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buddhism is the fourth
largest religion in the world with over
half a billion
followers growing up in the west none of
us knew much about it so when we arrived
in thailand a few months ago we wanted
to gather a deeper understanding of the
culture and new country we were about to
explore which is why the first
conversation out of the plane was this
we've been in thailand for about two
hours i mentioned how we wanna try and
like
interact with monks or do something with
monkeys like oh you want to be a monk
it's like okay what does that imply
you shave everything including your
eyebrows i'm not going to do that i
already did japan
you look amazing it's a tradition here
in thailand where
teenage boys they will become a monk
basically because it's a way to respect
their parents and how they raise them
for the past 18 19 years
for you looking at your hair this is
removing it and your eyes how fast
that's my biggest question absolutely i
have no idea
okay
that's kevin during our stay in thailand
he helped us plan our party for 24 hours
took us to the best places in bangkok
and helped us organize
a surprise honeymoon retreat for a
couple kevin's the man with the
connections
and two weeks after this conversation we
were in chiang mai in the north of
thailand when out of the blue
he called us kevin
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what's up man how's it going do you
remember when you asked me
about experiencing how it's like to
become a buddhist monk
yeah well you were able to connect with
this
monk which is famous in thailand
the monk he's talking about is one of
the most respected and well-known monks
in
all of thailand he's a lecturer who's
written dozens of bestseller books about
life and buddhism helped refugees all
over the world
successfully spread his message of love
to millions of people online and closely
works with the pope
and the dalai lama so when we woke up we
truly had absolutely no clue
what we're about to experience
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it is currently 6 30 in the morning we
are
an hour into our ride we have no idea
what's happening once we get there we
don't know where we're sleeping tonight
we don't know
what we're doing once we get there i
realized i forgot my phone so i don't
even have a guy
hopefully thomas has his battery
so here's all we know that there's some
kind of festival or
celebration going on unfortunately we
haven't been told what it is
we're going
i'm so confused right now i'm exhausted
nobody understands us
or what we're trying to do there's such
a fine line between insulting being like
self-aware like you don't want to ask a
monk to
like sleep in their monastery that's
what we're trying to do you know like we
want to experience what they experience
it's very hard to pitch that without
being like a ignorant that's the dilemma
right now
how do we do this
how are you follow me and hello you are
the youtuber
yes my name is master secretary i heard
about someone will become a monster
yeah it's possible
is
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yeah what well i grew up never really
knowing what being a mug entailed and i
grew up not having the religion be a big
part of my life so it's mainly out of
curiosity and out of education
and to eliminate any stereotypes or any
misconceptions or what it's like
one day one night one day one night
you are the first young nobody in the
world
is going to be the first person to ever
be a monk a novice monk for just one day
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english
all right tonight
i'm gonna have myself
so don't stop me
cause i'm having a good time
well everything just turned around in
the past like 15 minutes
clearly so far been like the ultimate
level of discomfort we want to do this
thing that takes a lifetime to
accomplish like becoming a monk in like
a day
yeah you use this word you're not the
one
shaving your head and eyebrows buddy
this one from my bending
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m
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love is borderless you know
love is borderless he's treating us
there's so much food ice cream
and banana bread banana try i gotta try
this okay
it's delicious it's incredible so
amazing to see you
here that's why i ask how do you come
here who brings you here
because this program we are not inviting
so many people
just only the the local people which is
why it's crazy we just expect it to be
in the background but that he keeps
saying like come
come and like puts us in front for us is
very uncomfortable but it's amazing
it's just so new so he he's been so nice
about like making us feel so welcome
same with you tonight will be a special
program for
your brother
you shave his head first and then put
the robe on yes okay
so why we have to shave our hair because
the buddha would like to
learn about letting go of our attachment
so we don't want to
design our hair every morning let things
go
it's really cool yeah i like that
it's a long one one week one day
one day i wish in order to be
auspicious for you he is going to be the
first person to cut your hair
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please
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i was expecting us to show up and then
just leave like an hour later you know
five different people are cutting my
hair
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may you get enlightenment tonight may
your mind be
awake in mind may you understand the
law of the nature that is the real
teaching
of the buddha everything is impermanent
if you
accept this rule your life will be i got
a lot of work to do i've been growing
this for months
i use so much hair when you
wash the baby your parents will do this
for you that's why
when we become a novice we will think
about the parents and we wish them to be
happy
on this ordination all right here comes
the shave wow everything is just coming
up
very cold on my right side here
it's all coming up i feel it
you think about your parents yeah i
wonder
my parents are not buddhists it will
take them some time for them to
understand yeah yeah yeah yeah
hopefully what do you think of this this
is amazing for me this
is the first visiting in thailand and
you think about to be a novice
that's awesome that's amazing i think if
you're gonna learn about buddhism
there's no better way some may call it
the craziest way because nobody would do
this
he's doing it take some cojones to fully
shave your head and like try out
an entire religion in a day now we
should
when you shove your hand you look more
handsome
okay i don't want to look in the mirror
because i don't know what it was like
you take this
oh my god man
eyebrows are really important
all right we didn't want to be
disrespectful laughing it was just such
a shock
seeing my little brother look like it's
so different but yeah no way do you want
to make fun or buddhism or anything so
it's just because of him looking just
totally totally different
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this is the craziest thing i've done
before it is the good thing in your life
man that was great yeah it's very good
thing in your life
welcome to new family
congratulations i'm a novice you are
officially in all this that was intense
it was crazy that's a lot of focus
tonight you have to
separate your bedroom men and i are
going together and then he's going alone
yes you have to go to alone man i'm
going to sleep over here
and titty is gonna go sleep with the
other monks new friends
strangers are just friends you haven't
met yet that is huge
dude are these dangerous a little bit
dangerous
a little bit dangerous yes a little bit
dangerous
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take a few different relax
breathing in breathing
out happy in
suffering out have a little smile
relax come back to stay with our bread
relax we just uh walking meditation for
about an hour
some tai chi relaxation and we're gonna
go eat breakfast
since i can't eat afternoon enjoy your
meal today
so the novices have to sit and eat
outside the monk titty it's the inside
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yeah you go meet the master
i just had lunch with the master which
was pretty crazy the whole point behind
this meal was
to try to eat mindfully and to really
focus on the food that you're eating but
any thought or like the future of the
past get away from your mind and just
focus on the food that's in your mouth
something disrupting is about to happen
this very very special ceremony
keeping the process to industry that
means you will become
a people you will let the diamond from
the master have that dharma
every day every time everywhere
you can practice mindfulness
if you would like to come back here any
time any year
remember this is your house all right
we're about to head out it's been a
whirlwind of things happening we came
here not expecting
anything to happen and next thing i know
we're being like welcomed on stage
i'm getting my head shaved and then
getting sung to by hundreds of students
everyone's just so kind and so joyous
that i feel like i learned so much about
this sort of culture and how they really
appreciate the moment
and that's what it's all about
especially in western culture we tend to
you know what's the next thing next goal
to achieve but here it's all about fully
being in the present i don't even care
that i'm gonna have no eyebrows no hair
for
a month at least because one of those
things that you let go and you realize
it's not really part of who you are and
forces you to be really happy with
yourself and what your personality is so
i look forward to being stared at in
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europe