Bhante, I am an Upasaka practicing at a monastery in the USA.
I want to ordain and restrain according to the Patimokkha to the best of my ability.
I am very discouraged with how most monks in America I have seen practice.
Will you please help guide me?
Yes.
Will I please help God, you will?
Okay, yes.
But yes in the sense that this is clear that in today's age the standard of keeping the Buddhist monastic discipline is pretty low, unfortunately.
So there is a lot of
breaking of rules, and so on.
And now, probably going to get in trouble for even saying that.
We're not supposed to talk about it, but that's not really true.
We're not supposed to say this monk broke this rule, that monk broke that rule, because we don't want to be tattletales and cause conflicts.
But to just talk about the state of the Sangha I think is very important.
It's important that we're not hiding it.
Because the point is not to hide it, the point is to be clear about who is the spokesperson for the Sangha.
And I guess it's true that I'm not really the spokesperson.
But it can't be denied that when you go to the monasteries, if you spend some time there, if you go...
Your superficial visitor, you often don't see it, but if you stay for a while, you start to see that it's getting shaky.
That's not a good thing.
And it doesn't make for a good environment for the practice.
One thing you have to understand is it's tough being a monk.
So breaking the precepts happens.
And you have to understand the levels of breaking the precepts.
So if a monk watches football, for example, which seems to... Apparently everyone's watching football.
I'm not even sure if it's still on, but I think...
heard recently they're near the last game but I'm not quite sure Germany I think is playing so that's as far as I go with that but so if a monk is watching the World Cup of football soccer whatever you call it it's not a good thing it's not a good sign but
that monk could still recover.
It's not a major precept by any means, watching a football game.
So that monk can come back and realize that there are better things to do and can come to see the uselessness of that and can reflect upon watching the game and say to themselves,
that's really not bringing me happiness and so still has potential to develop and this is this sort of thing is something that goes on the other side so some people are too forgiving and they just let monks do whatever they want and say whatever it's fine you know to each their own kind of thing but the other side is where people every little thing they begin to criticize and they storm out of the monasteries and
write nasty blog posts because the monks did something.
You know, it can often be.
There was one monk who split a community apart, I've told this before, because he was eating eggs, I think, and because he was eating meat.
And so he split a community apart just over something like that, which isn't even in the Vinaya.
Eating eggs that haven't been fertilized, eating meat that hasn't been killed for you, this is not against the Vinaya, the monks' rules.
And yet it managed to split an entire community apart.
Many people wouldn't even go to see him.
So that kind of thing is common in the East and in the West, in all places.
Westerners go into Buddhist monasteries and say, this isn't real.
They look at the Buddha image and they say, that's not really Buddhism, I spit on your Buddha, that kind of thing.
And this is going too far, I think.
You have to have compassion and understanding that it's tough being a monk, and it's especially tough being a monk in the West.
If your only monastic training has been in a university, which for a lot of these monks it is,
And right out of university you're given this instruction on how to be a missionary and then you go abroad.
There's not the practical backing to help you reflect upon these things and help you let go of them.
So to some extent you have to be forgiving and understand that it's still possible for such people to recover.
Now if there's a lot of corruption and attachment to money and like asking lay... some of the bad signs are like asking lay people for money, over attachment between the monks and the women and over familiarity there is a bad sign.
excessive luxury where the monks have widescreen televisions and you see satellite.
Satellite dishes are usually a bad sign, but as I say, oh, I don't know.
I mean, it's not a huge deal, but not a good sign when you see satellite dishes and widescreen televisions and that kind of thing.
If the monks have stopped wearing robes, that's a really bad sign, that kind of thing.
But that being said, there's no question that you will benefit from a traditional monastic environment where you at least are encouraged and allowed and taught how to practice the discipline of the Buddha.
I didn't have that.
When I started out, what I was lucky is the monastery I was at, what they did have was a strong tradition of meditation.
So everyone had to start by practicing meditation and there's an environment that is supportive for the meditative practice.
Now what I didn't have was a strong monastic training.
Actually I was able to make that up on my own by reading the books and so even to this day I don't mind being in that monastery surrounded by monks who may not be keeping the rules.
doesn't really bother me because I have the focus on the meditation, which allows me to stay to myself and do my own discipline and not care what other people do so much.
So that's one thing, is to focus more on the meditation practice than on the discipline.
Does this place have a strong meditative tradition instead of does it have a strong monastic discipline?
but best is if you can find a place where they teach both.
I understand that Wat Paana Nachad is a good place, especially to learn monastic discipline, but the best places that I've seen are in Sri Lanka.
If you want to ordain as a monk, if anyone wants to ordain as a monk, your best bet is to go to Sri Lanka.
Now, the problem with going to Asia
at all to become a monk is that the general routine is you have to actually go once, practice with them, and then get a promise from them that they're going to write you a letter or whatever.
And then you actually have to return to your country and apply for a new visa.
with a letter of permission to become a monk and then fly back to the country again a second time to actually think about ordaining because you need a special visa to ordain
And the only way you can get that visa is with a letter of permission from the monastery.
And the only way they're going to give you that permission is if you're already in the country practicing with them.
It's almost a catch-22, but what it means is you need to go twice.
So that's what you have to look at there.
An alternative is to find one of these places that does keep them in North America.
Now they're usually full because obviously everybody wants those.
There's Wat Abayagiri in California.
There's Bawana Society.
I don't know how strict they are, but they're probably fairly good.
There's Meta Monastery in San Diego.
And in general, check out the... Oh, I don't know.
I don't want to say that.
No, I'm not going to say it.
Those are my only suggestions.
You're welcome to come here, you're going to see some of the... but the USA is still difficult for us because you still need a visa coming here and I don't even think that really works, not over the long term.
But find a place that is focused on meditation because as I said, that can be another way to center yourself.
The Buddha himself even said, you know, a lot of these rules
If you're practicing meditation, you don't really have to worry about the rules.
If you happen to break one, it's not such a big deal.
But if you're in a place that's not practicing meditation, in fact, if you're in a place that's not practicing insight meditation, even if they have a strong
monastic practice, it's still not going to lead to enlightenment.
So, focus more on the practice.
That will give you an ability to cultivate the moral discipline yourself.
Without the practice, it's very difficult to cultivate moral discipline.
But vice versa.
Without the moral discipline, if you're breaking the moral discipline, also difficult.
But,
I still lean towards the meditation.
If you can find that, you can make up the monastic discipline yourself.
Don't rely too much on other people for that, because it's just rules.
So focus more, not completely, but more on the meditation.