddha would go out

on his touring

after the three months he would start

walking and going here and there

um nsm pendica came to him and said that

an awful lot of people get very sad

because they came a long distance to see

the buddha

and he wasn't there

uh they they planted a bodhi tree

out in front of

the sawati

from the original bodhi tree

that he became enlightened under

and

they used that as the symbol of

enlightenment or awakening

the wheel

means

to remember the eightfold path

this is the way leading to the cessation

of suffering so that's a univ we could

probably safely say that these two

symbols are a universal

symbol that exists within all three

branches of buddhism the vajrayana

mahayana and theravada groups and not

offensive to anyone

and as it turns out that is what our

logo is for the center

and that is what his logo is in sri

lanka

right which is which is pretty amazing

yes

same logo well it's it's a great irony

that you're with us because here because

venerable is teaching from

the majima nikaya directly most of the

work we do is there and then we use the

samya tsunukaya you know to support that

a great deal but

and then here you are coming from a

monastery that's very old how old is the

monastery in sri lanka my monastery is

three hundred 2300 old so for two

thousand three hundred years this

monastery has been in sri lanka with the

primary objective of preserving the

nikaya texts yes so we could say that

you're kind of familiar with them

yes that's why i

i really like to want this

summertime because he always

based on the maji manifest

during this period i never miss the any

number

that's true you were here every single

night

that's wonderful so there's this this um

this link between the two places that's

wonderful

um so what do monks do all day long and

can you summarize what their their

duties are for us give us an idea

all

not only all day monks can divide this

like a day

monk's life

the basically months have monks have to

practice

the

the path

to the

path to the succession of suffering

so and also

that means they want to meditate

to understand realize what is the buddha

buddhist

and also they have to

teach them

to the

society the

the left people

and every the monks need to

behave their character as a model person

model supreme model person to the

society

in in whole life

amongst

com monks life

they have to do that kind of thing

but

nowadays

we we can

separate day like

you know the

we can do the monastery things

for the monks monastery

duties right and we can

do our practice by all

and we can teach them some some

period of the day

and

we eat together

we work together

we practice

together

that's why we called sangha

right

so um

here's a question um

who who pays for the temples when

they're built

always

practice the dhamma

and they support

the

if if he need

money to the monastery they support from

the money and facilities you need food

and yeah the taking care of

maintenance and what the needs of you

and then what did what do the people get

back you and i had a discussion fairly

recently about what happened during the

tsunami

when that happened that great

devastation happened what did the monks

do it depends uh

the

the culture

but

the buddhist monk

especially respect the human human being

if any human being get some painful

location

we have

we have to help them for get rid of that

painful location

that is

the that is the compassion

during the tsunami you spent time

digging people out of the rubble oh yes

you handled food

and

gave them food and they gave them water

and and cared for them as best they

could and you and i talked about it um

you know every funeral that happened the

monks went to and talked about

impermanence and taught

how impermanence works and that a wave

is a wave and what the wave did was

what waves do and

saw things essentially clearly and the

people were able to

come back stronger and faster than in

some societies it is easy for monks

because monks have

in my mouth don't have any attachment

for any place or any person

so if they are if if some

if somebody need our help we can go

there directly and we can help that

person know that society right

so that's that's it and they and

structurally they supply a very large

system of psychological support for the

people

yes the dhamma buddha dhamma is

completely

like kind of

psychological

things it deals with mind right

it's practical

yes very applicable and usable

not only the technical team it's not

only it says in the books

the monks are the example of music the

practice of it

well do monks charge fees to teach the

people

hopefully not

the dhamma is free right but there are

some monks that are

they think that that's the only way that

they can become prosperous

monks

if they are teaching the dhamma

and spending their time with dhamma

they are supported

they are helped by other people not out

of a sense of obligation

but out of a sense of

i want to help

monks receive many things

out of kindness and respect for what

they're doing in the example that they

are setting

well do monks ever marry people

this was a question

but they can

when in

which is similar to what we're starting

here right

monks

are invited

for a meal before the wedding

and they will chant and they will

give blessings for people

but during the actual wedding they are

not present

and

so they come

they

are

offered food by the by the people that

are going to be married right

and they're they're giving all of this

merit and this happiness

and the monks will

give them advice

there are going to be times when there

are disagreements

don't speak at the same time

you listen attentively to what the other

person says

and then you say thank you very much and

this is what i think

now that when you talk at the same time

you're talking this other person is

talking at the same time you hear what

you say they hear what they say

but you don't hear each other

so the monks are trying to set the

example for the family life so there is

honest and real communication

so what i'm hearing here is buddhism has

something to do with peaceful

coexistence

great deal okay

that's how the monks handle their

problems

in the monastery when they have problems

with each other

they don't both talk at the same time

they don't yell at each other they sit

down and discuss

this is the way i think it should be

and it's not that way or i want it to be

this way and it's not that way

and the other monk would will come in

and say thank you

now he has a chance to talk and there

can't be any interrupting

so it's real communication that we do

it's kind of like seeing a team

evaluation in industry or a team

evaluation in business but there's

always respect and cooperation to do

this

there's that's that's the key thing of

buddhism is the respect

and the higher you are in in your

seniority the more respect you have

but that doesn't mean that that there's

a monk that's 30 years

doesn't have respect for a monk that's

that's one year right

they're teaching respect to each other

all the time

and that that's what the

the

feeling of happiness that happens when

you come to a monastery is because of

that mutual love and respect

okay um

how do you greet a monk

or a nun

can you shake hands with them

monks don't shake hands

monks don't touch women

well there's an energetic thing that

happens when you shake hands

and

it's best not for monks not to shake

hands

but as far as you're coming into a

monastery and greeting a monk

you put your hands together put your

head down

and say

hello

so this is probably

it's a polite proper when you're

entering a shrine

but

but a lot of times

easterners will get down on their hands

and knees and bow

but it's not really necessary

it's the cultural things it's it that's

a cultural culture

but it is

it is polite

to put your hands together and

acknowledge

okay we're going to go into a little bit

about

the rules now

people have several questions about that

but how many precepts do monks follow

that's a loaded question in the vinnia

they say there's at least six million

roles

but the main roles there are 227.

and now that is for months that's for

monks and the nuns

300 and

11. 300 at 311 i was going to say 12 and

then it didn't sound right and so the

seminary or the sun

but

we have to polite as much as much as we

can

for the society

we have to remind that kind of rules and

otherwise

we have to any kind of reason we have to

choose

what is the best way to do it politely

right in this situation okay

now there's the seminary and the

salmonera the novice is the same thing

right

uh they have they're following

they're following ten rules rolls

but

in the monks rules

there are rules about eating

and there's about 80 rules about

the

etiquette of eating food yeah okay

because they are

all together eating in the same table so

they're exposed to those and they learn

about that so they have to understand

that if you're eating in your bowl you

don't look at somebody else's bowl and

see what they're eating whether you want

some of that or not

you don't watch somebody chew

because they chew in different ways and

then you start forming uh

opinions about them i don't like the way

they chew they're not a very good monk

so there are those kind of roles and

there's rules about how much food to put

in your mouth you used to tell us about

the peacock egg yeah

and we cannot

the bad like kind of the

bad sound for the you don't make a lot

of sounds

you don't smack your lips you don't lick

your fingers you don't uh

belch

things like that

well how many monks um

remember all those rules

do you how how do you how did the monks

remember all those rules it's the

question not how many but how do the

monks remember all those rules the first

five years of becoming a monk is

learning the rules and learning how to

incorporate it

but if you see another monk breaking a

role and it's not a major role

you don't criticize that monk

you show respect

now if if a monk breaks a rule what

happens

there are remedies for breaking the

rules

and we

have to go to

an official place

and we have to confess

and there's a little ceremony that monks

do with themselves

and

basically

the senior monk says do you see that you

broke that rule and the other monk said

yes and the monk said

please be more careful in the future

don't break that rule again

okay so that's how we

we handle it right now if

if a monk breaks a rule and doesn't tell

anybody that they broke it they can wind

up having a guilty mind

and that's going to affect the way they

see the world

so we are very honest

with each other

when can a monk handle money

and how can a monk be handling money

and i think this is a good question for

you because you're like the treasurer in

the monastery so

do you do how does that work

you know

the handling money in in in sri lanka

and our tradition

they're handling money

for their day-to-day

day-to-day life but we cannot do the

business with money

but we have to do some kind of

things

in the monastery and our

things

in in sri lankan tradition

the chief monk of the

country a more

long time ago

the monks meet together

the monk meeting

and they decided to handling money

without attachment for the

monash for the operations yes

and if we have big project for the

monastery we have to

use the kapia karaka for that kind of

thing

would you say that the most important

part of this is that

the idea of not handling money is

uh if you're handling money and you get

preoccupied with it thinking about it

all the time begin worrying about

investments and all this you're moving

into the householder side of things and

also the handling money is the one of

the problem biggest problem

in this world today sure so

every every monastery the chief monk is

guide how to how to handle the monastery

monastic money for the monastery

works and how for operations operations

i think we need to start a little bit

sooner by what is the definition of

money

if somebody gives me a piece of paper

it's a piece of paper right

okay it doesn't become money

until i have a desire

to have it be used in a particular way

right

so the way that it's solved for donating

money to a monk

is to put it in an envelope

right and he he will

give blessings for that

whatever amount it is it doesn't really

matter right

and then that monk can give that

the envelopes over to

someone else to count

right so that's not breaking a rule

absolutely right

and and i think in modern times a lot of

the solution for this came with the

debit card of just being able to

use the debit card and not be counting

well it depends on on

what

they're getting with the debits oh yeah

money now we are we use the north

right

the long time ago they use as gold as

money right so it's the technology thing

right but the same problem now same

problem absolutely and same mental

attachment right same issues

are there

when when people start hoarding it and

they want to get it just for themselves

get something just for themselves

then that's not as good

because they're thinking about that all

the time and that's going to

cause a problem

so money comes in and what do i do with

it i give it i give the envelope to

someone else to take care of that i

trust right

and then that that goes into the

monastery fund

for

the support of

the electric bill yeah the probe

you have to use the forest

and the

the places without person people

but

we can accept them

the means

the castle

black mentions

so like kind of that

so but we don't have get attacked with

it attached right

but we can accept them

right if if the king like to give his

palace

we can accept that palace

it all revolves around attachment and

craving and clinging

in this situation which is dangerous

somebody give somebody would like to

donate something for the buddha's

dispensation

to some reason

we cannot refute refuse we cannot refuse

a gift

as long as we know the gift came in a

wholesome way yeah

right like i was saying the other day we

don't want a gangster coming up giving

us their drug money

yeah we won't accept that

but when it's done with a pure heart

then we will accept any gift

whether we need it or not

i have enough socks to prove

if anyone wants to understand about the

socks need to go to the website and

listen to some of the talks and you'll

eventually hear the story of the

manifestation of socks when venerable

was cold in australia this manifestation

is still

plaguing me plaguing

and we can use the gift as we like you

know that we can give the other peoples

and the other monks yes

we are back now with our interview at

damasuke meditation center and we're

going to go look at the

section called it's about the rules

how many precepts do monks have to

follow and

nuns have to follow in seminaries and

lay people how does how does that lay

out

delay people have how many precepts

normally

lay people have to observe the five

percent

the five receptor is the symbol of the

buddhist

lay person

so every precept you know the salmon era

salmoneri

every preset based on the

five percent

so the five precept is the best on

buddhist life okay okay and that's

not to kill

not to steal

not to have wrong sexual activity that's

harmful to a person mentally or

physically um not to

lie

or to use gossip or harsh language or

center not cursing that part of that and

then not taking drugs or alcohol because

that will weaken the mind to break those

other precepts right

because the alcohol and drugs people use

mental and physical

fund

they they have to get

alcohol and they get some kind of

fun then they have a tendency to break

the other precepts when they take that

if you if you have any any kind of uh

sickness

doctor

we can get some drugs

with the doctors

so it's not a problem if there's a

little alcohol in the drugs

if it is used for the medicine

the reason that we try to keep the

precepts as closely as possible because

they lead

when you break the precepts they lead to

having a mind full of anxiety

fear

depression

restlessness all of the things that are

the problems with the daily life

so to be happier you have these

preachers so you keep the precepts so

you don't have this cloud

going around your head

another guilty feeling see the society

what is the problem the problem is

people break the five percent

exactly exactly we can see this all

around us

actually

there's a study that has been done about

people that use foul language that they

curse

and they are always in the lowest level

of society people that curse and they

they use foul language

they're

unrefined

they're filled with anger and anxiety

they're basically very unhappy

so using the keeping the precepts means

watching

your mind too

before you break a precept you be

conscious that

that's what your mind wants to do at

that time

okay then you can make a conscious

decision to do it or not do it okay and

then the person on retreat has eight

precepts and then that's just a

refinement

so that you don't uh

spend your time listening to music and

singing and that sort of thing and we

had we said that was a step earlier we

said this was a first step of

renunciation that you're living in a

different

path in buddhist countries on the new

moon and the full moon

people go to the monastery they take

eight precepts they study meditation

they study sutas they listen to dharma

talks

and that's that's the way they they

develop their spiritual life

and also it help for the monastery but

they do

and then the seminary has 10 and then

the

nuns i think he said had 311

rules and the

monks are following two hundred and

twelve twenty seven two hundred twenty

seven months

because the buddha would have want to

keep the sangha

as a

neat

neat uh order yeah that's why he

he introduced that kind of

i think he talked to me once about the

311 rules are there

um instead of the

227 because a woman's body is different

needs different things addressed

and at the time this was where and there

were some protective issues as well

because of the time in that culture at

that time

that that are good points to protect the

women

okay

and there were a lot more bikunis than

there were bhikkhus at one time in india

we discussed that one time too i

remember that

how do monks remember all these rules

and they by being around

there's there's two ways that we

remember the rules every new moon and

full moon when there is a sangha

and asanga is at least four monks

they come together

the junior monk

recites all of the rules

all the way through the senior monks

will listen to him recite and if they

hear a mistake they will correct the

mistake

puts you on the hot spot

the

monks know the rules by hearing them

every two weeks but also by studying

them

and also by being with their teacher

who is the example and who can answer

any questions about the rules

briefly they knew

they lived as a monk yes that's what

being a mother and there's a

disciplinary line of order for if a monk

breaks the world

certainly it depends on the severity of

the break

there are some some rules that are

not

so important like looking in another

bowl

or one one of the rules is you should

never give a dhamma talk when someone

else is holding a knife

you mentioned that one time

so i mean

and we cannot tell the dumb somebody is

hungry

yeah like kind of things

so when you come to the monastery the

monastery always will open up the

kitchen and make sure that you have food

well that's one of the reasons yes very

good and that's one of the reasons that

we like to encourage people that when

they come to the monastery

they bring food

so it can be shared not only with the

monks but with anybody that's hungry

right

when can a monk handle money

when

what's the definition again

right

what is money if somebody gives me some

green paper

then they've given me some green paper

it's not money until i take that

and

use it for something else

i can accept

coins i can accept paper

i can accept checks

as a gift

i can use it personally if there is a

need

but 95

of the time i wind up just giving it

over to the monastery because that's

what's needed to keep the monastery

going right for whatever's needed

so as far as touching money

it it

always comes back to the definition of

what money is

and whether you're

mentally attached to it right and what

is the intention and what is your

intention

i'm gonna buy a brand new car with this

money uh we don't need a car we got

plenty of vehicles around here

so it it takes away if if money is used

only for personal

wants and desires

then that's the wrong use of money

but if money is used

just as a medium to carry things on so

that life is easier for everyone around

then that's a proper use of money yes if

someone if if a monk use money for their

lay life play family the monastery that

is the wrong thing

so if if

we can use money for the monastery

presents

right but we cannot use we wanna ask you

money for the family for personal rights

for personalization

that's the misconduct with the money

okay can can a monk mow the lawn

no one of the rules of the monks is that

we cannot harm

plants

right and i think i had an experience

with you once in the vegetable garden

where we had a huge fence full of green

beans and it was time to pick them

and

venerable was not allowed to pick those

beans but i was allowed to pick the

beans so i had the pot and he could

point at the bean and say there's beans

that you're missing

and we could we could

we could pick the beans and have them

for food

but you are not allowed to pick the

beans so this is like you can bless the

harvest or come and

help eat the beans but you can't pick

them

okay here's one why don't monastery

monastics reveal anything

about their personal practice or

attainments with laypeople

and do they discuss the their practice

attainments with each other

well

discussing your practice with laypeople

is not a wise thing because you spend

time you have more time to do your

practice

you talk directly about your practice

and then they put you on this very very

high pedestal

and then they start gossiping about you

making stories up

and all of a sudden you can do things

that you never even knew had heard of

before

so we don't talk to

about our practice to laymen

because some kind sometimes lay people

trying to categorize monks right it is

for the one reason for them and they

will they will say well this monk can

get into this jhana so i'm going to give

this special stuff to him but this other

monk that he can only get in his lower

jannah i won't give him much of anything

or you know his teacher yeah and also he

is a family he is the ordinary kind of

that if somebody nearly entered the

he is getting a problem

yeah yeah so that's why

it causes problems and also monks have a

tendency sometimes

to exaggerate a little bit

and one of our main roles is

you can never exaggerate

about your your practice

but when monks get together with monks

because there is a deeper kind of

understanding and they know that whoever

they're talking to is not going to

tell other people right that it's a

private conversation

right

then

among themselves they will say

i have this

this happens that this experience

happens

i can do this

and

the the understanding is such that

everybody will they they know that you

can you have this ability

we have the some kind especially

kind of that every month

not the same kind of monk

you know the

teacher and students that is the main

thing in one monastery

and the other thing is that

the monk will come from another place

for the for the

the rain retreat or something kind of

long term

a period of time

so he is the saddi bharari means he

they live in one place

but not a teacher and a student right

and

some monk he come another tradition

he is

from belongs to another tradition but

they have also lived in that monastery

he is

another tradition so we have to be

careful some kind of thing yes so we

won't necessarily discuss that with

people of another tradition or that are

are coming

for just a shorter period of time

right

but we will discuss it with our close

friends that we do trust right

because you and i did discuss that it

was important to be able to um discuss

your attainments

to attain a level of confidence

that can't be obtained unless you see

other people reaching the same

these are rules for monks that we're

discussing right

laymen can discuss

where their attainment is

at any time

they can discuss with others you feel

that that just got all messed up in the

lay community about not being allowed to

discuss your attainments with anyone

um out of misunderstanding the rules and

not having songha too

real wise to

if you're gonna talk about your

attainment to other people that you

trust them that you're not gonna go out

telling everybody in the world what you

said or

what your ability is right

right right so it's just a matter of

using your head but there is no rules

for layman about not doing it

and i have found that during retreat

it's very helpful for

the some of the layman to get together

if they have similar experiences they

can discuss what those experiences are

and it helps their understanding they

get a new kind of enthusiasm and

confidence by finding out that there

were three or four people who had this

kind of similar experience

yeah that's excellent

uh can monks show their psychic powers

to people and if not why not

it's the same it's the same reasoning

if you do this it is one of the major

rules for them

yeah because if if i have psychic

ability and i show them off are you

going to listen to anything that i say

no i just want to see your psychic

ability

so that's that's when one of the things

that the buddha said don't show this

stuff off right

but among among monks you can show other

monks your ability to do this or that

whatever it happens and if you can use

for that kind of abilities for

somebody's help

you can use it right without

saying without saying anything just do

is it okay for monks to ask for money

for something other than the four

requisites

no it's never okay for a monk to ask for

money

can a monk demand a certain type of rope

you mean i can't have a satin one

i know exactly what you're saying

no yeah if

someone wants to offer a particular kind

of rope like in asia

silk is a very

sought after

kind of cloth

somebody decided they wanted to offer me

a silk rope

right

a silk robe is very expensive

now how can i say no

they want to offer it okay

i wore it one time i couldn't keep the

darn thing on it was slipping off it was

so slippery yeah

so they offered it and i certainly

accepted it but i wound up giving it to

some some other monk that thought that

it was really neat and they knew how to

use it yeah

there are some materials that are very

fine and some materials are

not as as good to wear but whatever rope

is offered

we can we accept

you know it's not a personal gift right

in sri lanka we if if the senior monkeys

die

we we dress the silk rock for the body

oh because our respect

yeah and he's not going to move

okay um

let's see

we're going to move into the interaction

section

um can monks touch women

never never can

nuns touch men never

okay

can female and male monastics work

together

where does this work and where does it

not work

the female and male

they have to work together they make

time we were saying but it has to be out

in the open it can't be in a closed room

so if we're building a cootie and

everybody's staining it that day or

putting the walls together we can work

together doing that kind of work if

we're it's best that we work quietly

right not talking with each other

and um

you said earlier when we talked about

this it's best not to do this in the

same room

right

but if there's an office with a group of

people in it in a large monastery where

you're working on projects

it's not a problem but if there's only

two of you in the room one of you should

leave

and that's that's just the out of

respect for this it depends on the

situation

sure sure

okay what food is allowable after the

noon day meal done

there are certain things that are

allowable after the noonday meal

they are called medicinal

foods

you're allowed salt

you're allowed sugar

you're allowed

honey

you're allowed oil

you're a loud ghee

medicinal fruit

yeah i'm trying to think of the other

ones

jaggery

now you're allowed these things after 12

o'clock jaggery is like a maple sugar

candy i know it's palm sugar palm sugar

candy right

what what happens is

the

monks have hard candy offered to them

and they can eat hard candy after 12

o'clock

as medicine

but what happens is

they don't eat a little bit because they

don't get enough not to eat and they

develop diabetes and this is one of the

things we've talked about that one of

the major problems in the temples that

we've visited across the country

has been the level of diabetes among

monks

and this is happening because of the

richness of the food that is brought by

the families they want to give you the

very best meal they possibly can

and sometimes these it would be like

having the turkey dinner five six seven

days in a row instead of going through

thanksgiving or christmas so i go one

day

and so this is how they gain weight this

is have weighting problems with

problems with diabetes from the sweets

yeah and desserts

and

it's it's something that i think the lay

people have to

understand exists in the sangha

to be aware of it more

don't you think so

that's a good thing

it's is allowable food different from

amongst the different traditions

that's a tricky question and it has to

do with

cultural things

what the thai do is they say well me is

part of milk

and cheese is part of milk

so we can have cheese after 12 o'clock

now the thinking of that is

that

it's allowable

or ice cream is another one that they

say is allowable because it only has

milk in it right

but when it hits your stomach it turns

into a solid food

so technically

they shouldn't be doing that

but they do it because they get hungry

can a meditator ever eat afternoon time

like put food aside at lunch and eat the

rest of it later

it depends on what how many precepts

they take

now now i'll just can i just say as an

example you know we're a training center

and that when venerable

wrote the precepts for the trainees when

you're here in retreat if you are at a

level where you are going to sit for

three or four hours

we are not going to demand that you come

in from 11 to two and

also the food kind of food thing is not

major part of the life it is the

it is the

one kind of uh thing for to maintain the

body yes

different is sick

he have

for example the diabetic person

he wants some kind he he gets to have

some kind of thing

right that's okay

okay

blood it is not the major thing in the

buddhism it's dependent but

the the

the one new name one day

one

you know noonday meal

best for the health for the monk just

eating one time a day you become very

healthy i've been sick less than ever in

my life yeah since i have changed to

that system i can vouch for that and

foodies food is

they are traditions and cultural things

and kind of thing

we're going to move to robes and

clothing now at this time

what are all those robes that the monks

wear and why do they wear them

modesty

to keep gadflies and mosquitoes off

that's why we wear we don't wear them as

fashion

we don't wear them as

uh something to show off

we wear them

just to cover the body and keep bugs and

flying things from biting in

for for the protect the body from the

nature

and and to rot wrap your body up in

if you're cold right right

and also the body is very ugly for the

other people

that's why we cover the body from the

clothes

well how many robes do they um

and uh what are they for

well there's a set of three robes you

have an inner robe that goes from your

waist down to past your knees

to about mid-calf

you have

an outer robe

that's single thick

that's just your daily rope

and then you have it a double thick robe

uh-huh for winter

for

when it's colder

okay

and we can use it for the

video

people ask me like when do you sleep in

your night shirt and i said no you sleep

in my robe

and they asked me uh

do you have sheets on your bed i said no

i put my robe on my bed

and they asked me well can you have a

light blanket i said yeah my double robe

on top

and then i didn't understand you don't

have the double rope

so the robes the robes are used for all

sorts of things

um i've used them for

i've hooked them up to an umbrella to

keep the mosquitoes off so i could sleep

at night make a

tent so there's all kinds of different

uses i use it for a blanket i use it to

cover my body

so it's very easy

to keep a rope

this this is a

fairly new robe but you had one that was

i have one that i've had for 16 years

and it's falling apart because it's

it's getting some thread

that i can't even

can't even repair it anymore

but how many times do you meet somebody

that has

used the

same clothes

exactly the same clothes for 16 years

same color

yeah it certainly made shopping simple

for me to make me purple and just have

me look in the store and see if there's

anything

purple anywhere and just that's all i do

is i glance through the whole entire

store for something purple and if there

is sniffing purple there's no point in

going in

okay um

can the monks wear shoes

depending on the environment

it depends on the environment and the

culture

the cultures in asia are warm countries

so they say no you cannot cover your

feet with shoes it depends because in

western country if we if we

answer the question we cannot use the

shoes uh-huh

what we do

but he can't be doing it because they

that's right in the wintertime you can't

walk around in sandals it doesn't work

it's very easy to get frostbite

so we have to use our head on that kind

of a rule yes

why why do monks shave their heads and

do they do it

themselves or does another person do it

depends if somebody else is around or

not

and also the hair and the hair is very

difficult for the men and we have to

wash it every day and we have to shampoo

it and we have to keep it neatly because

the monks want to go to the in front of

the people

so serving here is very easy

well plus it makes us stand out a little

bit yeah

it makes us look different

and also look different and

when you see somebody that has a shaved

head and a robe you know that they're a

monk right

and that's that's part of it except at

the airport

it's the only place it is the tradition

of the sacros

how does a monk take a bath with his

robe

we have a bathing cloth

and what do the different robe colors

mean

it means that one is one color and one

is another

there are allowable colors for monks and

the reason that some colors are not

allowable is because during the time of

the buddha those were very very

expensive dyes

black

red

bright brown

brown

and one more

blue

i think blue is not allowable no

hard blue light yeah a royal blue like

that it's not allowable

any other color is allowable

the reason that i wear brown robes and

this is the real reason was because i

was in malaysia

and some women wanted to make robes for

me uh-huh and they couldn't find enough

material to make the robes

out of

the wine color that i was wearing

and they came and said can we can we

make you brown ropes yes you've talked

to me about this as a dilemma for the

western male that comes it's extremely

tall and it takes three

regular robes

for venerable to

get one robe out so three

of the normal sized robes

when they make the robe

if they make it with the allowable

colors it doesn't matter what color it

the reason i said yes to brown

was because

i was in the forest a lot

and brown does not show dirt near as

much as bright yeah bright orange

i use this color because we have to we

can find it easy yeah it's yeah you find

it easy you're one of the next they

don't shoot you this the next question

was why why are sri lankan monks groves

bright orange like the thai monks

because it is very easy to find you can

get it from thailand yes and also we

have the we in sri lanka we have the

forest tradition monk

but no no

but most of the monk

the study

how do you make robes allowable

they have to be offered to the monk

the monk

then takes the robe and if he wants to

make it his personal rope because he

accepts it as

part of this uh for the sangha if he

wants to make it his personal robe right

he'll take blue or

black ink

and mark three circles on it

on the corner

and while he's doing that he's saying

this is now my personal rope

this is now my personal rope this is now

my personal rope

that makes that

robe yours personally you're making it

allowable for yourself especially the

cut in the curtain

but

you might have more than one set of

ropes

that were given to you

now you accept it as part of the sangha

you're allowed to keep the

robes for 10 days

after that

you have to give it away if it's

considered a rope uh-huh

but when you declare that these are

pieces of plot

then it's not a rope uh-huh

the only way you make it a rope

is by doing

making the the marks

okay oh i have

a hundred rows right

not knowing the actual number that

sounds like a good number

it's a cloth

but they're pieces of cloth and i keep

them

not because i want to use them

but i keep them for people that want to

come to ordain

and the same

i have

some

requisites for a monk

that means

a bowl

there's a belt

there's

a razor

there's a needle and thread

there's a water strainer

i have these

so if someone wants to come and ordain i

can give them

what is needed

okay

so welcome back we're going to do part

three

about

some questions in buddhism and we have

two monks with us then we're going to

continue asking some questions we have

venerable lima ramsay from the donosuka

meditation center

and

we have bonti seraphta who is here

from the anaheim temple in california

so these questions are about

eating

some questions that came up i think you

might have some fun with these

why do monks eat in bowls and not on

plates

because

when you eat in a bowl

you know the quantity of food that you

need

so you eat the same amount it's the same

quantity every morning each time so it's

easier to keep track of that

can see figure out what your body needs

and then you just try to eat that much

in a bowl each time that's good and what

you're supposed to do in the bowl is mix

all of the food around

so you're not picking one paste over

another

and you're eating

to keep your body alive

so that's the attitude toward food is to

eat to

live and not live

and the ball is the special material for

the mask

the mouse can use it many kind of

work

not only the eating

they use it

as a basket for the

bus

and they can they can they use it as a

storage

storage when you're traveling yes

traveling that's good yes and

they can

use it uh go to the arms round

and

many kind many as a bucket and basket

they can use it so it's a tool yes

during the time of the buddha they

didn't use

uh metal bolts they used clay bowls but

the

fired clay

so they had to be a little bit more

careful with using them or else it would

break

so you had to be very careful so your

mindfulness had to be a little bit

yeah

and you told us that you can take the

new bowls that are metal and you can

burn them over the fire to blacken them

and a lot of the monks do this with the

new balls

if they're not black already yeah

so now this bowl the symbol i just want

to branch out a little bit on this but

the bowl actually became a symbol when

the buddha died didn't it

a symbol for to remember the buddha bye

the shape of the ball

one time somebody asked him

what the shape of a stupa should be

where you put relics of monks and that

sort of thing and a bolt then the buddha

turned it upside down and

put something else a cup or something up

on top of it and said this is the shape

that a stupa should be

so that's how that sort of happened in

the burmese area and they did a lot of

those shapes or is that everywhere it's

more sri lanka more sri lankan okay in

sri lankan tradition

okay um what what can monks eat

food

can monks eat meat

yes they eat food

can when can they not eat meat after 12

o'clock

what is arms around

it's going in collecting the food

and

when it's not baking it's

going around and

allowing people to put food in the bowl

generosity seems important

that's part of the practice

many people want to support monks

because they're wholesome

then

the job of the monk when he's on alms

around is to be radiating loving

kindness to everybody

and focusing on that not what's put in

the bowl

and i think you told us one time that

the generosity

of mind and speech and body helps to

open the heart so that you can do the

practice more easily

and that that was one of the reasons it

was a good part of practice in the

beginning before you practice the

meditation

when a monk gets too old to go out for

alms how do they eat

the monks bring food back to them

at the monastery at the monastery and

they give the elder monk the choice of

whatever

whatever food he wants in

over six months

and quite often

the older monks

the young monks come in and give them

massage keep their circulation going and

wash them and take care of them just

like they were

the precious jewel

and and um some monks oftentimes learn a

lot about healing

the body about keeping their bodies

among themselves because they are

practicing loving kindness and kindness

is always

the very

big influence for the alien

so so what if a monk goes out and he can

get no food on arms around

what do the monks do in western

countries that have

no established

arms rounds

well ideally they start educating people

in a neighborhood

that they walk in their homes around and

educate them to

offer food

people have to learn the value system

that is involved in this alms round from

the person giving the food and the

teaching

being valuable for the person and they

start to teach them what that is yes and

it took over a hundred years in thailand

before the monks were actually

able to go out on monday and get enough

food

how

if i was offering food to you how do i

offer food to a monk

and why does it have to be offered to

the monk

they offer with a lot of respect

quite often when i went out on homegrown

in asia people would

get down on their hands

and knees and bow

and then they would with two hands they

would put the food in a bowl

sometimes that food could be as little

as one peanut

a few

potato chips

it doesn't matter

it's their attitude of respect

that they're developing

why why do they eat once a day and only

before noon and not after because that's

one of the rules

monks are

supposed to be

easily supportable

okay and if we go around at night

we can run into all kinds of things

because it's dark

we can run into wild animals we can

stumble over

logs or holes in the ground or cesspools

when they were during the time of the

buddha

there were opens as pools

so we go in the morning and when we eat

one time a day we stay healthy and also

it is the middle of the day so

we cannot

we can stay without hungry

the

because we get the full middle of the

day

okay

so and and originally the monks were not

eating a breakfast

they were just doing the arms round and

eating in the middle of the day is that

right

and some monasteries when there's a lot

of young monks and they're doing

memorizing and that sort of thing

takes a lot of energy

they go out early in the morning

and

you have to consider

that the people that are donating the

food

they have to get up about two hours

earlier than the monks come

so that they can have all the food

prepared

so they're making quite a

effort effort

to do that

and the young monks can eat

a breakfast and then they can eat a

lunch

i personally prefer just eating one time

a day because i stay more healthy that

way i don't catch colds very easily it's

really true

why do monastics shave their heads

that's definitely why this summer 500

degrees and also it is the tradition of

uh circle

seclusion right right the aesthetics of

the shades

to show that there is someone different

and we wear the robes

because they're just pieces of cloth

during the time of the buddha cloth is

very valuable

and also the hair is very

that's what happened with me i was in

miami before i started this and was

spending money in salons you know going

to fix my hair it was very funny because

my hair was only about an inch long and

i wanted a perfect cut

so i would keep going and i told bunty

how much money i spent that last year

taking care of that and it just didn't

make sense

and also the

you know the

people can recognize especially the is

the monk

i understand that after you shave your

head you have low energy this person

said and i have never noticed this

i don't know where this came from this

idea

some people have a belief in the samson

effect

ah samson's wife yeah they can't get his

hair cut off and he lost his strength

it's

just it could have been that he shaved

his head and he went out on a really hot

day and then got drained

of energy

it's just a story it's not early

okay i i understand the vineya says that

monks can't use scissors to shave but

what is except acceptable to shave the

head

they have a razor

so really any tool that you can use yeah

yeah and it doesn't i don't know where

that

idea came from

okay

um there's there's nothing in the rules

about scissors because they didn't

to cut the hair

right i think we can get a

hair trimmer right and use an electric

razor to keep up with it on a daily

basis

does it hurt your head to shave are you

always cutting yourself and losing blood

and i haven't noticed this

it's just

if you're cutting your own hair you do

it carefully and you learn and you learn

how to take care of that

but if you're using a straight razor and

you've never used one before you might

have some blood coming out

a straight razor is is the favorite tool

in burma

and the way they sharpen their straight

razors on their rope

if you if you want to get

someone helpful

share the head with the

hair you can get yeah

you can ask somebody to help you that's

really good

when it comes to medical treatment do

monks have to do only what is talked

about in the vineyard like using cow's

urine or

or can they or can they have any kind of

treatment in modern medicine whatever is

appropriate

if if you're in an area where there is

no doctors

you have to use what is available and

okay but i want to say that

you

if you use cow's urine

you have to let it sit out in a bottle

in the sun for three or four

days and the smell is not great

you lose a lot of friends

because it comes out through your skin

but it gets rid of skin disease is very

nicely

clears up skin disease that's okay

how much do monks sleep

and when do they sleep

generally

five to six hours

a day

sometimes they sleep only four hours at

night and then they take rest after

lunch because your stomach is full and

you feel

what was the three parts of the night

and the well the first watch of the

night was

7 to 11

the middle watch is when you sleep and

that's from

eleven to three

and then the last watch of the night is

three to seven and you've taught us that

three two seven in the morning is a good

time to actually wake up and sit

because the psychic energy is so quiet

and it's an amazing experience

um can be

now do monks shave their eyebrows

it depends what

sect of

monks they're from

some they want to look a little bit

different

in thailand they have all of the monks

shave their eyebrows because

when movies started to become popular in

thailand

the young monks would take their robes

off and go watch movies

so they they shave their eyebrows off

so that the people running the movie

would say no you're a monk you have to

you can't go to them

that's funny

okay

um we had a question but actually

that is not part of the vineyard yes

that is very much cultural

and there are stories about how the

buddha

would use his eyebrows for different

kinds of psychic phenomena

that was talked about right

thank you

there was a question that we got from

someone in australia who

asked us

it relates to the precept to take solid

food only as a single meal before noon

and he he was saying he noticed in some

monasteries there were overweight monks

and things like that and other monks

looked like they were from a

concentration camp they were so skinny

and

if they

are using a non-solid food such as milk

or chocolate in the afternoon is this

causing this problem

can you tell us what foods are permitted

afternoon and if there is a limit on the

quantity that can be taken

and

is this the use of these

additional foods bending a precept in

any way

well

that's kind of an interesting question

there are

medicinal foods that are allowable for

monks

they have to be they can be offered one

time a week they don't have to be

offered every time they're taken

salt

oil

honey

bee

jaggery

sugar

these these kind of things are allowable

in burma we had this thing that they

made up for monks that was called satu

matu

and it was oil and honey and jaggery

and a little bit of salt mixed all

together

kind of medicinal things they put all

together

and monk can carry that

kind of

thing with the

with their balls and they can make

whatever they

to be quite honest it's not very tasty

yeah

i think i tried it once with something

to try it was but well ghee did not

really appeal to me

we tried the game remember but anyway um

what's happening with monks now is they

say ghee is a part of milk

and cheese comes from milk so we can eat

cheese yeah there's a lot of um

they say

chocolate has is milk in it so we can

eat chocolate

so it does but it's kind of bending the

rules a little bit

do you think that is what is causing the

overweightness in monks and the problem

with diabetes or do you think it's more

in the direction of families bringing

donna and not being conscious that

everybody in the temple is bringing the

richest best meal they can possibly feed

you that's

part of the problem

and uh you have to eat what you're given

so you're you're caught in the monks

like sweet things they get hard candy

given to them all the time

right

personally i much prefer jaggery to

candy

but jaggery is a

palm of sugar

okay

now concerning high and luxurious beds

this is outside of eating but this is a

question someone had

what does this actually mean high

luxurious beds what did that mean in the

time of buddha and if a person had say a

wooden bed on legs with a mattress that

was specially made for their back

and

should they just cut it off to make it a

different height or what's the deal with

this

the high and luxurious beds they were

very superstitious during the time of

the buddha

and they had these high beds and

underneath they had protective carvings

of animals and that sort of thing so the

boogeyman wouldn't come get them that

was good

and the luxurious bed is talking about a

bed that's too soft

okay

if your bed is too soft you sleep too

soundly

you

wind up

waking up with a dull mind

and the point is seeing people walking

around mumbling in the morning i know

about that

okay and

monks

can can

their their bed is supposed to be no

higher

than from the wrist to the floor

the reason monks are like this is

because we don't want to use a lot of

materials right

right

so we

and many many months amongst beds don't

have a mattress on them at all right in

asia they're used to sleeping on very

hard surfaces

so if a person wanted to get closer to

being a recluse i mean they could make

their bed this height

this is for monks and not for lay people

and you don't keep

carved animals underneath your bed right

and that's just superstition that the

buddha was trying

right

when monks travel

they go from one monastery to another

and they go into a monastery that

doesn't have any

individual cootie for them so they sleep

on the floor in them

we've been through that experience yeah

and sometimes they'll just say well

here's here's your room for you and

there's no sleep here there's and

there's no uh nothing but the floor and

you have some

things with you you can put them on the

floor and you're just on the floor

monastery sign room is very holy place

there is no dirt in that

and people never use shoes

in the

in the shine room

the monks can use the shine group for

the sleeping right

yeah

okay um

now we had someone from the netherlands

write us a question um

if you were becoming a mug i know this

is a concern we may have mentioned this

before but but um if if you were

interested in becoming a monk and your

family was concerned about

you leaving the family the question was

is it okay for a monastic to go on a

holiday

to marriages uh to births to deaths

involved with the families

to go on a holiday no no

right because you're exposed to those

things

outside of the presets

go for a marriage or a funeral

the family should invite

the monk for a meal

and then they will

give blessings and whatever

and then they leave and then the

ceremony can take place

and then monks don't take place

in the ceremonies themselves i see okay

now how how and that's not all

traditions this is we're speaking from

the character perspective here

from the vineyard perspective we're

speaking from the vineyard perspective

on this

so some some traditions have evolved

where people want to be married

and within uh having a buddhist ceremony

and that has involved in some of the

traditions

or some of these schools of buddhism but

outside of the original

cultural cultural and they are tradition

yeah cultural and they're their

tradition for years and years and years

how how long can a person remain a

summonery

yeah and that's interesting sometimes

i knew a monk that was a salmonera for

12 years yeah before he finally decided

to take on the road and some monks they

get the high ordination and after later

they

refuse that high ordination step back

you step that and become a formulator

and do you think this is partially

because there are things that need to be

taken care of in particular monasteries

and perhaps not enough lay people to

help with those things some and eric

can handle food and offer food

and take care of many of the things that

the white people will do

right so it's a balancing it can be a

balancing point in a developing country

he got his high ordination when he was

20 years old

but after the after few years

he away from the

uh forward and then

he stepped away at the fourth step he

stepped away from the ordination

and

later maybe

30 years later

he again he get the high ordination from

the mother uh-huh did did he have a

family or not didn't you no no he did

not have it he didn't so that's purely

traveling outside of the country and he

was in countries that

didn't whatever he couldn't understand

what

the restrictions were

because he went to the

fans to rise

that's really interesting

you know there is a book that came out

that was written

about the buddha and

his son rahula

and rahula's wife and son and this is

purely a fictional piece and

it was highly acclaimed by uh

some feminist groups as looking at this

whole thing from the perspective of

yasoda

and as an older woman and her son and

everything

um and his his family and it's pure but

it's purely based on fiction

so uh it's interesting that you should

say that

well the whole thing with the soda was

she knew what the buddha was doing

and she heard that the buddha took on

robes

and so she took on ropes and she heard

that the buddha was only eating one time

a day so she told me one time a day

when he left

and

went out on his quest

yosodro was not

just a woman that was left alone with

the child she was living in a palace she

she would take care of the child just

like she always right but

it wasn't like he abandoned her and she

had to be a single parent yeah this is

this is something i like to emphasize

because

in that type of setting

when he left

this was not a child that was in an

environment with one set of parents this

was a child that was living in a palace

with probably five or six sets of

parents it's his natural parents but his

aunts and uncles and relations because

that's how they live these many servants

and

they brought in

because other children that were the

same age to play with him

the doctors family the boys of that

family their royal family

right so that means

the family has very comfort

and he wouldn't live much differently

whether

uh gotoma was there or not

that's right he lived pretty much like

he did yeah

and um okay let's go on a minute um

she also writes that she knew a tarawata

monk that was living in a zen monastery

and is it okay for a monk or a nun from

one tradition

to always stay in a monastery of another

tradition but practice the their own way

if there's not any problem with that

sort of thing look at this

he's staying in a mahayana temple where

they speak chinese

yeah but they have respect for each

other that is the key to all of buddhism

right you don't get in fights over

philosophy

right you don't argue over philosophy

you you accept the things that are in

common you don't look at the differences

that's really important that's really

really very very important

can i ask you an open question like

where what do you think is the most

difficult thing for

uh the western countries when they i

want to ask both of you this to take

turns what is the most difficult thing

for the

western countries to

establish uh buddhism in a pure sense in

a country in a new culture what is it

that you think is the most difficult

thing

being accepted because you look

different and you act differently

it's a

very

it's not an easy thing

it's a pioneer journey my path has been

rather difficult

i mean i've been in this country now for

11 years

and still there are

people that walk up in the

disrespectfully say well who are you

what are you

and

we have to take care

to not turn them off

with their root question

but

where we live right now people are

starting to accept us

because we're not trying to

convert them to another religion

this is the different significant

difference between proselytizing and

promulgation right the providing of the

information and the pushing of the

information on someone and we don't do

they're finding out that we're actually

pretty nice people yeah and also our

teammates come and see

yeah right

come and see yeah and experience these

days

right i remember we were here for about

five years and someone said one day to

us that a restaurant came over and said

you know

i've been meaning to ask you people why

are you so happy

and that was exactly it you know we just

you know have something that really

helps you to understand the world you

should come and see

and that's

that's really what this is about

so we hope that you got some good things

out of the

questions that we gave you here and i

encourage people

to uh

write in questions to me at sisterkama

yahoo.com

and we can do this again in the future

and add

perhaps another interview

at a later date

just want to make sure that you have

access

to these fine people who are very

experienced with the dhamma and can

sincerely answer your questions

and

thank you all for coming

you