Thank you to Thay, to Sisters.
I hope you can understand me.
My question is: Because I am contemplating becoming an aspirant.
And I don't know if there are others in here who also are.
Can you tell me what the experience is like as a monastic?
For in short, what the year is like?
And when do you travel?
Does everyone travel in particular?
Or does everyone stay at the monastery? Thank you.
First you have to try
You have to give yourself time to know the monastic life
And also you give us time to know
Whether you suitable to that life
We have a lot of people who have illusion about monastic life
But we also have people who idealize the life of a monastic
We are human being
And if you can practice at home
You don't have to be monastic
But being monastic give you a lot of chances
That you can contribute all of your energy for the practice
You don't have to worry about your husband, your children
And audit and work and other things like that
We also work but we work in the way that
It supports our practice
So being monastic is like one way
You know you get into the freeway
And there is a one-way street and you cannot go back
You will encounter a lot of happiness
Which came from your transformation
But also you will encounter with difficulties
Which also come from your inner child
And come from your practice as well
Because if you don't practice well you cannot overcome it
So to me it's a happy life
But to some of us it's not easy
And that's very normal
Just like when you get into a job
And you know the job can be your life
or the job can be a burden that you want to get rid of
So the first thing is give yourself time to think about it
Second try it
Third you won't be able to become monastic
Unless your wish to become a monastic is more than 100%
When you still have doubt don't try yet
Once you shave your head
It takes a long time to grow it back
We do have a new door that Thay opens
For especially for our Western friends
That is five years program so you can register for that
And even though when you encounter with difficulty
You say: "Oh ok after five years and I will be out."
It gives you the chance
To live long in the community to taste the fruit
Because sometimes after the first year
First year is most likely easy
Because your Bodhicitta, your beginner mind is too big
And there's a lot of new things to discover and practice
Starting from the second year you have to deal with your own problems
All of the problems that have been accumulated
And have been stored in your store consciousness start coming up
Then we start looking around
And we say because of this because of that
We don't have enough capacity to look inside us
And see where is the root
Or even we see it we cannot transform it yet
So if we make decision that
Ok I'm going to stick myself for five years for example
It's like one-way street you have to go
And then things could be unfolded itself
And you will get transformation
But you know it's like you get into a dead-end
And then after you be able to get through it
while the road become wider
And on the path of emancipation
We encounter a lot of walls like that
You got through one challenge, then you got further
And then you encounter another problems another challenge
Which reflects your inner problems
So the Sangha of monastic is here to help each other
And to help other people
But first we have to help ourself
So after you become a little bit stable
You will be travelling a lot
Because the need of people in the world is quite huge
And you are not asked to go outside when you're still weak
But when you have something to offer to other people
You will be asked to go out and offer to other people
I like to travel a lot before
And when I give up my life to become monastic
My first sacrifice is: "Oh I won't be able to travel anymore."
It's different.
After I become monastic I travel more than before
I think I visited countries more than before
And the demand is become bigger and bigger
We just afraid that we don't have enough people
To send out for the whole world.
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