Buddhist Monks & Happiness. Presentation & Essay ERH 211X 03. Word Count: Help Received: See Works Cited. Kory A. Patten

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1 Buddhist Monks & Happiness Presentation & Essay ERH 211X 03 Word Count: 1536 Help Received: See Works Cited Kory A. Patten

2 In this essay I will discuss the life of Buddhist Monks within the Buddhist religion as I did in my presentation in class, however I will go further to examine whether or not they are truly happy. Buddhist monks stand as symbols for all those in the Buddhist religion by living their lives like Buddha. They live simple and austere lives with very structured and disciplined daily routines. They provide a service to the community by receiving gifts from the laity and by continuing the legacy and traditions of Buddha. In the west it is widely accepted that people that take on this kind of lifestyle and become completely devoted to their faiths are very content. However I will challenge that ideology, while I cannot make definite assumptions about Buddhists monks because I am not one and I have never met one, I believe that there is reason to question the belief that all or at least some Buddhist Monks are not entirely happy given their circumstances and emotional practices. Buddhism is sometimes not considered a religion because it is so different from other faiths in that it is non theistic, there are no gods, and there are no doctrines that Buddhists are required to believe in or follow. Buddhism at its core is more about seeking out and practicing a healthy and happy life. Buddhism is about exploring the faith and exploring what it means to be Buddhist and what it means to be human in order to reach a level of spiritual enlightenment. Buddhist monks are important to the preservation of this ideology because they are meant to be the pinnacle of what it means to accept the Buddhist practices and give up what may be a life focused on unworldly desires. The lifestyle that Buddhist monks accept earns a large amount of respect and gratitude from the Buddhist community and offers equal opportunity for faith progression to the people of the laity.

3 Buddhist monks are referred to as Bhikkhus within Buddhism, to earn this title they must sacrifice almost all that they have and learn to live the disciplined life of a monk. There are both male and female monks; they meditate, dress modestly in robes, live with other monks usually in a monastery, abstain from sex, drugs and alcohol, and maintain a clean simple lifestyle. Bhikkhus and those trying to become them wake up very early and spend the rest of their day busily; learning, meditating, chanting with the other monks and cleaning themselves and the monastery habitually. Male monks usually enter as novice samaneras no younger than 8 years old. Women seeking to join usually choose to ordain as adults. Monks do not have relationships with the opposite sex and give up almost all of their worldly possessions but are permitted to maintain a relationship with their families. Unlike many other religious devotee groups Buddhist monks do not belief in a system of hierarchy, the exception of course being the Dalai Lama who is worshipped in Tibet, cultural norms differ between Buddhist monks based off of region. Other than this there is of course a general respect for Bhikkhus who are older and wiser leaving younger monks and samaneras to do much of the grunt work required by the monastery. Another large aspect of the lifestyle of monks is the relationship they share with the laity. The relationship between the monks and the laity is one that is mutually beneficial, both depend on each other to support their livelihood physically and spiritually. Because monks live such a simple lifestyle, which often includes eating one meal a day, the laity is usually depended on to feed the monks and supply their every physical need. In the majority of Buddhist communities the monks will rise early and walk into town carrying baskets to receive gifts of food or other things from the laity which will make up their one meal that day. In return the laity receives a kind of blessing from the monks but also knows that they will have supported the monks that day

4 which is considered highly respectable and positive in their own journey to spiritual enlightenment. In some Buddhist communities laity members have established permanent kitchens inside the monastery which they can work at daily to cook for the monks. The purpose of this relationship also holds a practical meaning within Buddhism.First it allows the monks to learn about the values of having no personal means of support and to teach them about what is really necessary in this life. Secondly it allows the people of the laity to express their generosity and gratefulness for their faith by offering food, medicine, clothing and shelter to the monks while respecting and trying to emulate the symbol of Buddhism which is shown by the monks. Other than the physical and empirical lifestyle of the Buddhist monks I have become interested in learning about the emotional aspects of their lives. After watching some videos and interviews of monks and reading articles about how and why they work so hard to achieve a state of happiness, as well as evaluating their daily routines, I began to feel like they might not be as happy as they lead on to be. The lifestyle of the Bhikkhus is one of simplicity and constantly expressing feelings of joy and peacefulness. My challenge to this ideology is that it is unhealthy and even fake to put oneself in a mindset that they are happy all the time. I believe that it is possible, over time, to create a mindset and even an aura for others to perceive that makes it possible for you to feel at peace and convince others of the same. Additionally in many ways it is unfair for me to challenge an emotion like happiness because it does of course mean different things to different people and largely depends on regionalism which is an issue for Buddhism because it is such a wide and geographically varied faith. Therefor the challenges I will be making against the ideology that Buddhist monks really are happy will be based off of very generalizable human thoughts on happiness that are held true across all forms of society.

5 As previously mentioned happiness is dependent on the individual, but it is Buddhism and the emotional requirements of the faith that make monks an interesting study for what happiness really is. As absolute devotees the monks of Buddhism have a very real understanding of what we have discussed in class as religion being ones life instead of just part of ones life. Bhikkhus must give up their youth, possessions, and in many ways their ability to have a life of exploration and experience. One of the largest aspects of life across all the world that Bhikkhus are forbidden from partaking in is the natural act of finding a partner, experiencing love, sexual acts and having children. Apart from missing out on these natural acts that we consider good and what we would think would make a life happy monks seek out happiness through a means of focus. By meditating, understanding the basic necessities of life and devoting their lives entirely to creating an ideology about life in which they feel happy monks claim they can find a way of peace through enlightenment for themselves. I believe that there is solidarity in Bhikkhus that they are fulfilling a good life by putting themselves in a place where hard work and contemplation about peace and joy elevates them to a state where those aspects are made realizable. Bhikkhus reach this level through focus, but I don t believe that simply meditating on peace, joy, and happiness is the same as practicing and living it. As I discussed in class I believe that trying to achieve inner and outer absolute happiness every day for ones entire life will inevitably lead to a suppression of reality. By this I mean that there needs to be times in anyones life where they accept their fate and express feelings of boredom, depression, or sadness in order to elevate the times where you are actually happy with your circumstances. This is especially prevalent for the lives of monks because of the practices they take to achieve enlightenment; in which they might be simply tricking themselves

6 into believing that they are happy. When this element of a forced focus on happiness is combined with the circumstances of the lives of Bhikkhus in which they sacrifice so much it becomes apparent that Buddhist monks cannot be truly happy all the time. If this much is not true then I would argue that while monks have found a means of concentrating on joy and in a way living it, it is not entirely genuine because of the means by which they practice. A counterargument to this would be that for the Bhikkhus there is no difference between the genuine natural state of happiness and what they practice which is the act of meditating on and portraying outer happiness. To the Bhikkhus, who regardless of whether or not they experience genuine happiness or have to focus on it, their feelings may remain the same and can therefore live normal or even elevated lives.

7 Works Cited Ariyesako, Bhikkhu. Lay Guide to the Monks Rules. Buddha Dharma Education Association & BhuddaNet Web. Accessed May 2nd, learning/buddhistworld/layguide.htm RajKaregaKhalsanet. Around the World in 80 Faiths The Indian Subcontinent (Sikhism at 40:00 min) Buddhist Hindu Jain. Video. YouTube. March 22nd, Accessed May 2nd, Moss, Jake. Enlightenment: Chat with a Thai Buddhist Monk. Video. YouTube. April 8th, Accessed May 2nd