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Monastic feedback
Dhammika
Veteran
In addition to Jayantha, a samanera, are there other soon-to-be monastics, monks or former monks on this site? As a recent addition to the site, I wondered.
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Comments
I believe @thenovicemonk41 was ordaining this month at Sravasti Abbey?
and @genkaku is Zen....
@federica
Just to be clear, the only rank to which I can lay claim is being old. Never was a monk (though there was a period when, like a lot of others I suspect, I did dream of it) and I never received any certificates or gold stars, though I did flunk out of a monastery ... for which I am eternally grateful.
Oh yes ... and I do own some robes. But a pig in a purple robe is still a pig.
Maybe nuns also? I am not one, but it will be interesting to hear from someone with monastic devotion.
There are no nuns on the forum... as far as I am aware. Tibetan nuns are a-plenty, but i dont think we have been either graced or honoured with a visit (however long).
Theravada nuns..... let's not go there.....
Not sure if it's okay to promote other sites, but if you want to interact with monastics online, here are some resources:
I wouldn't classify this as 'promoting'. It's just offering specific information, and therefore, not 'spamming'.
There's a difference. No problem, @Invincible_summer ...
Technically not a samanera just yet, 3 more months
. It is extremely rare to see actual monastics online, which is one of the reasons I've made it an aspiration of mine to follow in the footsteps of the less then handful of monks like Yuttadhammo and keep an online presence as I move forward. It is my opinion that the future of Theravada in America is not so much in physical places as it is the virtual spaces.
In fact I first heard Ven. Yuttadhammo do dhamma talks on a virtual world sangha called " The Buddha Center" in Second Life (http://www.thebuddhacenter.org)
I can honestly count on both my hands the number of monastics I've had contact with online across various media in the past 8 years. It's much more common for lay supporters to put up websites or videos of talks then for monks themselves to be active on a forum and having an online presence.
Dhammawheel does have about 3-4 monastics that post on occasion, Ive interacted with them mostly on the ordination section.
One thing I will also say is that it is a lot easier to totally avoid something then to learn to use it skillfully. I think this is why most monastics avoid things like facebook and the like. I think you'd also have a bent towards wanting to spread the dhamma, which many monks are not either capable of doing well or have no desire to.
I fully admit to using the Internet unskillfully on occasion here at the monastery. and by unskillful I don't mean visiting porn sites lol, but just the act of wasting time by not having a defined goal (aka surfing). Usually it starts out going on for a good purpose and if I'm not mindful turns into wasting time.
Because our abbot, Bhante G, is not into controlling everything his monks do, he allows us the freedom to use these technologies, expecting us to have the honesty to train ourselves to use them skillfully. He is also an 87 year old monk with an iphone and a decent enough knowledge of computers to be able to watch dhamma talks on youtube and communicate via email and text.
He sees the great ability of technology to spread dhamma and that we need not fear it, but have the discipline to use it skillfully.
^^^ Awesome + insightful.
Thank you, Jayantha.
Indeed, seconded.