GeoFresher - Weekdays Buddhist monastery

Many have probably heard about Buddhism, Buddhist monks and monasteries. In this series of articles, I would like to highlight the theme of life in a Buddhist monastery. The theme is also interesting in that it reveals the secrets of everyday life of the monks. Monks - both good "guerrillas" - to hide from prying its way of life, trying to bring him a certain mystique, mystery.

Day ordinary monk starts at 6 am with morning prayers, and then come to the temple locals who bring food to the monks. Monks are free to cook their own food, for them it is the locals do-believers who in turn bring order to the monks already cooked food. Each temple hangs a schedule for days of the week for a month, which indicates which particular family, what day of the week will bring "gifts" in the form of products. This procedure is an offering to the monks of products called "dane".

In general, according to the canons, monks supposed to eat only twice a day, morning and afternoon. In the afternoon, any meal is not welcome, because it is believed that with a full stomach is difficult to enter into nirvana and prevent concentrate on reading the "Tripitaka" (one of the basic books on Buddhist teachings), and concentrate your mind for meditation.

Tripitaka - the Buddhist bible.

After breakfast, the monks go to their cases. Someone is going to study at the university, one of the more experienced goes to school for the teaching of Buddhism children. Some stay in the temple and doing chores. At 11 am is another family brings lunch to the monks. After lunch, everyone does their own thing. Very often during the day come to the temple believers with different requests - to pray, to receive a blessing from the head monk, to provide financial assistance to the monastery, and so the monks are often invited to the funeral of the deceased, and in the case of birth of a child in the family -.. For the monks is an additional source of earnings.

There are monks both rich and poor. It all depends on how he sees the monk wealth. Unfortunately, today's monks more, "fixated" on the money, rather than for the speedy achievement of nirvana. Many monks have modern computers, mobile phones, even private cars in some of them. Very few monks are serious about Buddhism postulates, ie, the monk must have only three components in his life:.. 1) clothing, 2) a roof over his head, 3) food - everything else is superfluous, however, in practice it's different . Of the hundreds of people I know the monks are not even make up a dozen, which can be truly called a monk with a capital letter.

Rooms monks.

Today's monks are more liberated and free, some of them "on the sly" to smoke, drink alcohol, but it is rather an exception to the rule. Once asked his friend the monk:

- Do you smoke, how can you attain Nirvana?

- And I do not care my nirvana, I smoke, I do Kaifu, to each his own.

- And if the Buddha sees you smoking ?, - I decided to play a joke on a friend, pointing to the picture of Buddha that hung on the wall.

- So it does not matter, I will move the picture to the wall, and everything will be ok.

Child monks at 14:00 go to classes in "perevenu" (a convent school where children learn not only monks, but also children of parishioners on Sundays). In "perevene" teach the same subjects as in a regular school, but with a focus on in-depth study of Buddhism, Pali and Sanskrit, and meditation theory.

On major holidays - such as "Harvest Moon" - the temple is going to a large number of believers. The last "full moon" everything else one of temples visited by the Minister of Health of Sri Lanka. Minister as the senior official is obliged to follow the culture of the people, so the arrival of the temple clean officialdom for him, say "for show".

The temple on the day of the full moon.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Health.

The head monk and the Minister of Health of Sri Lanka.

Minister donates flowers.

Preparing for the ceremony.

Blessing.

Parishioners.

Lunch at the temple on the day of the full moon.

In the evening at 18:30 begins the evening service, extending mainly in the prayer room - "vihara". Gather believers lit the lamps (as fuel is used palm oil) and begin a protracted Buddhist chant in Pali: "Bhuddam saranam gatchami, Songkram saranam gatchami ..."

Vihara.

Lantern coconut oil.

Buddha in his teachings explained to his students, and ordinary people: "I am not a god, and not worth it to me to pray, I'm just a man who worked hard through meditation and freeing the mind from the material world was able to reach the highest state of bliss, a deep trance - nirvana ".

I met once a Russian couple who came to Sri Lanka in order to create a meditation center. However, their goal was neither more nor less, and "end the cycle of rebirth" Samsara "and enter into a state of perpetual trance, nirvana is not somewhere, namely in Sri Lanka." Probably not a good life people "running" of the Russian Federation abroad to find peace and tranquility, to go into a deep trance on a tropical mysterious island in the Indian Ocean, among the vast rice and fruit plantations, meditating at sunset on the Indian Ocean. Lately I've been more and more often meet people from Russia and Ukraine, who want to leave their homeland and to relocate abroad, thinking "well, where we do not." Sri Lanka is one of the most suitable places in the world for relaxation and meditation. there is a

many places untouched by man, where you can retire. After completion of service with the monks some free time. Basically, they spend it watching cheap Sri Lankan series, and news releases. At 21:00 dinner. Earlier it was said that the monks can not themselves cook and eat in the afternoon, but in practice, "secretly" by the local population, closing all the doors and windows, cook their own meals and dine (even those who try to really stick Buddhist the rules in terms of food, but your stomach will not order). If you know about it the locals, the authority of the monks is not increased.

At 22:00 the lights out, the monks disperse to their cells for the final meditation before bedtime future, which gradually brings them into the sweet world of dreams and illusions, so sweet, that because he did not want to return, illusory world created by the human brain, leaving at this time wicked world with all its vices and preparing them to face the new day, which events will be almost the same as the day before, but probably every monk somewhere deep down believes he will not wake up one day and finish it an endless chain f ererozhdeny - "Samsara" - on this sinful earth, he will have endless bright state of joy, bliss and boundless mental state of his mind, which will never end ..!

Altar flowers.

Flowers.

dining.

Pagoda.

Library.

Sacred Bo tree.

There is an interesting tradition in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka - Buddhist country, and it is not an empty phrase. When the family the child is born, the first thing he is carried to the monastery, not only to get the blessing from the head monk, but also to make a personal horoscope for the baby.

Based on the date of birth, it is also very important to indicate with precision the hour and minute of birth. The head monk, using the ancient methods of calculation and special astrological tables, predicts the future. It is an ancient science, which is more than 2,000 years, and it appeared long before the birth of Prince Siddhattha, who later became the Buddha. If the horoscope shows clearly that of a baby can get spiritual leader, the parents are advised to give (donate) their child to a monastery. After a certain time, the boy will take the veil, and from that moment it will be a real monk.

Word of the head monk for all believers - the law. As you say, it will be so, no one will ever argue against their spiritual leader. This tradition is about 2000 years old, the first time Buddhism came to Sri Lanka. The child actually has no choice, the parents along with the head monk decide his fate.

This act of violence against a child in the future adversely affect the human psyche. Someone matured, resigned to the fact that he was a monk, on the other hand, some are looking for any opportunity to quickly get rid of the monastic robe. As an option - to leave, for example, in Thailand, and to stay there to live, there are less stringent rules for monks.

There is no violence against the person, and everyone decides for himself to be a monk to him or not. Child monks in Thailand - it's not quite the monks, this is just a "Novas", ie, they may become monks in the future, if they wish, but they can and return to a normal worldly life, and none of them will not blame for them.. choice.

In Sri Lanka, the problem is that once becoming a monk, is no longer possible to return to a normal worldly life This stigma for life. In Sri Lanka, in this regard, there is no choice. If you become a monk, it's for life. You can certainly throw a monastic robe and go to the normal worldly life, but such a person will be in the community despised, and his social status is not higher than the city sewer. Such a person will never be able to have a family, get married (just any girl does not appreciate it as a normal man), build your house because it will be considered a social outcast. These are the realities of the Buddhist life.

Monastic life - a hard physiological survival. The monks were forbidden any contact with the woman. Because "nature" requires its own, the monks have no choice but how to engage or masturbation or homosexuality, has no other choice. This is a very common phenomenon among the young monks, to find a "friend" for carnal pleasures. All this is done "on the sly" and at first glance you will not notice anything unusual in the behavior of young monks. However, if it becomes known to others, monks automatically expelled from the monastery. Many young monks have computers, almost all infected by viruses. The reason - they are entire collections of porn from the Internet and CDs. For more affluent monks have an alternative to go to the same Thailand, Pattaya, Walking Street to temporarily change the robe on secular clothes, and get bogged down in the kingdom of debauchery.

Pattaya is not in vain considered to be the number one in the world in terms of corruption and sex tourism. There is everything! You can find transvestites or ordinary prostitute, well, those who love the "strawberry" - children of any age and gender to satisfy all your most intimate and depraved desires. Cynically? Yes, because you are making life for what it is and it is not necessary to be indignant about it!

GeoFresher, especially for our website