Deepak Chopra endures 2 weeks of hardship to be ordained as monk

After making some inquiries, Joy informed me that she had obtained permission for me to come on a "monk's journey" for two weeks.

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We would go to sleep around 10:00 p.m. and then wake up again around 2:00 a.m. for meditation on impermanence and death.

Conditions at this monastery were very basic, with no running water and some mosquitoes to contend with.

After a few days of this hardship, I moved to the Forest Monastery, Chiang Khong, where I was to be officially ordained.

:eyes: :eyes:


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/07/26/deepak_chopra072610.DTL#ixzz0uoo8sreL

the comments in the comment section are a hoot

No one EVER has to deal with that....

Weird. I thought it was a lifetime commitment.

ordaining for a week, a year or two or twelve and then going back to civilian life for a couple years then going back to the monastery. It's a very open-door policy. Not at all like the western idea of a monastery. In Thailand and Cambodia going into the monastery is a popular form of retirement for people too old to work in the rice paddies anymore. It's the S.E. Asian answer to a retirement home.

Policies differ from monastery to monastery, but in some Thai forest monasteries you can walk in the front door and be ordained the same day. Other require anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of years of training and apprenticeship before full ordination.

Thank you for the clarification. I didn't know that.

during their high school years.



Their is also a common practice to allow men to enter the priesthood for shorter periods as a part of observing the death of a close relative, or if they missed the time as a youth and only have a limited amount of time because of their employment.

It is true that there are some temples that are really no more than social centers and they will make the kind of accomodations you refer to, but it is not taken as a serious effort, most temples have retreats for lay people to attend for one or two days where they follow the monk discipline but are not ordained.

Wat Metta - a Theravada Buddhist Temple in Escondido that is based on the Thai tradition has the strictist regime I have heard of.

If you are interested in becoming a monk then you must live in a tent on the temple grounds for one year before they will take your application for monkhood.

http://www.watmetta.org/

I gave passing thought to ordaining in the Theravada tradition, but then decided I would miss beer and the Internet too much. ;-) I guess guess I'm a looooong ways from enlightenment.

If you simply want to spend a weekend working on meditation I recommend METTA Monsastary in Escondido.


Its monks are Americans trained in Thailand. The abbot was there 30 years.


They have facilities where you can come with a sleeping bag for short periods of times.


People come from all around the world.


It has both Thai and Sri Lankan supporters, is in English and about as pure Theravada as you can get.

I found on their web site links to Dhamma talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. I have a dozen or so of his talks from Dharma Seed http://www.dharmaseed.org/ and since he has been one of my favorite teachers on Dharma Seed, I was excited to find more of his talks available for download.

Deepak got owned

Wanted a better title and all that.

My ordained Assemblies of God minister father actually got a laugh out of it when I told him I did it to keep the family business going. ;)

is the most boring person in the world.

I remember having to listen to his tapes every day as part of my home schooling when I was little. I always thought he was a total quack. My mom is addicted to these "self help" gurus. I could write a book on how self help books screw people up =|

:loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

on the debate on whether the devil exists were interesting and caused me to think. Plus I mostly agreed with what he was saying. Plus I loved the way he handled that audience member that was really defensive.

I don't know much about himself or his other views but he was great in that debate.

wish I could be........

Make me one with everything.

Hey, I'm a monk!

Comprehension fails me.

Snakeh oil is always more profitable when it has an old world name.