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TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 15

Amaravati monastery in rural Hertfordshire, UK.

We are often asked, “What does a Buddhist monastic
know about real life?” This is a very good question
because many people may think that we don’t have to
deal with real life in the monastery: “Things are easy
for you, but outside the monastery wall we have to deal
with real life; we have a much more difficult job.” Their
impression is that once you have given yourself to the
holy life, then you float around on little purple clouds,
existing in exquisite mutual harmony at all times,
exuding undifferentiated love and compassion for each
other, and, finally, at the end of a life of ever-increasing
blissfulness and profound insights into the nature of
Amaravati in spring, 2014
ultimate reality, deliquescing softly into nirvana leaving
behind a soft chime of ringing bells and a rainbow.
Not so. I’ll get on to that in a minute. I’m joking a bit, rephrase the question. The fourth is to remain silent. As
but this is the kind of image that people may have of I look at the question at hand, what comes to mind are
monasteries. It’s another world, something that other two counter questions: What is a Buddhist monastic?
people do. And what is real life?

The Buddha was asked a lot of questions in his time, Most people probably don’t know all that much about
and he once said there are four ways to respond to how the monastic system actually functions in the
a question. The first way is to give a straight answer. Buddhist world. To many, Buddhist monks are simply
The second is to ask a counter question. The third is to people who magically appear and disappear, like