What is the difference between āvuso, ayasma, and bhante? Does āvuso mean friends? Can monks refer to each other as “friend” or “brother” or must they say “Venerable” even to monks who are junior or equal to them? Can they say “Junior Brother” Or “Senior Brother” when talking to each other? If I ordain, I would see all Theravāda Monks as brothers or friends because they are all one sect and the Buddha is the Teacher and Father.
You can go to TPR or dpd to see the definitions.
The Buddha said on his deathbed, senior monks should be called bhante and junior monks should be called āvuso.
yo vo, ānanda, mayā dhammo ca vinayo ca desito paññatto, so vo mamaccayena satthā.
The Dhamma and the Vinaya that I have taught and laid down for you, Ānanda, will be your Teacher after my passing.yathā kho panānanda, etarahi bhikkhū aññamaññaṃ āvusovādena samudācaranti, na kho mamaccayena evaṃ samudācaritabbaṃ.
And, Ānanda, just as bhikkhus address each other with the term ‘āvuso’ (friend) now, they should not address each other in that way after my passing.theratarena, ānanda, bhikkhunā navakataro bhikkhu nāmena vā gottena vā āvusovādena vā samudācaritabbo.
A senior bhikkhu, Ānanda, should address a junior bhikkhu by name, by clan, or by the term ‘āvuso’.navakatarena bhikkhunā therataro bhikkhu ‘bhante’ti vā ‘āyasmā’ti vā samudācaritabbo.
A junior bhikkhu should address a senior bhikkhu as ‘bhante’ (Venerable Sir) or ‘āyasmā’ (Venerable).
1 Like
Thank you for answering, Venerable Sir. So, must a senior bhikkhu use the pali word āvuso or can they say the English translation of it? I see some translations such as “friend” or “brother”. Some also translate it as “reverend” or “venerable” but I feel that might be too similar to bhante and ayasma which also translates to “venerable sir”, “reverend”, or “venerable”.
Normally we use Pāḷi.
Normally, for junior monks, I use either the Pāḷi name without prefix like Ven., etc., or I use āvuso. The exception is when I’m with lay people or other monks and it is appropriate for those to know he is Ven. such and such.
Bhante is often used alone without the name, but when there are several monks, you use the name Bhante such and such to distinguish between the two.
In Thailand, you should use Ajahn alone or Luang Por alone unless there are a few of them. But if there is a superstar monk, or abbot, you don’t need to qualify it and you can use Luang Por alone.
The same holds true with Sayadaw.
After over 20 years of being in Pa-Auk, the senior other monks are called Sayadaw, so they change Pa-Auk Sayadaw’s address name to Sayadawgyi. When you are in a monastery where he is, you only need Sayadawgyi. He was also the only Sayadaw back then even though there were monks who were over 10 vassa.
It is not uncommon for lay people to address monks less than 10 vassa as Thero, Ajahn or Sayadaw.
As a lay person, never call a monk “bhikkhu” without anything after it.
As a lay person, never call a monk by his Pāḷi name alone without a prefix.
Bhante is quite simple. It is my legal first name for that reason.
Subhūti is my last name, because normal lay people would not call me by my last name without some type of first name or prefix in front.
1 Like