Is a monk allowed to hold jobs if the job does not break any of the precepts?
Well, the first thing is, I thought, yes, you can hold a job here in the monastery.
And there's heaps of work.
And you have to make sure that you don't break any precepts.
But I guess the question is holding a job out in the world, which is not possible.
supposed to hold it closer.
The question is how far you can take that, because everyone here has roles, actually.
It's a good question because it helps us.
It gives us a chance to talk about everyone.
Here we've got a camera person, for example.
Her job is the dedicated camera person.
This person on the far left is the monastery bookkeeper.
and secretary and Kathy doesn't have a job because she refuses to ordain Yasa is our groundskeeper so he does the
He's going to take over my duty of looking and seeing what needs to be done in the monastery and hopefully help with arranging workers and so on as best he can.
I mean, neither of us speak Singha, so it's a lot of fun trying to explain our ideas to them.
And for them to explain their ideas to us is equally entertaining.
And our camera person is not just a camera person, she also does the kitchen manager.
And Kathy has been helping with the kitchen as well.
And then Turindu also.
But anyway, so even the monastics, we have jobs.
But, you know, how far you can take that, whether it means, if you mean working in the monastery, that's most likely not what you're referring to.
Most likely referring to doing something for lay people, for example.
Doing something not for the Buddha's teaching.
And I would say the Vinaya may not
directly explicitly disallow it but the Dhamma certainly does and the teachings of the Buddha even within the Vinaya are quite clear that we're not to engage in any sort of worldly pursuits or assistance for lay people besides teaching I mean there are monks who decide that they want to be doctors and so they provide cures for people
And this is quite explicitly in the Buddha's teaching not allowed, the performance of services other than meditation.
People will often ask, well, but if someone's a good doctor, why can't they use their skills?
Well, of course they can use their skills, but they should be a doctor, not a monk, right?
You become a monk means you take on a specific life, the life of a recluse meditation practitioner and perhaps teacher.
And so you've committed yourself to that.
And then to use it for something totally outside of the realm of the practice and the teaching of Buddhism is crazy.
completely inappropriate.
I mean, of course this is contentious and controversial.
There are people who will argue against this, but from my point of view anyway, this is quite clear that even doing good things for people, if you want to do good things, like if you wanted to do whatever job you were asking about,
If you want to do that job, then become that person.
If you want to fight legal courses, become a lawyer.
If you want to heal people's illnesses, become a doctor.
If you want to be free from suffering, become a monk.
Or even to teach other people meditation, become a monk.
I would say that's the best job that you have, aside from jobs in the monastery supporting the community, which is, I think, on a different level.
In the bhikkhuni patimokkha, there is even a rule for that that we are not allowed to do chores for laypeople.
I don't think we have it explicitly.
No, monks I think don't have it.
But we have it explicitly in the patimokkha that we are not allowed to do chores for laypeople and that is to have some
Even to do something for a lay person to get more food or to get some benefit out of it.
So I can certainly say we are not allowed to do any job for money or for food or something like that.
I think the point of the rule is to prevent people from doing that.
We're not allowed to do it at all because it gives the opportunity for corruption.
People who are only beginning in the monastic life to get on the wrong path.
It's very easy that people say, oh, if you do me this favor, I give you something.
Because that's how the world rules or is ruled.
And so it becomes a corruption.
It's just not allowed.
We have to be very strict.
And we've left the world.
We're not meant to get back involved in it.
You have to consider that the monks have left.
They're not in your circle, your pool of workers.
You can't ask monks to help you build your house or so on like that, help you fix your computer or whatever.
We can do jobs for our family.
I have helped my father with his computer as a monk, and he's the only person I do that for.
Remember my mother.
Yeah, there is an allowance to help family, like direct families, like mother and father and brother and sisters.
Because you're also allowed to ask them for whatever you want, so there's that kind of thing.
Okay.