HOW to BECOME a MONK & WHY or NOT?
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- čas přidán 11. 07. 2023
- MAN GIVES UP EVERYTHING
In 2015, aged 47 an English businessman gave up everything and travelled Asia to find true happiness. Now a Buddhist Monk, living a simple life in Thailand, India and Sri Lanka, he shares the continuing story.
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englishbuddhistmonk@gmail.com
Phra Dan (Bhante Dhammarakkhita, Bhikkhu) is a Theravada Buddhist Monk who lived in India from 2020, Thailand and now Sri Lanka. Born in Sussex, England in 1967. Educated by French Catholic Monks. A successful businessman in Estate Agency and Financial Services during the 1980's and 90's. Married, now divorced with 3 adult son's. 2000 marked change and travel including South Africa returning to the UK in 2003 to continue different work and business activities until 2012. Gradually materialistic values turned to renunciation, simplicity and meditation, living nomadically in an old Ford Transit van full time for 3 years. Van life and meditation led to Buddhism and a Thai Forest Tradition, Theravada Buddhist Monastery in the UK. During 2015 travelling the Buddhist Holy Sites of India, deep faith reinforced desire for Ordination. In 2020 after 5 years of intensive meditation practice between Thai Forest Monasteries in Thailand and England he was Ordained in India where he lived for 3 years until returning to Thailand in 2023 and now Sri Lanka.
Sabe Satta Sukhi Hontu
#englishmonk
Your voice & accent is very calming. Asante.
Sukhi Hontu
This is a very worthy Master. I think his advice should be heeded.
Be happy and stay well
Thank you Tan Phra Dan. The journey to becoming an Ajahn is even more arduous than I realised. You certainly need an extremely strong commitment. My total respect for all Bhuddist monks.🙏🙏🙏
But an enjoyable journey...
Of course having here and there jhanic bliss
Thank you for the infomation
Sukhi Hontu
it was refreshing to hear you talk about what life is actually like, that is isn't all rainbows and unicorns, that there are large spiders and snakes and insects and there is an upper age limit.
I'm happy it's useful. Be happy and stay well
How beautiful is the life of a monastic monk. Sadhu
Sabbe Satta Sukhi Hontu
‘Mind is the forerunner of all things’. This is not referring to the thinking mind or personality but to Mind itself - Awareness, Beingness, Consciousness. No words can reach it because it’s the forerunner of all things - formless presence which we are and in which, through which everything appears. From the perspective of separation it’s the ‘other shore’. Discovering this is the whole point of all true spirituality.
Sukhi Hontu
People are programmed robot slaves of the system thinking happyness starts with extern factors like status, money, material things that means nothing and its relativ and an illusion create by society....
If your happyness depend on extern factors you will never be because extern factors are endless.
Happyness starts inside you.
The more people around you, the more expectations, talk about others, comparing, judge, own benefits, hate, negativity, jealousy, double standards etc..... reflection of the broken empty souls.
Alone or in solitude you have more strength, peace, power, happyness, freedom and time.
I change my life also when i was 35 and now i am 43.
No tv, social media, no people around me, no stuff etc....
Be the light in your life
And of the day do what makes you happy
Sukhi Hontu
Straight talking! Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu 🙏🙏🙏
Be happy and stay well
Vandanami bhante ji 🙏 I am Rahul from India Thank you for your beautiful guidance 🙏
You're welcome it's my pleasure. Be happy and stay well
Brilliant ... thanks.
You're welcome it's my pleasure. Be happy and stay well
I've had so much benefit from following the buddhas teachings. Through letting go I have attained and do attain to so much bliss and often samadhi during meditation. But I can't get over the fact that when I let go of everything, everything that i am not (all i perveive) I am left with pure, blissful awareness, just seeing from my body, and I know it is what I AM, my true self and I know that everything else is also this when in samadhi.
The only thing that stops me going further is the Buddhist idea there is no true self. it just doesn't align with my own insight. The buddha said 'come and see' and this is what I have done and this is what I see.
Also, when I read the suttas, what I see is that the buddha was always pointing to this true self, through negative means, but it seems that traditional theravada does not inteprtet the suttas in the same way, and that is why I get a bit stuck with aligning theravada teachings with my own insight.
Could you help me with this?
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
@@englishmonk I watched the videos but didn't hear my question, did you answer it?
Very helpful and clear. Thanks 🙏
I'm happy it's useful. Thank you for watching and your comment
Thank you for sharing🙏🏼
Namaste Phra Dan
Namaste. Thank you for listening. Sukhi Hontu
Thanks Phra Dan.......looking forward to the next video.🙏
On its way my friend. Sukhi Hontu
Very good 👌
Sukhi Hontu
I too wish to become monk someday. I am from jain tradition and practices and ordination are quite similar except jain monks live more harshly ascetic life. (some traditions dont eve wear cloths). My experience has taught me that Materialistic life does take toll on you over years
Sukhi Hontu
🙏 🙏 🙏 anumodana sadhu sadhu sadhu for sharing your experience Tan Phra Dan 😊
You're welcome, there's more to come on this subject. I hope you enjoy it. Sukhi Hontu
He is putting it wrong, by happiness we mean happy in our day to day life’s not just feeling a emotion. Knowing that things can get hard and will get hard but remembering there is a light at the end of the tunnel. So this means that happiness is only truly active when in pursuit for something, not for the sake to be happy. And being monk is hard but you have similar friends around you and that’s what counts
Sukhi Hontu
I wish to become monk too. May be after 2 years. I have attended 10 days vipasana courses in India and it has changed my life and perspective about how I look at life and buddhist teachings. But as an employee, I have certain responsibilities to work as well as towards my parents. So that I cant give enough time and energy to meditation practice. Your talks here helps a lot. Please let me know how can I make donation or offerings to you. Thank you 💐🌷🌺🌸🌹🌼🌻
Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu on your good intention to become a monk. Yes it is important to take care of your responsibilities and duties which should also be considered as part of your practice. Mettā, loving kindness towards family and diligence in your work all counts towards your development and suitability for monastic life. With patience the time will come and with meditation and continual mindfulness in all your activities you will progress on the path towards Nibbana in the meantime. Anumodana Sukhi Hontu
Yes, for Dāna offering there is a PayPal link in the channel description and my email for further information and address.
Bhavatu Sabba Mangalam
❤
Sukhi Hontu
My intentions are well thought out and serious. I intend to become a monk. I will contact you in the future when the opportunity arises. Have some things to finish in worldly life.
Anumodana Sukhi Hontu
🙏
Sukhi Hontu
Thank you for sharing. I have tattoos, and am wondering how this would affect the dissolution of the self?
Not at all with right view. There's no dissolution of self as there is no self. Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
To know who i am and for enligntenment.❤❤
Be happy and stay well
I want be happy and peace.
Then you shall. Sukhi Hontu
Thank you for sharing Tan Phra Dan. Could you please let me know the name of a few monastery in England? many thanks in advance.
You're welcome it's my pleasure
forestsangha.org/community/monasteries/continents/countries/united-kingdom
Be happy and stay well
@@englishmonk many thanks
Hello, what a wonderful video. I have a few related questions.
What are the differences of each Theravada country in terms of Buddhism? (The ones foreigners seem to commonly go to are are Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar) Namely if one is better for whatever reasons as a monk specifically in their doctrines or ways of practice (or maybe specific schools will differ greatly too).
How much of the language do you have to learn for each place? Did you have to learn any language completely?
How many monasteries speak English?
Do you know if it's a lot easier to learn Sinhala with a knowledge of Pali since they are similar? I have been learning quite a bit of Pali, so I wonder if knowing the local language makes the practice easier there?
saadhu venerable sir.
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
There is no such thing as an entirely pure motivation for the monastic life.
@bayreuth79 explain "pure motivation". Thank you.
@@sonjalingchungtsang1097 Unless you are Enlightened it seems to me that we always have profoundly mixed and complex motivations and that we cannot directly will an intention or motivation. Moreover, we have misconstrue our motivations, sometimes assuming that we were motivated by x, whereas we were motivated by y or a complex of motivations. It seems to me that our motivations are often driven by unconscious needs, wants and desires that we don't have immediate access to. The monk wants those entering the monastic life to have good motivations- but I am not sure that one ever has wholly good or right or appropriate motivations and intentions.
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
Do you have any recommendations of Thai Forest Tradition monasteries that are accommodating to ordaining westerner’s with possible lifelong commitment?
Wat Pa Nanachat or Wat Marp Jan. Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
I am ready to renunciate. I do not want anything in life. I want to be free of all bondage. What is the way to heal my past and Forgive myself. What is the starting point to become a monk?
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
Hello Phra Dan, I just listened to this recording and the part about going to Thailand to ordain, did I hear correctly you say that 'ordination did not go through for some reason or another?' I understand you were ordained in India, may I ask why you were unable to ordain in Thailand in the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah yet are practising the Forest Tradition? What tradition was the ordination in India? I ask as it appears the Theravada tradition ls in Thailand consist of the Theravada tradition which focuses on the teachings and not Meditation whereas the Theravada Forest Tradition focuses on Meditation. Thank you 🙏
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
I think the budda would say " eat more , you are to slim bro " . I respect you man . Coukd a type 1 diabetic be a monk ??
I don't know exactly what type 1 diabetes is but it wouldn't necessarily be a problem
@@englishmonk thank you . Hope things are going ok for you . I learnt alot from your video
@@poppyandezra6404monks are thin... being thin also increases lifespan. Dont insult him.
"A person who wears robes of rags,
lean, their limbs showing veins,
meditating alone in the forest,
that’s who I call a brahmin."
The last two years I just genuinely want to achieve monk's non human calm nature and strong mind and body
I didn't even remember when I got this passion...
For now I wanna try traveling to China (because I'm not sure where I can actually achieve my goals), but i don't know where my journey ends and teo this point i would gladly just let my life flow me through this somehow in any way possible
I will sit outside monastery/temple months if I needed to
Thank you for your knowledge and video in general! It's very helpful, for me actually yes
You could just go and stay in a monastery to consider ordination. It would be more fruitful than sitting outside. Be happy and stay well. Sukhi Hontu
I just assumed it wouldn't be polite
Thanks for your answer and again thanks for sharing your wisdom with us all
To the contrary you would be welcome. I'm not sure where you are from but maybe there is a monastery more easily accessible to you than in China?
Sadly, I don't know what in that case would be better, I don't have much of experience. As far as I know China, and Tibet, is closest to me for traveling. But in second case, information about documents and other things that needed to live in Tibet is more private, China is more understandable for me.
But perhaps if you personally think that other places would be better and more welcoming to start my journey, I'd like to hear it
Thailand
Actually, it would be very helpful if you could kindly show those spiders & other creatures since they happen to be my biggest concern in consideration going forth, next to what my parents would feel about me choosing the monastic life.
I'm not a photographer or videographer so what you see is it. There are more creatures in videos from my time in Thailand. As for your parents, ask them. You need their permission to ordain anyway. Be happy and stay well
Thank you so much for your kind reply 🙏🙏🙏@@englishmonk
The nation state that makes the political structure with international financial systems that in a sense governs citizens seems far removed in values from religious enclaves in the form of either new religious movements (NRM) or denomination like Theravada Buddhism as a world religion in line with historical Buddhism. The person who opts out of the contemporary citizen model into the religious model in a sense rejects values of what where a constructed self embedded within secular polities and the scientific paradigm from early modernism. The paradigm is complex but one reason cited for opting out is the mitigation of personal pain. If this mitigation had been through the health care sector then trust in medical system of knowledge is the solution and people feel good. But pain is also about self in society and self evaluation within group dynamics where persons can become unhinged through alienation with the construction of self over time. It seems an option for a cohort of persons to have reasons to build forms of social and cultural capital and personal resilience within a world religion or NRM. If there is a need for a specific form of pain mitigation that is existential in nature rather than functional in content then the question is how does contemporary Theravada Buddhism that has various national expressions in line with the nation state solve this existential malaise? Do these enclaves promote the conditions for a person whose values were embedded in forms of global secularism to flourish? So to flourish entails only those who self identify a need to mitigate existential (social low self esteem for example as loneliness epidemic or eschatological purpose identified as meaning of my existence if any) pain given the medical system is efficient at mitigating functional pain? The answer seems in line with the corporate sector in that you can try before you buy which is fair enough, but I sense there is a subtle traditional component of social capital as outlined through stages of accruing merit.
Following the teachings of the Buddha is enough. The rest is debate/comparison of religious and non religious conventions which does not help anyone. Sukhi Hontu
@@englishmonk Seems the answer is yes pertaining to enclaves allowing individual flourishing and as to compare and contrast it seemed to be what your advocating prior to commitment so it is of use when taking on a commitment based on reflective learning about modes of self help and communitarianism. Thank you
Greeting Phra Dan how are the dogs? Gecko saying Correct Bhante ! Are you Left or right handed ?
They're good I'm sure and I'm right handed.
Can a monk practice physical exercise to incrrease health ?
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
How do you find people/monastery with a serious nature but also a laughing buddha joyfull character cause I did the 10day retreat and it sucked so bad way to serious and uncompassionate made me feel so excluded and angry. is this possible?
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
Do you live alone without other monks or pagogda ?
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
What happened to your finger? I am asking because I had a severe accident two months ago, lost a finger and the remaining ones (of that hand) are pretty damaged. So I may never able to work in my profession again. Even before the accident I was thinking about becoming a Buddhist monk, because Vipassana meditation changed me a lot for the better. Now having experienced that there is absolutely no refuge in the world, how everything can be destroyed in a second I am looking to get established deeper in the Dhamma
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
Hi 🙏
Any monastery or temple u would recomend to ordain? 🙏
I am currently in India, running out of money and life options, as our precious time runs out 😆🤪🤪🤪😇🙏🙇♂️
It depends where you are from. The ordination process begins in your country of origin. I currently travelling but will talk about this more soon. Be happy and stay well.
@@englishmonk to ordain in Thailand I don't need to go back to my country.
I was Just asking if you have any recommendation, that was all.
Thank you anyway 🙏
@@englishmonk P.S.: and I mean to really ordain in some Temple or Monastery, not with electronics and traveling around, you know? 🙏
Wat Pa Nanachat or Wat Marp Jan
Why we call you bhantey in India 🇮🇳? Means?
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
Do monks or nuns get asked to leave if they don’t do well?
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
Would watching videos like this be considered entertainment?
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
Are tattoos allowed? Even the not exposed ones?
Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
what about not using technology or using phone to talk to Parents? When I become Buddhist Monk, I am going to renunciate all the technology and phone. Completely cut off from the world.
Yes it's usually advisable if not compulsory that you do at least for the first few years until your higher ordination.
Please eat. You seem very thin. ❤
Sukhi Hontu
Definitely looks fake..
Sabbe Satta Sukhi Hontu
Im sick of humanity. Maybe becoming a monk would be a cure
We can only cure ourselves and whether a monk or lay person the same difficulties are there within our minds. Thank you for watching and your comments. I will talk about this in a Q&A's video coming soon.
czcams.com/play/PLiX6s1kV1fRMCQyR6F7b6HxXuBUn9Zgck.html&si=7nWb2Y5dT2JpZjzj
Be happy and stay well.
I feel the same
Perhaps a better opportunity for transcendence of your state of humanity?
@@joelgoble4987 You're right, but sometimes it's just so hard
@@Socrates5976 seems to me mining for gold (🧘) is as much effort as mining for pyrite (🦧)...❤️
🙏
Sukhi Hontu