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."
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