Life As A Monk Or Nun

Life As A Monk Or Nun by Ajahn Brahm Okay, we're getting the lights up. My camera is going because these talks are put on the internet so they can be seen all over the world, and they are actually because when I was in the United States recently, many people actually hang out for these talks on the internet. And this evening's talk was actually, um, requested by some disciples in Los Angeles. So who, uh, also vaguely listened to this Friday night talks on the internet and what they wanted to hear this evening. The subject of the talk is actually something about like, what it's like to be a monk and nun. Some of the rules which we have to keep and why we have to keep them, and what happens when we keep and what happens if we don't keep them. But it's not just, uh, some, uh, a list of the monks, uh, precepts. I also want to use this talk to, uh, explain just why those precepts are there and why do we need them? What's the purpose of this? Because if we understand what the purpose is, is much easier to keep them the same when we have speed cameras, especially over the holiday weekend, sometimes people, all they do is they find out where the speed cameras are located and make sure they slow down at those places and speed up everywhere else. But it's not really understanding why those things are there in the first place. And I remember a long time ago, philosophers said, if you're going to have any laws of the land, people should understand why they're there first of all, otherwise they'll never keep them. I think that's actually, uh, in Plato's Republic, that there were 2400, 500 years ago. Because if we don't know why or we'll really do it, such as a try and avoid being caught for breaking the rules. But if we understand why those rules are there, the purpose behind them when they have meaning and we don't need to keep rules because of fear of punishment, we keep these rules because we understand that they are conducive to our happiness, our well-being, our prosperity. And one of the problems with, like law enforcement is we enforce things out of fear of punishment instead of understanding of the wisdom behind those regulations. And this is what I'm going to emphasize, I hope, in this talk this evening about some of the monks and nuns rules. But basically the thing which sets a monk nun apart and the two basic areas which are prohibited from monks and nuns, and one is sex, the other one is money. And that's always been just what separates you. That's what makes a monk or a nun. You know what the word nun means? It means none of this. None of that. That's the terrible joke, isn't it? I couldn't make a New Year's resolution tomorrow. And no more bad jokes. No more bad jokes, no bad, bad jokes. And see how long and keep it. But it's a sex and money thing which actually defines a monk. And even in the Western world, when I first came here, many, many 22 years ago, I think now I remember asking some Catholic priest and said, is it okay for us to call ourselves monks and nuns? Because really it is a Christian term. We said, yes, because you guys are celibate and also, you know, you live in poverty. You know, well, there's this we don't have any money anyway. Why do we have those rules? One of the reasons is why we don't have any money is because when you do have your own, as I call it, stash of cash, that you have some power to control your environment. You know, you can actually buy whatever you want. If I had my own money, sometimes when people would come and feed me, I look at the food they give and say, I don't like that and I can ring out for a pizza or something else because I'd have my own money. But I can't get away with that now, because if the Buddhist society got the bill, I'd be in big trouble. The point is that when you don't have your own stash of cash, you can't really get what you want. You can't control your environment. You can't manage it in the same way that people do, you know, in the the world. And this is an incentive to actually to let go more. When we were meditating a few moments ago and I was asking you to do the this is good enough, just the contentment in the moment is what causes the lack of thinking, the stillness of the mind. Sometimes, though, when we understand where that peace, that stillness comes from, now we can understand that. Why monks don't sort of have money because we don't have money. You can't think about what you want. You know what it's like. I just came in through a Singapore this morning or this afternoon, rather. And I saw all these people. Now they get to the airport. They're probably in Singapore on holidays and they go shopping in the airport. And they go shopping in the airport. And what happens when they get to Perth? Then they go shopping in the terminal there as well. So why would always go shopping? What's the point of shopping? Because sometimes that when you have money then you can buy things. Isn't it wonderful when you don't have any money then you can't buy anything. So it's wonderful not having any money. You don't have to go to the shops. You can meditate more. You don't have to go walking backwards and forwards and getting tired. You don't have all these terrible choices. In fact, you haven't got any choice at all because you've got no money. It's a wonderful thing being and not having any choice to sometimes measure what people do when they are got lots of money, they buy lots of clothes, and one of the worst things is getting up in the morning saying, oh, what should I wear today? I don't have that problem. You've only got your robes. You have the thing about what you're going to eat today, I don't have that problem. Just what people give me. You have don't have the, uh, the problem about where you're going to go today. Because I can't go anywhere unless there's some invitation. If somebody comes and picks me up or takes me back. So there's a lot of advantages in not having the means to control your day. Sometimes people thinking lack of control means a lot of suffering, but actually it means a lot of freedom. And so for many, many traditions, the idea of having no money is all part of this idea of becoming peaceful and learning how to be happy with what we have. Often you find when you go to places where there are very, very poor people, where people don't have much money, they have a lot of happiness. It seems to be, uh, a contradiction. It's the same as a strange paradox. Why is it the wealthiest countries in the world are sometimes the most dysfunctional? And why? Sometimes very poor countries have a lot of happiness. About 5 or 6 years ago, there was an article which I read in one of the magazines. It was about, um, the London School of Economics, who for, uh, an exercise, had tried to find another way to evaluate the different countries of our world. Instead of looking at their gross national product, the amount of material or money which they generated, which somebody once pointed out is very gross. We should really think about the subtle national product instead, which is nothing to do with money, but instead look at the gross national product. They decided on another set of criteria. Another way of measuring just how good a country was, just how wonderful a country was to live in its social fabric, the way people cared about each other, the lack of divorces, the lack of suicides, the general happiness there was to try and find some way of measuring the happiness of the average person in each country. And these hard economists in the LSC in London, and they decided on that on their criteria. Obviously, if there's many suicides, that was a very negative, but there was lots of, uh, what's it called, extended family ties. That was a positive. And when they worked at all this criteria, then they applied it to a number of countries. And the reason why I read the article, because the. Country, which came out top what they considered to be the best country in the world was Bangladesh. And I couldn't believe that it's supposed to be a very poor country, but certainly is poor when it comes to money. But there was other criterias, other things about that country which made it top of this list done by the LSC. And those are things which start to make you wonder, you know, just the ability to have lots and lots of money. We all know it's not supposed to give you happiness, but we don't believe in that. That's why all buy lottery tickets and we want to get more money and in more ways. But. The point is that as monks, we experiment with that having nothing at all. And it is true that when you give up money, you get another type of happiness in this world, a freedom from the concern about not about not well, actually about the concern about not having enough. Because one thing you know about money, it is never, ever enough. Even when people win the lottery, many people actually buy a lottery ticket the next week. You think isn't sort of 83 million enough? You think it's enough? But if you had 83 million, there's always something you can do with another 83 million. And this is a problem. There's something which the Buddha realized that the more we have, the more we want. And this was one of the experiences which certainly I had when I first went to like a poor part of Thailand in that northeast of Thailand, it was considered the backwaters of Thailand. It was poor then. It's still pretty poor now. But in those days it was dirt poor. And those were a little villages. There was no electricity, there was only dirt roads, and things hadn't changed there in centuries. So I was very fortunate to be able to go into a culture which hadn't been changed or influenced by any Westerners, which was Asian, which was Thai, which was old, which was traditional, which was literally was indigenous. And when I went to that place, as many things I saw, which I never expected, these people were supposed to be poor. And I just come from a place like Cambridge, a big university with many very wealthy people, millionaires and lords used to hang out with sometimes, you know, real lords, earls and counts. And these people with all this money, were nowhere near as happy as some of the very poor people you saw in the dirt poor villages of Thailand. And it's an experience which many people have. Then they go to Bali or Indonesia or other poor places, and they see these little people there. They haven't got anything, but they're just so much joy. I remember once there was a ceremony in a very remote monastery. While I was waiting for the ceremony to begin. It was a couple of hours. I walked out into the forest and found this little hut in the middle of the jungle. There I was, just at the edge of the bushes, just watching because there was kids there, about 5 or 6 kids, and they were playing, shrieking in delight. And I watched her for about an hour or two hours and never seen such a happy family in all my life. Still remember it now. They had nothing, just a thatched roof on a bamboo poles and thatch on the, uh, around. And they were just so content and so happy in each other's company. So sometimes we aren't asked what actually is poverty and what is wealth. I remember another occasion, the first, uh, few weeks I was in, uh, this monastery, which eventually became, what, banana charts in the northeast of Thailand. There was a ceremony in the village one evening. I went into that village with a few other monks as we walked into the village. There was no electricity and we passed house after house with the same scene appearing on their balconies. Those Thai houses in the village in those days was on stilts. Underneath was a water buffalo. On top was a few rooms where most of it was an open balcony, a huge balcony surrounded by a few rooms. And they're in a oil lamp and the light of an oil lamp. You can see in house after house the illuminated faces of maybe about 15 to 20 people. There were the kids from anything from 2 or 3, the parents, the uncles, the aunts, the grandparents, maybe great grandparents. And they're all sitting around in a semicircle telling stories or jokes to each other. Maybe old jokes, just like I tell. But they were so well-worn and so well loved. And the point was that this had happened every day of every week of every year, for countless decades and centuries. The family being together, talking to each other every night. And as I went past house after house, just I realized how poor my childhood was when we had a television. Even those days there was only two channels in London, BBC and ITV. But you couldn't imagine the arguments we had about which one was going to turn on. I just don't know how you manage these days with so many channels. Actually, I do know how you manage. Everyone has to have their own TV. And that means we never see each other. We never talk to each other. We never live with each other. Many people in the same house, but all strangers. And when I saw this, I realised that sometimes having a few things. There's a beauty, there's a harmony. There's other things become possible when you don't have very much. And there must be some of this wisdom by the Buddha, because he saw that at least some monastic communities and monks and the nuns can maybe do without much at all, and thereby we can actually have other things which we aspire for. So we're not really too worried about the money, because all we need is food for the day. We can have lodgings to live in from no robes to wear, and when medicines in time of sicknesses where the Buddha called for resources, that's the basic necessities of life. And so he asked the monks and nuns to keep it simple. And when you keep it simple, there's a lot of tranquility and a lot of time because either you're not caught up with making money or you're not caught up with spending money. Spending money takes a lot of time. And so we kept it simple. And there's one of these stories I don't know when I last told it here. I think I did tell this over in, uh, in Penang, where I just come from, that there was even though the monks aren't allowed to have money, either the bank accounts or personal monies or coins and cash in their pockets. Actually, as a monk, I don't have any pockets. So if I did have any money, I'd have nowhere to put it. But nevertheless, on this, the one is allowed by the Buddha to accept an offer from any lay person. If that bank has done any service, any kindness to somebody, you can invite them to say, Venerable Sir, uh, you've really helped me. Can I get something for you? And he usually give an amount, say, for $10 or $20? $100. And that's actually allowable. On one occasion, the first time it happened to me, I'd done someone a service in Thailand. They came up to me and said, Jim Brown, you really help me. I want to give you something not for the monastery, something personal for you, for the amount of about 100 baht, which is worth about $3 Australian now. But that was many years ago, and that was a lot of money at the time. I said, well, I don't know what I need for a hundred hundred baht. And the man said, look, I'm in a hurry. I said, why don't you come back tomorrow and let me think about it? Good idea. So he went away and I went back to my heart and started thinking. But the best way to think is get a piece of paper and a pencil. So I got the piece of paper and a pencil. What do I want? And then I started thinking some air of ground so I can write back home to my mother and family, which is a fair thing to do. But then after some arrogance, maybe actually I can write a proper letter and get some stamps, but I also need a pen for that and maybe a little light so I can actually write those things. And after a few minutes I had started having all these things which I wanted. Now the amazing thing was, was before he offered that opportunity to get those things, I didn't want anything at all. I was actually quite content. But when I started listing these things down, the list took on a life by itself and soon the piece of paper was full and 100 baht was certainly not enough. And it was so difficult to try and take off something from this list. Now it was on there, and in fact, you couldn't take on anything at all, because what came into my mind was something more than I wanted. And soon I had to fill the backside up as well. And now 1000 baht was not enough and every item was absolutely necessary. I couldn't understand how I could do without these things before. And then I realized what was going on. There was this is a nature of greed that once it starts. It's never enough. And it's a strange thing that once we have created the everything which we now want, we can't distinguish between a want and an absolute necessity. We have to have these things. And when I saw was going on, I screw up that piece of paper. I threw it away in the next morning, I said, please, let's give that 100 bar to the monastery, or just take it and burn it, or bury in the ground, throw it in the river. But don't ever do that to me again, because before I was so content and happy, now I had that money. I was not content. Now, this is actually a very deep teaching about contentment and wanting and why, as monks and nuns, if we're on the fast track to enlightenment, that we're doing this because we realize, yeah, it's tough, we can't get what we want, but. We're getting freedom from wanting. I always remember when you were a rich person. You were supposed to be someone who wanted for nothing. And then I realized why monks and nuns were rich people. Because we too want for nothing. That's our aim for nothing. Just the basic necessities of life. So we can live that simple life of lots of meditation and have more time for each other and more time for each one of you. So we're not taken up by the search for money, which only gives power to our personal desires. Sure, everyone can't live like that. In fact, we need your money to look after our poverty. But that being said. That being said, sometimes people are happy to do this because it's something else about the poverty of a monk or a nun. The possibility of a McKernan not having money, not having the means to get around to pay a bus ticket, or even like to pay airport taxes. In some of these airports, not having the ability to buy a lunch for yourself or whatever, means that as monks and nuns were saying, we need you. Even though I'm a grown up man, I am deliberately dependent and helpless. At first that was very hard to take. As a young man who wanted to be independent, who didn't want to bother other people, I don't want to make it difficult for you. Give me some money. I can do it myself. But later on, I realized that, you know, in any community, it's great to have helpless people. When our monks first went to England, that was one of the first monasteries which Atienza set up. There were many women whose sons had already grown up and got married. And when they saw monks so helpless, it was like a dream come true. They had all these surrogate young men who they could look after and pamper. And so the first years in that monastery, they said you wouldn't believe they had whole cupboards full of socks and scarves and woolly hats knitted by these mothers whose sons had already grown up. And now they had these monks who they could knit for and look after. And I now realize, actually, it's a wonderful thing to be so helpless, because when you're helpless, you're giving other people the opportunity to show their kindness. And compassion is one of these things which I learned and which I encourage. Now, please don't be so self-sufficient. The self-sufficient people in our world are literally saying, I don't need anyone else. I don't need you. I'm all right by myself. Which is fine, except they get terribly lonely and depressed. They never know. This beautiful interchange called compassion. So these days I. It's wonderful being helpless and so that being helpless, other people have to look after the monks and nuns, and because they have to look after us, we have this beautiful joy. At last I've got someone to look after. Even when the monks went to England and some people started complaining, these monks, they take such a lot of money to look after, you know, their house, you have to pay the rent and you have to get these robes and these food every day and have to come and offer it personally. Until the chairman of the English Sanger Trust worked out on the back of an envelope one day that actually looking after a monk, he worked out the costs, and he found the cost of looking after a monk who handles no money is actually cheaper than owning a dog. And so every home should have one. But you can build it. Not a little kennel, but like our coaches are like little kennels, only a little bit bigger in the back of your house. And they're very easy. You just feed on one bowl that just the dog has a bowl, just like the monks, one bowl of food a day and you can take him on a walk, maybe, and ask your other questions. And that's what people do sometimes. They love having a walk with a monk. And so sometimes I do it for exercise. But they they don't let me exercise my body and they exercise my mouth as they told me, ask me all these questions. So people actually love hanging out with monks and nuns. This is where they hang out with little dogs and little cats. You know why? Because other people, you know sometimes get angry at you. But monks, all you do is give them little food and they, like, wag their tail. It's just so harmless and so happy. They just love you no matter what you do to them. Just like, just like a pet. But the reason that monks and nuns do that. Because we're so helpless. Because what we're saying is we need you. And isn't it wonderful? To say to other people, we need you. And for another person to say thank you. Because in that mutual need, in that deliberate non independence, non self-sufficiency. We're having this interaction of care. One of the problems when people are independent they can do it by themselves when they don't need anybody. Who say live alone, alone physically and also mentally in a community where one person deliberately says, I cannot live without you now because we have that rule of not having handling money, having to have our food off it. Sometimes people ask, why don't you grow your own vegetables in your monasteries? That the nuns have got almost 600 acres when you grow your own veggies, and we won't need to go and feed you every day. Or why don't you just know we feed you once a week, put all the food in the freezer. We don't need to go and offer it to you or cook or anything. But that's not the way the Buddha meant it to be. The monks have to be fed every day. They can't. They. They're able to cook themselves, but they will not do that. They won't grow their own food. Because that gives us beautiful interdependence working together, caring for each other. It gives that meeting of the monastic and lay communities and is beautiful symbiosis of mutual care. Because that mutual care, that lack of control, that way of, uh, depending upon kindness, is a way of also liberating the mind to Nirvana. You have to depend upon kindness. This is good enough contentment, working together with what you're experiencing in order to develop the beautiful, peaceful mind states, beautiful peaceful mind state. Start from the joy of good karma, of having done something wonderful. You have a pure mind. Pure minded people are those who care for others, who can give selflessly, who can share. And that pure mind gives inspiration. And you never get deep in meditation. Without inspiration. Respiration is not enough. You need inspiration, otherwise you get inspiration and then desperation. So you need inspiration. And sometimes these things are just so inspiring. Some of the most beautiful moments of my life is to see how poor people can share with you, right? I think I did ask the editor of the was it the Enlightened Times to put it in this, uh, the recent issue? I'm not sure if it's in there, but when I was on my way to, uh, the London and the United States in November, I'd just gone over to Bangkok for this World Buddhist summit. People were talking to me all day at this conference in the evening, I gave public talks, as with people all the time, you know, like I'm here now is talking, talking, talking. And when I got to Singapore, I met my disciples over there, talking, talking, talking. Even inside the airport because they work for Singapore Airlines. They were actually inside the terminal talking, talking, talking to me. And I thought, I need a break. So you know what I did? I went inside the toilet and I thought, at least there that atom bomb can have a bit of peace and quiet. But this was actually in the lounge in Singapore Airlines, uh, Changi Airport. And I went into this, uh, this, uh, toilet lounge, and they had a toilet attendant in the lounge. And as soon as he saw me, he said, atom bomb. I need to ask some questions about Buddhism. So in the airport. So in the toilet in Changi Airport. I spent 20 minutes talking dharma to the toilet attendants. I realized I can't get away anywhere. Not even in the loo. But nevertheless, it was a beautiful moment because this is the very end. There is only a toilet attendant. And this man said I wanted to make a donation. And I said, like monks, I don't accept money. And he was so disappointed. So I said, well, you can send it to me. So what's your address? And the only thing I had to write the address on was one of the paper towels, which are used to wipe your hands. So we wrote it on there and I thought, there's no way that anything is going to happen. When I came back from the United States, it was a $10 donation with a little letter. Letter from the toilet attendant at Changi Airport. Wasn't that really wonderful? Because I know that he's hardly got any money at all. That's not a high paying job. It's not one of the the jobs that your children are aspiring for after they got their t results, although maybe some of your children have done so badly, that's probably all they could manage. The there wasn't that beautiful that had that degree of care, and that would not have happened if I was a man who had my own stash of cash, I wouldn't have needed that. I said, $10 now. Thank you sir. I've got more money than you have. This is one of the beautiful things about the monks who actually keep that beautiful simplicity of renunciation, of having no money at all, and sometimes it's so disappointing. You know, if you see, like, a monk or a nun, a Buddhist monk or a nun who's got a more expensive mobile phone than you have, who has got a Rolex watch or who wears Gucci robes. Or whatever else you can buy with all your money. You're saying, oh, no. Isn't it? Because if they have that so much stuff, you don't need to care for them. You don't. If they had all the best food, then you would need to come and offer food to them every Sunday or Saturday whenever you go to the monastery. Isn't it wonderful to have people who are so hopeless and so helpless? They need you. And because of that, you understand why good monks, they don't have money. Good nuns don't keep their own coins in dollars or credit cards because it means, number one, we understand what compassion and what care, what generosity really is and how it creates some beauty in our world. But also it understands that as monks and nuns, by giving up personal control over their environment, can't go where they want to, can't do what they want to, always have to depend upon others. Not only would our lay supporters never buy as things which are inappropriate, if we were going along and said, you know, stand outside the movie theater and ask someone, can you buy a ticket for me? I'm a penniless monk. Obviously you wouldn't do that. So because we don't have our personal stash of cash, it means that there's many things which are inappropriate we won't even be tempted to do because we can't do it. But it gives the beautiful generosity. And it also is a symbol of renouncing the ability to control and govern your world. Instead, to let go and to be at peace with the world, be content not needing so much, and understand the beauty of not needing so much understanding. The. Similarly, when I said about, you know, someone offered me 100 baht and how wonderful it was when you didn't even have the means to get anything. And you may do even now. As a senior monk and monk for over 30 years, with many disciples and very wealthy disciples, I still try and keep that simplicity of not having any money and having simple things, because when you have money, you will have expensive things, and the more money you have, the more expensive things you have. And obviously, if we were allowed money, I would have more money than a monk sitting next to me and so my roads would be more shiny. Maybe alarming, maybe not Gucci. But it's wonderful when you don't have these things, when you share everything, because you always notice you've been here many years. Just because I'm the abbot. I don't have stripes on my my sleeve. My little pips there. Like in the army. There's no difference between us. And sometimes people don't know who's the abbot and who's not the output. I remember that story once when I was working very hard, uh, in as I still do, I still try and get involved in the concrete pours as I did a couple of weeks ago for one of the huts which was being built. And I love getting, you know, almost my body smeared with a gray concrete. Then it's nice for a senior man to still get dirty. And I remember once getting very dirty on a concrete floor in our monastery, you know, working hard and coming away from that building site on my way to my heart. When a visitor came to our monastery, it was a Sri Lankan woman in a very expensive sari. I met her and she said, where is the abbot? And my response was, no, he should actually be up in the dining hall soon. Maybe you go and wait up there and I'm sure he would turn up. And so she went up there. I went quickly to my heart, had a shower, changed my robes and started talking to her. And I talked to her some Buddhism about meditation and dharma and things, and she was so impressed. Afterwards, I think she left a donation in the donation box. But she said, it's a wonderful, modest. It's a great talk, but if you don't mind, I would like to point out that some of your monks are very poorly dressed because I met this very dirty monk on the way here. And I said to him, and it was her, and it wasn't a lie. I said, I'll talk to him about it later on. Matter. And of course, that was me. That is wonderful. Because of the simplicity of not having money. You don't have, like elitist monks or the rich monks or the aristocratic monks were all pretty much the same. You're making and share the same things. But when there is money, there'll always be elitism. Just like in our society, the people with a lot of money, they live in the top suburbs with the biggest houses. Now they drive the biggest cars. They have this beautiful, uh, jewelry on their fingers, and it really separates us sometimes. And sometimes because of that separation, there's no harmony. So it's wonderful for monks having no money, because that way we're all the same. And there isn't no aristocracy, aristocracy or caste between the monks because we all as poor as each other. One of the best things about having no money, though, is whenever you have to deal with the government. Because I still have a healthcare card, which, you know, is I'm because of. I haven't got any money you actually allowed to have. Don't use it to get into the zoo or anything, but it's just, uh, it stops. You get, uh, cheaper prescription medicines if ever you need them. Haven't used it for years, but it's great filling in the forms from the Department of Social Security because they have all these, um, forms you have to fill in. How much money do you get from your salary? How much might you get from your investments? How much money do you get from rental properties? How much money do you get from other sources? And I love it when I put nil, nil, nil, nil, nil. And the first time we did this, we got these letters from these very confused bureaucrats who never seen anything like this before. It really makes the computer programs crash. And say, how can you live without any money? And we are so very well, thank you. And very happily so. Sometimes we enjoy things like that. It's also like the other times when we go in there, because if you fill in the forms, first of all, you also need ID and for identification I think you need like was it three different types of identification. So they ask for your driving license. Sorry, we don't drive. We ask for your like uh, mortgage agreements or your rental agreements. So we know you don't have any more because you don't read anything. Then they ask for your marriage license. And that's really hopefully saying to ask how much we just don't have anything. And that really confuses them. Sometimes it's almost if you don't have money, you don't have property, you don't exist in the world and they're wonderful not to exist. You're not here. Oh that's wonderful anyway. Because of not having money, there is a simplicity there. There's a purity, there is a poverty. And it's not a poverty of like, harshness, but the poverty of simplicity. And that was something which was intended by the Buddha as an inspiration to others, that is, things which are more important than the pursuit of money in this world. And there is an openness to being cared for by other people. And there is a simplicity which goes into your meditation when you don't want anything because you can't have anything. There's a lack of controlling called letting go. There's a compassion in the door of my heart's open. No matter what happens, even if I don't have little, I can still be content. Other things become more important in your life than the pursuit of money or the, uh, the showing off of your wealth. To others. There are other things become more important. And that's one of the wonderful things about living in a monastery or a temple. When nothing is money driven, you come and listen to a talk and it doesn't matter whether you pay for you don't pay for it. You give a donation or you steal the donation box. We're not really concerned about that. Money doesn't come into the equation. When people say, how much do you charge? We always say it's priceless. We never say it's for free because people don't care about it. We say it's priceless. This one lady once rang up me to say East European lady. She said, uh, is there a talk tonight? I said, yes, I'm giving it. How much do you have to pay? And I said nothing, madam. I was here in Panama. I answered the telephone. Nothing, madam. And she paused, and she said, look, you didn't understand how much dollars sense do I have to pay at the door? I said, madam, you have to pay nothing at the door. No dollars, no sense. And she paused again. This time she shouted, money, dollars! How much do I have to cough up to get in? And in a gentle voice I said, madam, you don't have to cough up anything. You don't have to pay anything. We're not going to take your name and send you a bill or send you propaganda afterwards. You just come in here, you can sit in the back line. Many people do. The reason why they sit by the doors is because they can get out easily if they don't like it. Yeah. And said that's what you can do. Is completely free liberal. We don't ask anything of you whatsoever. And the next part of this conversation, I'll always remember with a lot of joy, because this lady was completely confused. She never could understand. How can you do something when money's not involved? And so she said sincerely. Well, what do you guys get out of it, then? If it's not for money, would you get out of giving talks or doing this thing? And obviously straight away I said happiness, madam. Lots and lots of happiness. So it's terrible if I would teach for money. It'll be a business you won't get any happiness out of. It is terrible. Now, if you had to pay everybody to do this and do that, isn't it wonderful? There is some places you can go to a monasteries. I don't pay you to come and give me the food. You don't pay me to give you any counselling. You don't pay for chanting. I give you holy water, whatever you want. It's all done. Out of care. Love. Freedom. Isn't it wonderful? There's some place in this world which doesn't run on money. Sometimes we get so disappointed that the world becomes so materialistic. We do need money. Sometimes it is materialism. Yeah, but isn't it nice to have one place, one pure place where money doesn't come into the picture? If actually that one thing I'm very proud of in my monastery at banana, you can actually check it out. We've only got one donation box in that whole monastery and it is so small. I've been to many other monasteries in the world because I travelled around a lot. I'm so proud that we've got the smallest donation box in all the monasteries, probably in the whole world. We should go in the Guinness Book of Records for that. The monastery is the smallest donation box because people are so kind and caring, it always gets filled. Actually there's psychology. I shouldn't really mention this, but if you have a small donation box, people think you're poor. If you have a big donation box, people don't like putting things into it because they think if you so got such a big donation box, you don't need anything. But anyhow, the point is that it's wonderful to have places where money doesn't get involved. And so it's great to see at least monks and nuns, Buddhist monks and nuns. We don't get paid. We don't want money. Just give us some food and that's enough. This is not wonderful to have something else which is more inspiring. And so that's why it's great that Buddhist monks and nuns around the world don't get involved with handling money, having bank accounts and having expensive things. It's an inspiration to the world. And this is what the Buddha wanted. There was the rules, many rules which monks aren't supposed to have money. Monks these days do have money, most of them, but we don't because we want to keep the original teachings. They're inspiring. They work. We've been doing this for such a long time, having 22 years in Western countries that have a needed money for 22 years. And I don't just stay in a monastery, I come and go, go all over the place, as you know too well, and I survived very well. After all, look how fat I am, having no money at all. The reason why I'm fat, I often say, is I don't worry enough. When you have money, you worry much more so because of that. Even interestingly, in the Franciscan order, which I respect a lot, the Catholic Franciscans in the early time, they didn't have any money at all. Saint Francis made that one of his rules. You can't have money. But even in his lifetime, when his order became famous, the other monks said, no, no. When you started out Saint Francis, maybe it was easy to get enough. But things have changed. Times have moved on. We have to change according to times. We need money these days. And this was about 1200 and something. And even though is a fascinating story, even though Francis was still alive and he went to this big meeting of all his disciples, they outvoted him. And from that time on, the Franciscans had their own money. I couldn't believe that how people could outvote their teacher, the person who inspired them to begin with. But at least near the Buddhists, at least some of them kept those original rules. Times haven't changed that much. You need such money. In fact, you are more successful when you keep those original rules. It's the same as, like, celibacy. No. We're monks. What does that mean? No. One of the first Buddhist temples I went to was a Tibetan temple in the north of, uh, England. In Scotland. I called Sammy Link and the person who was the teacher there. I thought it was very inspiring until I saw when it came to 5:00, because I was staying there for the first time. He changed out of his robes into a suit, got into his car and drove back to his wife, who lived in Dunfermline. He was only a 9 to 5 monk, he called himself, but that really didn't make any sense. How can you call yourself a monk if you've got a wife? Just. It doesn't make sense. If you're a monk, it really means you are celibate, having no sex. Sometimes people think that celibacy is a very difficult thing in this world. It is if you live in that late community and light world. And I feel very. Sad sometimes for like a Catholic priest especially, who have no means to achieve, to achieve that celibacy or appreciate what it really means, it's a struggle for them. Because I remember my early years when I was teaching at Banbury Gaol, and I used to stay in the parish house in Banbury, next to the cathedral, and I got to know many of those Catholic priests very well. I remember one evening one of them said, it's so hard to be celibate. And they said that with sincerity. It was just a struggle for them. You just have to bear with it. And I thought, no, in Buddhism, actually, because we're meditating monks, you know, we do have a means to actually to get beyond celibacy, beyond Self-obsession said that beyond sexuality. So it's no longer a struggle, but it's a joy. And this is another thing that is a great being a monk or a nun who's not part of another sexual game. If you want. There's many times when you can actually talk to like a man or woman about relationships, about sex, especially a monk talking to a woman or a woman talking to her. So a nun talking to a man, when sometimes the woman realizes that, you know, this is not a potential sexual partner, this is someone who is celibate, the one they really can trust and is a different dynamic to that sort of counselling. Because I've been in this business for such a long time, I know exactly how it works. So having a monk. Yeah, it's much different than having a man or woman talk to you now because we're outside of all sexuality. There's a different way of relating. In Thailand, they always used to say there was three sexes or three genders. The male, female and the monks, which included the nuns, were literally outside. And that celibacy there not only gives you another way of relating to other people, but it also gives you a freedom again, for many other of the concerns of life, because many people are so concerned of getting with relationships, with the pleasures of sexuality, with a man, woman, or the if you are gay with a homosexual, relationships which consume a much of the time, much of your concerns, your energies, your worries. But it's another form of simplicity. You can imagine if it was possible to be peaceful, to be happy, to be content without sexuality. It's another type of freedom, some other thing we don't need to be concerned with in this world. And this is a great discovery by someone like the Buddha. To see, like how you can be celibate and the beauty and the purity of that and the joy of it. I know that sometimes in a modern age, people have experimented with celibacy and actually have found it has a flavor to it, which is very inspiring and joy giving. The reason why it's simple, inspiring, and joy giving simply because the mind, if it's done not out of suppression or trying to control the mind, resist those tendencies. But it is transcending them, really letting them go so they don't come up. You get an incredible peace and other form of energy coming up, and certainly in the Buddhist goal, which is another goal of making the mind so still and peaceful that you can see another dimension to being that celibacy is part and parcel of the path to enlightenment. And you simply because, as you all know that the Buddha said in the now, the third, the second noble truth is the craving which leads to suffering. Now we all know that, but sometimes we don't know how to stop that craving and craving to stop craving because more craving. And that's when people try and get to tense. The people who try to suppress their sexuality is like craving not to crave. And that gets even more tense and more weird and more dysfunctional. However, that's not the Buddhist way of dealing with sexuality. For the Buddhist monks and nuns. You know, we actually let the whole process disappear, not controlling it, but freeing it. By freeing it, I mean getting that degree of peace and contentment which doesn't look for pleasure in the physical world, but sees the more better pleasure from the freedom from the physical world by going into the world of the mind. It's actually taking another step out of the world into the bliss and peace of the mind. Because certainly in my own journey as a Buddhist, it was a meditation which inspired me the most with actually experiences. I've been through theories before, you know, as a theoretical physicist, you know, also interested in philosophies. Whenever you have philosophies or theories or scientific ideas, we're always arguing. No. Religions argue. You know, Buddhists argue with other Buddhists. And what really with the Mahayana is with the terror fighters and terrorists who Lankans with the ties with the whatever. And we always argue with one another. And sometimes. Where is the end of the argument? I didn't want more theories. I wanted actually experiences to see things for myself. And that's one of the wonderful things. When I was a young man, my first meditation retreat, I got such a deep meditation, it blew my mind literally, because so much bliss. And it was weird. At that time I did have a girlfriend. I was sexually active with her. It was amazing that, you know, I could get a bliss which was better than sex. And this actually was an important part of why celibacy is there for monks, not because you are denying yourself pleasure, which will be suppression, but because, you know, you literally do have a more pure, more beautiful pleasure. And that's why when I teach this meditation, the way that you've heard me teach before, especially on retreats, I'm very happy with the results of my retreat in Penang. So only finished, uh, yesterday or just the day before. So I'm very pleased because several people got incredible bliss status when they were meditating. And there's so much happiness, you know, that it always really turns me on when they come up afterwards shaking. Oh, it's so nice. I jump from, oh, it's so nice. And they start crying. Oh, I never felt like this is so wonderful, so peaceful, so joyful. I love it when they do that. And it happens every retreat. No 2 or 3 people. This retreat was a good one. About 4 or 5 had these beautiful states. And actually, that shows you something. There's a happiness better than sex. And the Buddha noticed that and recognized that and said, okay, you monks and nuns, if you want another happiness, try this celibacy business. And at least if you're a monk, if you're a nun, this is what you're supposed to be doing. Obviously, some people who join the monastic order, monks and nuns, know they don't get into the deeper meditations, and after a while they do get sort of desiring of the lay life, the sexual life, getting married, having kids. And that's fine. That's why we can disrobe as monks and nuns anytime you want. You can leave. It's not like lifetime commitments. It was a lifetime commitment that would be very dysfunctional, very unfair. Why should you be held in despair, frustration? Because of some decision you made ten, 20, 30 years ago? So people do disrobe in Buddhism. You know, monks and nuns have disrobe. We allow that to happen because it's better you're a happy person than a miserable monk. But a lot of times people don't want to disrobe. It's not because they're fighting the urges, but because they actually transcend them. It's not the case that sexuality is always necessary for the human being. Sometimes people say, oh, this has to be there, it must be there. And any marks on dance are just being deviant. They're suppressing it or whatever. But that's not true. You can transcend it. You do transcend it. You are free of it. Once you understand that, it's another type of letting go which gives happiness and peace out to another level, which is why we have celibacy in the monastic orders. If you don't like it, give it a try. See if it works. If it doesn't work fine, you can go back into the other world, get a partner, whatever you wish to do, that's fine. But the point is, if you are a monk, you should act like a monk. If you are a nun, you know you should behave as a nun. And otherwise, people lose their faith in the inspiration. Because when you see, like a happy monk or a happy nun who literally has been celibate for such a long time, it does give you another way of looking at life. It's not just the search for money, but the search for partners who search for sex. You see, there's something else in life. And one of the great things about the monastic order, when it's lived in its purity, is it does become an inspiration. It gives an alternative. It gives another way. And where we can give another way, an alternative and inspiration that is the gift of a sangha to the world to say, yes, celibacy is possible and you can be happy with celibacy. You can be enjoying celibacy. In fact, you can be blissed out, especially when you develop meditation. So because of that, that we're giving people another way of looking at life, a life which is not just about relationships and sexuality, not the relationships with one person to one person. Sometimes people used to ask me, Jim Brown, don't you ever miss, you know, having a partner, having someone you're intimate with? And I said, look, I'm intimate with all my disciples. Sometimes you can talk in the deepest levels with your friends. Your friends in the Dharma. Don't you miss having children? And I say, Now I've got heaps of children, or my disciples are like my little children sometimes. I'm like a little grandfather sometimes. And it's wonderful having those sorts of relationships so you don't miss out on being a monk. In fact, I find the life is enhanced. It was great being a young man growing up in the late 60s and 70s, because you were sexually active and not encouraging sex before marriage or not discouraging. And that's not the purpose of me saying this. The only reason I'm saying this is actually to show that I know what I was talking about. I wasn't born a monk, I keep on saying, and I found that actually very helpful because that gives me an understanding. And having had relationships, long term relationships with girlfriends, to actually understand a little bit of what it's like. So that gives me the understanding of what celibacy is and why it should be there. These are precepts of the Buddha. In fact, either one of them. That is, the first precept of the Buddha is any monk or nun who has sexual relations with somebody else. From that moment on, they they're not a monk or nun anymore. They don't have to go to any procedure. Just having sex means at that moment you're no longer a monk or no longer a nun. This makes it clear. So when we understand that, we understand what monks are, what nuns are, and how we relate to these people, and when we understand that much, we understand the simplicity. The non sexuality puts the monks and the nuns in a different level. I don't mean high or low, but this is something which is outside the other way. The world runs sometimes that people lose hope in the world. Everyone's all the same. They're all just. All men are interested in sex. They're all just interested in money and things like that. Put your hand up saying no, not me. It's wonderful to have people to put their hand up like that. And who's someone who's opening now? You can check me out. You can see what I do. I don't hide and not hide behind doors. You know, people and some of my younger monks. They check me out before they commit to staying in the monasteries. When I find out and I do these teachers, are they really like that or is it just a scam? Because you have to check out your teachers and leaders, because if you don't that sometimes you get just so disappointed when someone comes along and they say one thing and you find out they were lying. There's just so much disappointment sometimes in like religious leaders or inspirational leaders. I remember just know when the former abbot here in Jakarta wrote and that basically I was next and I there was nobody else. I knew what was going to happen. And I remember for 2 or 3 weeks, just really thinking very deeply to myself, how can you do this? Are you going to disappoint people? Now, if you take on being an advocate or a spiritual leader, there's a lot of responsibility there. Because if I really just mess up the system of my own karma, it's just I disappoint and frustrate so many people and I just couldn't do that. So I had to be quite confident that I was a good monk and I could keep these rules, because the worst thing would be to disappoint people, disappoint people big time. So it's wonderful having monks. You can trust nun as you can trust people who live that monastic life. Just as you read in the time of the Buddha, who actually doing it, who are celibate, who don't have money, who do keep these rules. And you find these are the ones who developed the deep meditation, and they get all these amazing insights, and you find that actually there is a connection there, connection between the simplicity and not having money, not controlling the world, not interested in sensory pleasures of sex. Because then you go to another level of letting go the bliss of the mind. So I mention here many times the Buddhist path, especially the monastic path, is not an unhappy path. It's not a question of you denying yourself happiness as if it's some penance you do. I know that in some monastic orders people whip themselves. But this is not what we're doing in Buddhism. You know, we're not sort of a flatulent, airy monastic situation, a monastic order. And we have a lot of fun. And you find that sometimes that's what attracts you to monks and nuns, because they're very happy people and they're happy without sex, they're happy without money. And that just gives the biggest dharma teaching can possibly have. All the words we say can be one thing, but the actions and to see they're real. And then you understand the Buddha's four noble truths, the basic Buddha. So there is an end of suffering, the end of craving. The Buddha said these in heaven, and the more you end that craving, the more bliss you get. And so having no money is a way of ending craving, at least for limiting it. Having no sex is a way of limiting craving. And if you can really end it without subject to more craving, without this suppression or control, if it really is a freedom and letting go and no controlling a piece, then you can understand what that third novel to this means is a piece. A freedom which doesn't need anything. You don't need the enjoyment of sex. You don't need the support of a relationship. Of a close partner in life, a lover. You don't need money. You don't need things. You don't need no expensive clothes or big cars or big mansions to think you've got somewhere in the world. You don't need one. You don't need. You are free. Free from this force which controls you. Called craving. Wanting. Always wanting something more. Whatever you have, it's never enough. Whatever. Every day. There's always something else you want. Every moment. Just like me. With £100. Never enough. And this is a way of enough. This is the way of freedom from desire. So I wrote in my book. There's two types of freedom. The freedom of desire, where you are free to have sex, to have relationships, to have money, to go here, to go there, to get whatever you want. That's called the freedom of desire. And that's what rich, wealthy, beautiful, attractive people have. You get any girl you want, any man you want, any food, go whatever you want. As a freedom of desire. But Buddhism was talking about the freedom from desire. When you don't want anything, you don't need sex. You don't need anything. Freedom. That is the third noble truth. The end of craving is nirvana. When you understand that, you have a deeper meaning of why the Buddha asked all his monks and nuns to live this as the path, and to live this as the example of the goal. Freedom from craving. No sex, no money, but a lot of happiness. So that's why we have these rules for the sangha, for the monastic order. And that's why when you go to a like a meditation retreat or stay in a monastery, you keep a precepts, no sex and you can have your money, but you can't use it in a monastery. There's nothing you can buy and you can't bribe me. You can't say, I want to stay in the monastery next week. I know it's full, but if I give you a few hundred dollars, can you sort of, you know, find your way in there? I'm having a meditation retreat coming up soon. There's no places but you know. No. Maybe, you know you need some money for your retreat center. Maybe $1,000. Is that enough? Can I get in? There's no nothing like that at all. And that's wonderful. There's nothing like that because it gives a purity, a freedom from the control of money, a freedom from the control of sex, a peace which is beyond all of that. That's why all monks and nuns, if they're Buddhist monks and nuns, they should try keeping those precepts. Try at least and be pure. If you can't do it, give it a try. First of all, if you really can't do it, then just leave. But if you try it, many monks and nuns will be able to do it. There'll be an inspiration to others, and they'll just find such happiness for themselves. In the path of Buddhism will be strong. Real monks. Real nuns. Not tight and suppressed, but free and happy. Without money. Without sex. An inspiration. An example of another way, a path to divine. So that's the title of this evening, and especially for those disciples in LA. I hope that's really what you wanted. Thank you. Okay, then we've got any questions about the talk tonight. A different type of talk, a different subject. Anyone got any comments or questions about tonight's talk about the two main rules or areas of rules? Monks and nuns. Celibacy and no money. Yeah. Uh, when Tibet was taken over, he said, many of the monks and nuns were forced to have sex. I think they were forced to get married. But it's very hard to force someone to have. I suppose it was like rape, but actually forced to have sex is a bit difficult. I think a lot of times many monks like that or nuns. Then that also happened in the Meiji Restoration in Japan when the, uh, because the monastics had so much respect, they were getting more powerful than the government. The government wanted to diminish their power, their moral authority, by forcing all the monks and nuns, Sachi, to, um, get married. And an interesting story. I heard this in Singapore at a Zen conference in October this year that when the Japanese invaded and took over control of Korea after many, many years in Korea, they they, uh, the governor brought all of the head monks from the different orders together and said that now the Korea was part of Japan and Japan was Buddhist, they say, and we are and Korea is Buddhists. We want to unify everything under the same rule. Now all you monks will have to go and get married. And one of the monks went up to that, uh, command of that governor and just faced him off and said, you're destroying Buddha Buddhism. You create enough bad karma, you go to hell for a long, long time. And he was only a simple monk. And he stood up to this incredibly powerful, vicious, uh, general, um, governor of Korea. And everyone else thought this guy was crazy. He just had his head chopped off, but he stood up absolutely courageously said, no, this is wrong. You can do whatever you like to me, but I'm not going to allow you to do this. We weren't signed, and it was actually the governor backed down, and actually the monk won. He kept the celibacy for the order in Korea. So sometimes you stand up for what you believe in, and it doesn't matter if you get killed. If you're not doing this just now for for an easy, I know for a respect or you're not just doing this because of, you know, it's for other reasons for fame or fortune. You're doing this because it means something to you. And so sometimes you can't stand up. And I think many Tibetans did it. And I said no. So to answer the question, sort of okay, any other question anyone has about the rules for monks celibacy. And if you see any monks misbehaving or any nun misbehaving coming across sexually, you know, they're not a real monk or real nun. If they come along asking for all your money, then you know they're not a real monk, a real nun. If they say they'll go to your house to do a blessing, and this is the fees, or if they say, you know, when you ring up, when you want to have a funeral service for your father or your mother, and they say, how much do you charge? And if they say, uh, $100 or $200 an hour or whatever else, then you know they're not. I will make a rule that everything is done for free. Okay. Any other questions or comments on that? Going going. Gone.