Have you ever thought about leaving everything behind and becoming a Buddhist monk and this being your lifestyle ? Did you, at any time in your life, feel inspired to devote yourself to meditation and help others ?
You always have to be happy when we hear that someone is considering walking that path. It can be a unique way to deepen one's understanding and help people.
However, it is important to share some things that you must learn along the way. Here we summarize it in 4 tips that you can keep in mind before making a decision like that.
4 important aspects of the life of a Buddhist Monk
We are going to start with the longest, and if you are a woman who considers herself to be a nun, the same applies to you.
1- Personal peace of mind? Just forget it.
If you choose to become a monk, this is the icing on the cake.
You will be busy, very busy! Probably busier as maybe he never has been:
- It will take care of people (many of the lost souls end up in Buddhist settings)
- Organize everything (teachings, religious events, accounting, even work on computers)
- Will wash the dishes
- It will clean the monastery
And that is on a 7/24 basis, without vacations or almost never. Your withdrawal will be limited to a small room where you will probably be requested at any time. Therefore, it is advisable to forget about tranquility and personal intimacy.
Are you still inspired?
Agree ...
2- Chastity buttons
Girls, girls, girls…
As a Buddhist monk, you take the vow of chastity (unless you become a Zen monk). This means that you give up having sex. There is no sex. For boys, that is usually a challenge and for girls too, when they become nuns.
Why does someone decide not to have sex?
For all the time they do not spend doing their reinvestment in meditation and yoga practice. That is often worth it.
It also changes your perception of desire, usually discover that it is not what you think. Many people learn a lot about themselves through chastity, they get very intimate with their true identity. Most Westerners decide to return to a secular life after a while, but it is usually an experience that makes them more mature and self-reliant.
In Thailand, many women refuse to date a boy, if he hasn't been a monk for at least three months (that's a tradition there).
Best of all, you can ensure that here, sexuality and will never be a problem for you.
3- Your family is in the monastery
If you want to become a Buddhist monk, you need to choose your community well, because that is all you will have. You will officially give up having a family.
He will live in a monastery or at least among his peers, they will be his family. Needless to say more, since you can choose them, it is wise to investigate before jumping into a spiritual community.
A Buddhist monk also has to rely on a certain spiritual direction, often embodied by a teacher. That guide better be good, otherwise it could lead to errors. This part is essential. Even more critical is that there are a lot of psychopaths who choose to be gurus, they are often successful in that and it is difficult to identify and this could be useful if in doubt .
At this point, if you are not yet discouraged, the following is within your reach.
4- Moments of grace
As a Buddhist monk, a man who has abandoned worldly concerns will have moments of peace, some extend endlessly.
You are going to build the peace zones inside, and it will be yours in the long term; you will meet outstanding people, accomplished teachers; you will earn something inside that nobody is going to take it away from you.
Like many other things: personal experience is probably the best way to know if that choice is right for you.
If you feel inspired by the monk's path and would like to try, you can experience a taste of it. Some Buddhist schools offer to give votes for a very limited time (one day, for example).
See how you work with your personality, whatever choice you make in your life: a layman or a monk, walking the monastic path for a while will help you to know about yourself much more.
AUTHOR: JoT333, editor of the hermandadblanca.org family
