"Actually there are many rules, but they are easy to remember." This was the answer to one of my many questions to a small group of monks who sat at a table in the shade at a wat (Buddhist Temple) close to my guest house in Chiang Mai. A large sign next to the table said: "Monk Chat: Come Chat With Monk! Learn About Monk! Learn About Monk Life! Learn About Thai culture, diet, anything! If you just walk by, you will be so disappointed!" (click here to read more...)
Monk Chat is something of a phenomenon in Chiang Mai, a land of so many wats, they say there is a Buddhist wat on every corner of this city, and from what I've seen, that might be an understatement. The glittery, pagoda style wats with their naga-cobra serpents lining stairs up to an inner sanctum that houses one (or more) spectacular golden Buddha statues after another was historically the seat of many important Buddhist government entities in the historical past, and temples were built as means of "making merit" and furthering a possible guarantee of a good next life. Now populated by thousands of monks, many of the wats were allowing free time in the afternoons for monks to set up their version of English practice, and calling it "Monk Chat."
How could I resist? A student of Buddhist studies for the last 15 years, I relished the opportunity to sit and "chat" with monks who applied their lives and studies 100% to achieving Nirvana, or as they say here "Nibanna." Because I am a self-proclaimed 'world's worst Buddhist' for not being able to follow many of the precepts set out by Buddha some 2,500 years ago, and teachings he gave for a happy life, like 'right speech,' right thought', and to not engage in 'sloth and torpor' (I still can't manage to make my bed in the morning), I sit in awe at people like monks who live, eat, chant and drink mostly only tea in accordance with Buddhist ideals.
So my first question is always, "Is it difficult to be a monk?" I asked this to many monks on my trip and all the answers, interestedly, were similar. It is not an easy life, but a simple one. There are many rules, but they are easy to follow because they are rules for living a moral life, such as 'do not kill, do not steal.' Actually, one monk told me, there are 227 precepts (the Buddha liked lists,living at a time of illiteracy among people, it made it easier to remember, such as, there are 4 Noble Truths, 8 fold path, 5 precepts, 6 of this, 8 of that...etc.). The monk precepts cover everything, from the biggie of do not kill (this can be debated to death, excuse the pun, and often is in Buddhist circles everywhere, as in , where do you draw the line??) They even have a Buddhist lent here in Thailand where monks are required to stay inside during monsoon season, so as not to step and possibly kill new plants. This however has been loosened, one monk told me, to you can go out during the day, but not spend overnight anywhere, needing to return to your wat by evening. I thought of an elderly monk loosening that rule after so many monsoons of a wat full of young men stirring about. Anyway, the rules go down to the details of "no exercise, no beds, no luxurious seats, no beautification." You get the drift-the monk life is simple, as the young man said, but not easy. They sleep on mats and blankets in their rooms, and have no adornments, including clothes. Their wardrobe is two robes, I suppose one can spill tea and need a quick change sometimes.
"We chant the rules everyday, so easy to remember," one shaven head monk told me. Oh, so that's what the chanting was about. It is all for keeping the mind straight, and to get the mind on the right path, it needs to start first thing in the morning, to set your intention for the day.
"If your mind is thinking a bad thought, or having a bad intention, then you cannot become a monk," one said. Thinking a bad way is just as bad as acting on it. Hence the need for mediation, to clear the mind and prepare for the many good, or moral ways of living. Basically in Buddhism that means doing things to eliminate suffering and trying your best to not cause it.
Many of the monks I talked to where from Burma, Laos or Cambodia, not all were from Thailand, and many came from very poor families. Becoming a monk guarantees an education, there is a large Buddhist University near my guest house and everyday the sidewalks around the neighborhood are colored orange by the hundreds of robed young men pouring out of class and walking down the streets back to their wats.
One young man told me he became a monk because it looked like fun. "Is it fun, now that you've been a monk for 6 years?" "Yes! I love this life!" He was 24 and had become a monk at 18. Life was going nowhere for him, his monk friends told him the monk life was really a good one, so he joined up. What was so fun about it? School, an education, learning meditation, studying Buddhism. "You have a peaceful mind. You are happy. You are content," he told me. "Some rich men, they are not happy, never have enough things, but monk learns to be happy in the present, for what you have now. I am not thinking of the past or future. I am satisfied now in the present. That is my definition of happiness."
Satisfied now in the present. That seemed a good measuring stick to use for gauging your happiness, if you needed to measure it at all. Happy for what you have. How I wish many of my American brothers and sisters could say they were happy for what they had (myself included), and not always seeking for what they don't have. Hanging out with the monks was making me happy, for being there, in the moment, with them.
Then my idolizing of them and their life free from material possessions bursts a little when one of them pulls a smart phone from under his robes. "You are from California," he says, "This is my favorite song!" With that he plays 'Hotel California' by the Eagles. In their broken English, the other monks chime in. It's one of those surreal moments of 'am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?" Actually singing is a great way to practice English. The monk then confessed he is a big fan of Elvis Presely. I am bowled over. How does a monk from Burma learn about an American Icon who died way before he was born? He plays "You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog" next and taps his barefoot to the beat. "Do you like Bob Marley?" I ask, "Oh yes, Jamaican man! And he then pulls up a photo of a Rastafarian, not Bob Marely, on his phone, who is standing in a field of marijuana. "Sweet," I say, how about this. I open up my laptop and click on a song by Bob Marley called 'One Love,' the Playing For Change version. There is a video that accompanies it of musicians around the world singing and playing the song in harmony. The monks lean into my laptop to hear the song and seem enraptured by the images of a variety of ethnic people from different parts of the globe singing the same tune.
We watch two more before my battery (ah! impermanence!) runs out. "That is very good-very good! One of the monks exclaims. He is excited to find out about Playing For Change, a wonderful "NGO" dedicated to using music to teach others about cultures around the world. "I will make you a mix CD and bring it next time, Elvis, the Eagles and Bob Marley." I tell them. They are really grateful for that and would give me a hug, but I can't touch monk. As a woman, we are forbidden from touching each other, and that pains me, because I'm a hugger! I have to really rein in my motherly love for these young guys and their positive vibrations. One ties a white piece of yarn around my left wrist, very carefully so not to touch my skin. It makes me feel a little like the dallies, or untouchables, of Nepal and India. The white yarn bracelet hangs loosely around my arm. "That is for protection and good luck" he says. A little of the ancient ways have crept into Thai Buddhism for sure. But today, many days later, sitting two countries removed from Thailand, in Kathmandu, the yarn still hangs there, loose. It is a small reminder of the power of monk chat and my new goal-to make my bed everyday, and set a good intention before I walk out the door.
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