To practice as a monk is the easiest way according to our experiences.
To practice as a layperson is more difficult.
And to be a monk, practicing among other monks
is so easy. [laughter]
And if you inquire about it, you will know
what to do in order to be accepted as an aspirant
and how long it would take to be ordained
as a novice. And how much effort you should make in order
to be ordained as a bhikku/bhikshu, a fully ordained monk.
And as a monastic, we have a lot of chances to serve people.
And serving people, helping them to suffer less, brings us a lot of joy.
You know that we are in shortage of monks and nuns. In Europe, every country in
Europe, wants to have one retreat a year. And the number of monks and nuns and dharma
teachers are very limited - we cannot afford to offer every country in Europe
one retreat per year. There's only a few countries that get a
yearly retreat, that is France, and Germany, and the Netherlands.
Italy and other countries every two years. And there are many countries in Asia
and North America, and that's why if you don't have anything exciting to do
outside, [laughter] join us!
And as soon as you become a monastic, you can begin to serve already. By the way of
walking, breathing, smiling, you can already help people. Because you train as
a monk in order to do that. To live in peace, in joy, and to express peace and
joy with every step, with every breath. And you don't have to graduate in order
to serve. You continue to study Buddhism and train in the practice and every year
you have a Winter Retreat, 90 days, to deepen your practice. You continue to
learn every day and you have the chance to help your elder brothers and sisters in
the monastic community, to organize days of mindfulness, retreats on mindfulness
and you can learn a lot from your big brothers and sisters in doing so, and
you become a teacher.
We have recently opened another door, a 5 year programme
of monastic training and service.
If you are 35 or younger, you can sign up for that programme
and become a monastic for five years.
Three years as a novice, and two years as a fully ordained monk.
And if you like it, you continue for all your life.
And you can also return to lay life and continue to practice. And one or two years
after, you can become a lay dharma teacher
and work together with the monastic dharma teachers.
We need thousands of monastics more, in order to offer retreats and days of
mindfulness to many countries.
Young people from Asian countries, becoming monastic they have to learn
English, because if you become a dharma teacher you should be able to
conduct a retreat everywhere in the world.
But here, you don't have to learn English. [laughter]
So it's a very big advantage.
So please, those of you who
think that monastic life can bring you a lot of joy, and happiness,
you lead a very meaningful life, please reflect on it.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community