What is the purpose of the Monkhood?

Sila - morality
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What is the purpose of the monkhood?

I found the following explanation quite informative:

"On my last day in Thailand I attended the morning session in Thai at the
Foundation6. The subject discussed was the real purpose of monkhood. The
following sutta was duscussed:

Gradual Sayings, Book of the Tens, Ch IV, § 1, Upåli and the Obligation.

Upåli asked the Buddha what the purpose of the Vinaya was. The Buddha explained
that this was :

“for the excellence of the Order,
for the well-being of the Order,
for the control of ill-conditioned monks
and the comfort of well-behaved monks,
for the restraint of the cankers in this same visible state,
for protection againts the cankers in a future life,
to give confidence to those of little faith,
for the betterment of the faithful,
to establish true dhamma
and to support the discipline.”

Khun Unnop stressed that the second point was most important: the well-being
of the Sangha. Often there is wrong understanding about the meaning of
monkhood. Young men take ordination for a short while, to please their parents
and without any understanding. People give money to monks and they accept it,
but this is wrong. Monks have left the home life and should not accept money or
enjoy the idea of it. They should see the danger of being in the cycle of birth and
death and their life should be directed towards freedom from the cycle, to be
reached at the attainment of arahatship. The monk has only two tasks: the study
of the scriptures and the development of insight. Nothing else. The study of the
scriptures is not in order to gain theoretical knowledge, but to understand the
reality of the present moment."

The Shortness of Life pg 30

And, of course, the next paragraph was very funny:

“Acharn adapted most of her radio programs to explain about the purpose of
monkhood and she had shirts printed with the words expressing that the monk
should not accept money”

R

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Actually quite a few bhikkhus don’t appreciate Sujin saying that..

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I can only imagine…

She is incredibly brave for doing that, and she deserves a lot of credit, I think.

R

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It will be another part of her legacy, I think. Just like how she trained students who have gone on or are going on to become great teachers themselves, such as Nina van Gorkom, Jonothan and Sarah Procter Abbott (Sarah P. Abbott), Tam Bach, etc.

R

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In The Great Chronicle of Buddhas, few wives ordained as their husband had become Arahant, as they had no one else who will take care of them. They felt ordaining will be a way to keep their basic necessities met. Eventually they became enlightened as well.

In one of the audio I listened to, Bhante Revata mentioned that samvega to attain Nibbana incentives people to ordain. And I think that is the best case scenario, but people ordaining for other reason can potentially lead them to grow deeper in Dhamma.

IMO, the most beneficial result of ordaining is to accumulate paramis fast, Bikkhus doing dana accumulates much higher parami than the same dana done by a laymen, because of the higher Silas Bikkhus take, taking them faster towards Nibbana.

But building parami is only one aspect of the journey, ordaining does not guarantee access to good teacher and conducive environment, most popular good teachers today have too many students and are too busy to commit sufficient time to sincere students. On top of it the culture can/cannot be suitable to an individuals personality, there can be politics and bias caused by lobha, dosha and moha by beings who are not fully enlightened.

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This is a classic quote for the purpose of laying down the vinaya. First stated in Pārājika.
Here is upāli sutta version:

‘‘dasa kho, upāli, atthavase paṭicca tathāgatena sāvakānaṃ sikkhāpadaṃ paññattaṃ, pātimokkhaṃ uddiṭṭhaṃ.
“For ten reasons, Upāli, has the Tathāgata laid down training rules for his disciples, and recited the Pātimokkha.
katame dasa?
Which ten?
saṅghasuṭṭhutāya, saṅghaphāsutāya, dummaṅkūnaṃ puggalānaṃ niggahāya, pesalānaṃ bhikkhūnaṃ phāsuvihārāya, diṭṭhadhammikānaṃ āsavānaṃ saṃvarāya, samparāyikānaṃ āsavānaṃ paṭighātāya, appasannānaṃ pasādāya, pasannānaṃ bhiyyobhāvāya, saddhammaṭṭhitiyā, vinayānuggahāya – ime kho, upāli, dasa atthavase paṭicca tathāgatena sāvakānaṃ sikkhāpadaṃ paññattaṃ, pātimokkhaṃ uddiṭṭha’’nti.
For the excellence of the Saṅgha, for the well-being of the Saṅgha, for the suppression of unruly individuals, for the comfortable dwelling of conscientious bhikkhus, for the restraint of āsavas in this present life, for the prevention of āsavas in future lives, for the gaining of faith by those without faith, for the increase of faith in those who have faith, for the persistence of the True Dhamma, and for the support of the Vinaya—for these ten reasons, Upāli, has the Tathāgata laid down training rules for his disciples, and recited the Pātimokkha.”
dasakanipātapāḷi p 311

You can find the link here that explains each of these 10 reasons in the “commentary” in English if you have the English installed:

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Normally, by tradition but not found in the CST
The monk to be will give the robes to the preceptor and then request them back with the following phrase.
“Sabbadukkha-nissaraṇa-nibbāna-sacchikaraṇatthāya, etaṃ kāsāvaṃ datvā pabbājetha maṃ, bhante, anukampaṃ upādāya.” (For the sake of escaping all suffering and realizing Nibbāna, venerable sir, please give me this yellow robe and ordain me, out of compassion.)

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Excellent! Thank you, Bhante! :folded_hands:

R

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The purpose of Sangha is explained with the six Sangha Qualities.

The purpose of Vinaya is to protect the Sangha from dissolution but to promote Adhisila, Adhicitta and Adhipanna (sila, samadhi, panna).

The Sangha (six qualities) is like a wood barrel and Vinaya is the metal rims.

Many pieces of wood (wrongful temporary ordination and the infiltration of fake Sangha members) can surround the wooden barrel, but the Vinaya separates the barrel from other pieces of wood. Temporary ordination is not bad if the purpose is right and the monks do the practice well.

That means laypeople should avoid supporting the surrounding pieces of wood because their effort is not going to give them (great) merit.

But the old woman could not find anything to offer, [so Maha Kassapa comforted her by saying] “One who has the will to give alms is not a poor man, one who has a sense of shamefulness is the follower of the Buddha. You possess these two rare treasures in the world, hence you are not poor at all. Those rich people who do not give alms and are shameless are the most ignorant and poorest men.” The old woman [was delighted and] offered Maha Kassapa the water used for rinsing rice. Maha Kassapa drank it before her and her heart was filled with happiness. [When she] passed away [she] entered the deva realm [due] to the merits of offering water to Maha Kassapa [Buddhist Studies: Disciples of the Buddha: Maha Kassapa]

The Vinaya (and Dhutanga) supports the Appamada-dhamma - see Dhammapada 21-32: Appamāda-Vagga. Thus, Sangha is the community for those who want to practice strictly for Adhisila, Adhicitta and Adhipanna.

Maha-parinibbana Sutta: Last Days of the Buddha

7. And the Venerable Ananda spoke to the Blessed One, saying: “Marvellous it is, O Lord, most wonderful it is! This faith I have in the community of bhikkhus, that not even one bhikkhu is in doubt or perplexity as to the Buddha, the Dhamma, or the Sangha, the path or the practice.”

“Out of faith, Ananda, you speak thus. But here, Ananda, the Tathagata knows for certain that among this community of bhikkhus there is not even one bhikkhu who is in doubt or perplexity as to the Buddha, the Dhamma, or the Sangha, the path or the practice. For, Ananda, among these five hundred bhikkhus even the lowest is a stream-enterer, secure from downfall, assured, and bound for enlightenment.”

8. And the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying: “Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!”[58]

This was the last word of the Tathagata.

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That simple deed [not so simple when we consider how difficult it is to meet not only an Arahant, but a Great Disciple, and make an offering to them] allowed her to go to the deva realms and possibly to hear the Dhamma there, instead of taking birth in the nether worlds where she would be unable to hear the Dhamma for truly signficant spans of time.

Thank you for sharing this excellent post.

Those words of Maha Kassapa :folded_hands: ring true:

“Those rich people who do not give alms and are shameless are the most ignorant and poorest men.”

:folded_hands:

R

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It is a great joy to see someone eat the food you offered. When I go for alms, I often get the opportunity to share my bowl contents with the other monks.

You can also get a good feeling from giving to humans, beggars and animals as well.

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I watched a video of dogs going behind people and biting their legs. Some dogs were too stubborn they rather die than let go of biting tendency.

There was a dog, who was so happy whenever he saw the Peccekabuddha.

An Account of Rich Man Ghosaka of Kosambī Country [Chapter 27a]

When the little dog discovered that the Paccekabuddha had left for good, it died of broken hearted and was reborn in the deva realm of Tāvatiṃsa.

He was endowed with a voice that excelled that of the other devas of the celestial world, as a reward for barking aloud and frightening the beasts of prey as he passed through forest in the company of the Paccekabuddha in his previous existence. It was therefore known as Ghosaka Deva for having a voice that covered the whole of deva realm.

Venerable Maha Kassapa gave a visit to the lady with a great heart.

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An animal had grief but was reborn as a deva
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2 posts were split to a new topic: An animal had grief but was reborn as a deva