There's a question whether in this life or a future life to be free from suffering one must rid oneself of desire.
Is one required to be a monk to be enlightened?
No, not explicitly required.
The Buddha even said that even though one is decked out in jewels and wearing a royal attire, if they become free from desire and free from defilement, they should be considered a monk.
I believe, if I'm not wrong, it was Santati, this minister of the king,
if I haven't got my stories mixed up who the Buddha told this verse about because Santati was he was a minister to some king Pasenadi maybe and he was very clever and was able to defeat an enemy or quell an uprising in a border village and so the king as a reward to him
allowed him to live as a king for seven days.
Not to be the king, but to live the luxury and to have as much luxury as the king had for seven days.
And so for seven days he lived in complete luxury and sensuality.
And he was even drinking alcohol and sporting himself with women and prostitutes and so on.
And he had this one dancing girl who was in his employment, and he was so in love with her, or in lust with her or whatever, that he would just love to sit there and get really drunk and watch her dance.
I guess there was another thing at the time that, similar to now, as I understand nowadays, is women had to be really, really thin in order to be attractive or something.
I don't know if that's still the case, but I did hear this whole thing about anorexia.
Women think they have to be thinner and thinner.
If you come to our monastery, you don't really have a choice.
You just get thinner and thinner.
But this was her, so she was abstaining from food because she wanted to be quote unquote beautiful.
And she got so bad that when she got up on stage to dance on the seventh day,
She had some nerve, some nerve broke or something broke inside of her.
There's this story, same thing happened to a monk apparently in the Buddhist time.
And she died.
Just suddenly, boom, died.
Right there on the stage.
And he's looking at her and he's drunk.
Oh, and he got so upset about this that he went to find the Buddha.
All decked out in his jewels and his robes and so on.
and he was so sobered up by the affair, that in the time it took him to walk to the Buddha, he no longer was drunk or something like that, because he got to the Buddha, and the Buddha taught him, and he became an Arahant, if I remember correctly.
I'm not so good with my stories, but either he became an Arahant,
I think he became an arahant and then he passed away or something like that.
There was one man, if it wasn't Santadi, who passed away.
And then they were all asking him, well, what is he?
Is he a Brahmin or is he a shaman or is he a monk?
What is he?
And the Buddha said, even whether they are in these royal clothes and bedecked in jewels, if they practice correctly, they're considered a Brahmin, they're considered a samana, something like that.
But for sure, the theory is sound, that one can become a monk, or one can become enlightened without becoming a monk.
Now, the orthodox theory is that, or doctrine, is that if they don't ordain, they will pass away.
That day or within seven days, I think within seven days is the orthodox doctrine.
And it seems to be the case that either they became monks or else they passed away.
And the question, of course, is whether that means a full ordination or just means leaving the home life.
Anything to add?
No.
Anything to add to that?