Monastic life and fond of work?

Discussion of ordination, the Vinaya and monastic life. How and where to ordain? Bhikkhuni ordination etc.
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zoz
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Monastic life and fond of work?

Post by zoz »

Greetings all,

In the search for the monastery of bhikkhu analayo I only found his places of work but no sign of a monastery. Does an ordained person has to live in a monastery or hermitage like? Can he/she have a full work schedule like non-ordained people? I thought when you are fond of work you can't progress on the path later on.
Here is a sutta https://suttacentral.net/iti79/en/ireland
for the enjoying of activities. To enjoy work is to enjoy activity I think.

Thanks for answers in advance
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Monastic life and fond of work?

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

There are two main duties for monks: the burden of study or the burden of insight.

I don't think it wise to criticise Bhikkhu Analayo as he seems to have done both.

We also have a duty to maintain our requisites by mending robes, dwelling-places, and so forth. “Being fond of work” refers to making oneself busy with such mundane activities to avoid the real work of study or insight.
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retrofuturist
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Re: Monastic life and fond of work?

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings bhante,
Bhikkhu Pesala wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 8:20 pm There are two main duties for monks: the burden of study or the burden of insight.

I don't think it wise to criticise Bhikkhu Analayo as he seems to have done both.
Is the implication here that for Bhikkhu Analayo, the task is done?
Sutta Pitaka wrote:when a monk discerns that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world,’
Because if not, it would appear the task is not done.

Metta,
Paul. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
SarathW
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Re: Monastic life and fond of work?

Post by SarathW »

Buddha worked about forty years after his enlightenment. What is matter is what sort of work they do.
Teaching Dhamma or writing a book seems ok.
Involve with politics and various social activities etc may not be the best for a enlightened monk.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Polar Bear
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Re: Monastic life and fond of work?

Post by Polar Bear »

Bhikkhu Anālayo lives in a cottage at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He is a solo monk, i.e. he doesn’t live in a monastery with other monks. My understanding is he spends quite a lot of time in retreat, for months at a time, and when he isn’t strictly in retreat he is leading retreats or writing and publishing dhamma related work for the benefit of others. Even when not in retreat I believe he spends four days a week meditating and three days focused on writing. He is of few duties from what I’ve gathered. He does not claim to be an Arahant but practices with that as his goal.

But yeah, spending too much time learning or maintaining a monastery etc is considered to be detrimental to a commitment to internal tranquility.

:anjali:
"I don't envision a single thing that, when developed & cultivated, leads to such great benefit as the mind. The mind, when developed & cultivated, leads to great benefit."

"I don't envision a single thing that, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about such suffering & stress as the mind. The mind, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about suffering & stress."
zoz
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Re: Monastic life and fond of work?

Post by zoz »

This was not meant as a criticism of Bhikkhu Analayo. I am very grateful to him for his extremely helpful books. I just don't imagine it is easy at all with a regular job, even if it is a professor of buddhist institutes in different countries. I thought if you can focus on studying and practicing alone, that's a huge advantage than having a full-time job on top of that in the normal world. Alone being in contact with the normal world in a job can bring one off the track, there are just a lot of challenging sense contacts and so on by default. But maybe I'm completely wrong. Apparently it is not a full time job as I thought, if he can take a lot of time for his own development and be alone as I understand it better now thanks to Polar Bear. So that makes it more understandable for me, that you can study and practice better in the sense meant by Bhikkhu Pesala and SarathW. Otherwise I would find that extremely difficult. Thanks a lot for your comments!
Last edited by zoz on Fri May 28, 2021 2:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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