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Can I Move To A Chinese Monastery?
How do I run away and start a new life in China in a Buddhist in a monastery?
I'm 20, 21 at the end of the month.
I want to get away from my terrible life in western civilization, dedicate my life to peace.
Please help, any advice?
I know its going to be hard, but what are the steps for doing this?
I want this more than anything.
Thanks.
I'm 20, 21 at the end of the month.
I want to get away from my terrible life in western civilization, dedicate my life to peace.
Please help, any advice?
I know its going to be hard, but what are the steps for doing this?
I want this more than anything.
Thanks.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
You're in for a big surprise.
It generally happens that when a person decides to 'leave' a situation behind, all they end up doing is taking a large part of it with them.
Running away from something does not separate you from it.
That person very often merely replaces one set of issues with others. occasionally, of a more pressing nature.
as Crowded House so cleverly put it, "You always take the weather with you".
I would respectfully suggest you turn around, see the demons chasing you, and face them, challenge them and divest yourself of them 'here', before trying to start any new life, 'there'.
How long have you been a Buddhist?
What do you know about Chinese Buddhism?
What do you know about Chinese politics and its relationship with Buddhism?
What do you think living in a monastery is like?
Easy ones first, huh......?
I appreciate that, but it isn't about demons or anything like that.
Its just the way life is structured.
I don't know what to say, if you wanted me to explain further I would, but that would leave me ranting and I don't think that's fair on you.
About 5 and a half hours.
Nothing, I didn't know the Chinese had their own variation.
Erm, well isn't Chinese politics something you can spend years at university studying?
I have Marxist family members back from the miner strike days and what have you, and I know that they generally don't like religion.
That's about it.
Like the beginning of Rambo 2.
You might want to spend some more time investigating these things first.
Nice Rambo reference though.
I think, if you've only been a Buddhist for less than half a day, I would safely say you are definitely jumping the gun, a little.
What do you hope to achieve by running form the life-structures you are trying to leave behind?
Did you know that the Chinese Government has been, and is still, responsible for the mass incarceration, torture, death and displacement of millions of Tibetan Buddhists?
Why China, of all places?
I dare say. It's also something you can get a quick bit of info on, by "googling" and doing a bit of research, first.....
.
I think a bit of auto-education is in order, before you do anything.
And please, feel free to go into the "members Only" sub-forum, and vent, or relate your situation.
We'd be happy to help.
Oh, and we are a darned sight cheaper than flying to China, and less committal than a monastery. So really, I think for now, we might be a better option.....;)
I don't like the beginning of Rambo 2......:D
Will do.
If you have any other ideas on how to stop living this way, please say so.
Peace can only be found in your mind, try looking there before you run off searching elsewhere.
Learn to meditate, then take a couple of retreats. See how that goes.
Just modern life, desk jobs, customers and the capitalist system, I like the way they are self sufficient and do their own work.
A bit like the Amish, but I don't believe in Christianity.
Get away from technology and advetisements, noise, obnoxious people, my family, my terrible friends, and western culture.
Get out of my house which is the only thing I can afford, and by that I mean its all I can afford in general, my area is pretty rough, and any cheaper and I'm just asking to get stabbed on my way to my terrible job.
Which sometimes I don't mind the idea of, because I hate my life and my surroundings enough to have attempted suicide a few times in the past.
I don't mind being celibate, because I don't like the women who I usually associate with, and most women I know are shallow and materialistic, I know that's a generalization but its what I have experienced.
Get away from trash tv being my only escape from reality, and martial arts being the only thing I seem to be living for, and the only thing that as kept the knife of my wrists or the toaster out of my bath for the past half a year.
However I won't be able to do it for a while because I have had a pay cut so I can't afford my lessons any more, and also because my head seems to go into bad places a lot of times, I punched a mirror last night because I had a terrible day, and I can't do martial arts with these deep cuts on my hand.
I want to leave this all behind, I want to do something like what I have seen when it comes to monasteries in east Asia.
I know China isn't the most ideal place.
I need to do some more research on where to go, maybe Thailand.
If I was a monk there could I participate in Muay Thai boxing?
I figured that there would be more monasteries in China than anywhere else.
Well, I know about China's revolutionary history, and I find things like Marxism and Maoism quite interesting.
But I find it got quite confusing after Deng Xiaoping died and after "Socialism With Chinese Characteristics" came into play.
Now, modern Chinese communism is quite hard to follow.
Auto-education?
Sure, okay I would like to do that, thanks.
Awwww, but those are great films.......
I was hoping to escape the whole country of Britain.
The towns, the suburbs, the cities.....
Its kinda hard to meditate.
At home my Chav neighbors just blast out dance music.
In the woods I'm just surrounded by trash and cars beeping.
Can't think of anywhere to do it.
Replace it with with something nice like this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Shaolinsi.JPG
Thanks, if I decide to do this then I will look more into Taiwan.
Thanks.
I would like to go overseas at some point to do this if I do.
Go on a few Buddhist retreats and see how it goes, seriously.
What is a Buddhist retreat?
Can I go if I am agnosticly Buddhist?
http://www.dhamma.org/en/code.shtml
And relationships.
Just out of curiostiy mind..
Read anything that Frederica writes in response VERY carefully. In all the time I've been on this forum, she has been a constant source of excellent advice and just a very, very patient soul.
Are you sure you want to go to China? How is your Mandarin? Do you know how hard it is to establish permanent residency in China?
I am not one to stand in the way of someone's dreams, but as someone who has spent a decent amount of time in the PRC, I feel I should at least encourage you to consider very carefully what you are thinking.
And, why China? Have you considered Thailand?
I have been to both countries and I love both countries. I am just trying to help a young person think this through a little more. (Personally, I would prefer China but ONLY because I speak Mandarin fairly well and my Thai is not so good.)
It is much easier for a foreigner to obtain permanent residence in Thailand. I do not know where you live, so I cannot comment on your visa situation. I know that a US citizen can just show up at the airport in Thailand and you can stay for up to 90 days before you need to leave or extend your visa. A US citizen needs a pre-arranged visa before you can step foot inside the PRC.
What about Japan? Korea?
Consider your options carefully.
Lol, thank you.
I had noticed. ha.
My Mandarin is bad, however I can learn over the next couple of years, I know it will take longer to become fluent, but I should be able to learn it well enough to communicate okay, then after being there for a while I will become fluent.
As for citizenship, I was hoping to wing it.
I know a 6'4 white man might stand out in a place like eat Asia, however, I would have thought a lot of monasteries are away from civilization and waaaay out in the countrysides where I might be able to live without the government finding out.
Its not like the monks have tax codes and what not, I would have thought they are a bit like nomads and if I live in a self sufficient community I wont get caught.
It will be a while before I can put any of this into action, so I will think about it.
It came to me when I was in hospital last night having my hand basically glued back together.
I love Thailand, China and Korea because I have history in Muay Thai, Wing Chun and Taekwondo.
My Thai is okay, I was suposed to go and train with some real Muay Thai fighters a year ago but it never happened, but I did learn a lot of Thai and I still leanr it a bit, but I'm not fluent or anything.
So, as a newly-minted student of Buddhism, you've given up Muay Thai fighting? Or is it more sport than fighting?
Hmmm, not a bad idea, could go check them out before signing up for it.
I always treated Muay Thai as a sport and not a way of being violent, however I do find the idea of partaking in a full contact pain sport to be quite thrilling in the sense that I might get hurt badly.
Is Muay Thai and martial arts allowed?
Definitely, when I said "before I sign up" in my previous post, I meant if I definitely do in the first place.
I live in the north of England, and there are a few here after doing research.
I will check a couple out, they aren't as expensive as I tought they would be, they look like camping trips.
Any books you would recommend first?
Any that give you the best explanation or one that give the bes lessons?
What I'm afraid of is never buying it, so to speak.
I have never been religious, and I have never been able to convince myself that any religion is true.
I really want to believe, just like I did when I went to a religious christian school, when they would talk to me about how only through the lord jesus christ will I see the kingdom of heaven, and I was sat there thinking "What?, is this guy serious?", I wasn't trying to be rebellious or anything, its just with things like reincarnation and stuff like that, I find it hard to believe.
I hate to put you on the spot, and I don't want to sound like I'm going Richard Dawkins on anybody, but is there any proof you can offer me that Buddhism is the real thing?
I want to believe.
Seeing as how globalization tends to mean the ever-pervasiveness of "western culture," I think you'll find that your Orientalist perception of what China is to be quite shocking.
You know, they have monasteries in the West?
If I'm not mistaken, most people who do Muay Thai in Thailand do so because they are dirt poor and it's a way to make money, not for fun.
Why?
I don't get want to get into a political squabble, but China lost any semblance to Communism once Mao Zedong died... hell... even during the last bit of his life he didn't really do anything except act as an inspirational figurehead.
It really irks me when people (often Westerners) have these romanticized, often unknowingly racist notions of what China and "The Orient" is like. It's not like every person is meditating all day or acting selflessly for everyone around them.
They are people just like you and me - they have to work shitty jobs to put food on the table, they seek vices to soothe their existential misery, they are in samsara.
You can test the Four Noble Truths for their relevancy and accuracy.
I know there is stuff like McDonalds there, but the point for me is being far away from my current situation and life as I know it as possible.
Well, I can do it for both resons now.
Because I know nothing of buddhism, and when I think of it I think of China.
I knew I would learn more about locations once I asked this.
I know this, but I don't really want to talk politics, I know china isn't communist in practice.
I don't think that either about Chinese behaviour.
I don't want to work in Beijing, I want to do the work in a monastery 5,000000000 miles away from civilization.
I'll check them out.
When I have these bad days, I look at the things that cause them, which is my feeling of being trapped in a modern civilized world or bills and consumerism, and there is a part of me that wishes that I can just go live a life of quietness and solitude and discipline, and whenever I think of that, I have a mental image of myself wearing a robe, doing farm work in the middle of nowhere in east Asia, and even though its a hard life, I don't wake up and do the things that I do all day here.
That's all, and I'm sorry for creating a thread such as this one.
What's more, before any decision, try to know more the new serrounding, try to study deeply buddhist beliefs. Try also to keep mindfullness- if you are able to do it at least one day a week, maybe it'll mean you're ready for monastic life.
About Chinese monasteries- I agree with what some forumers said- without Mandarin knowledge you have limited chances to join one.
Anyway, I wish you all the best and hope you will find a peace in your life, be it here or in China
Namo Amituofo _/|\_
(Welcome.)
That's OK. That is why we're here. You hit a bump on the road to enlightenment. Nothing unusual. We've all done it before in one way or another, and we're all still walking that road.
We all learn from each other. Thank you for asking your questions and allowing us to discuss and learn.
The more you despise, reject and abhor something, you therefore grasp it to you, as much as if you loved it with all your heart.
You must cultivate detachment even from this feeling of wishing to escape everything.
If you cultivate and feed this fervent desire to run away from everything, you'll simply run into more of the same, because it is not necessarily everything around you that is causing this disquiet in you.
It's the impatient desire to flee, that is causing this disquiet in you.
What is out there, is doing nothing to you.
Every discord you feel, is generated by you.
And one thing we have all discovered is this:
You cannot run away from yourself.
First thing that you should do is learn Mandarin.
It has hard and easy part.
It has tonal pronunciation but the grammar is definitely easier than German.
China is not that bad.
The problem is westerners tend to get brainwashed by Western media to believe China to be "evil". Just like Russia being described as evil in American spy movies.
For example, in last year there's this National Geographic special edition on China. 90% of the pictures in the mag show negative aspects on China (poverty, pollution, problems etc.)
If you show the bad side of a country and not showing the good side, you are just being bias. Such biasness is making you think certain country is sh1tty.
The thing portrayed in Nat Geo is way so different from the China that I see with my own eyes - there's still problems, but there's bright side as well.
There are some holy mountains in China where u can live a Buddhist life. Such as Emei mountain etc.
The things you consider bad are perfect opportunities for practice. Without obstacles, without suffering, there would be no reason to practice the dharma. Quiet and solitude are nice, but noise and disruptions are tools to develop virtues such as patience, compassion, and meditative concentration.
There are many schools of Buddhism, and I can only talk for Tibetan Buddhism. This is what I am told:
- Regardless of what country you pursue Buddhism in, you may become a monk only when your teacher thinks you are ready. This usually takes about 5 years.
- Until that time, you must be entirely self-supporting. And once you become ordained, most Westerners must continue to be self-supporting.
- China allows the practice of Tibetan Buddhism, but the monks must cordon off a part of the street and do their practice in public. The government allows them to practice because it is good P.R. for the govt, so therefore it has to be done where the public and tourists can actually SEE it. This is why my stepson, who has spent time in China, tells me. He even sent me a postcard of monks practicing in the street (they were doing a Tara puja) ... you can BUY postcards of this!!!
The path to Buddhism is not about finding an environment you like. This is only buying into attachment and aversion ... i.e., moving in the opposite direction from Buddhism. Start where you ARE ... all these things you don't like will give you the perfect opportunity to work with your attachments and aversions. As a matter of fact, Pema Chodron has a teaching entitled "Start Where You Are".
So start where you are. Find a teacher, or a center you can go to from time to time (even if it's not in your area, you can go there as your vacation) ... and in 5 years you will know whether or not you are serious about Buddhism. I guarantee you will feel differently about things than you do now, and therefore be in a better position to judge what you need to do with your life.
Sorry to hear that you have a terrible life there but really, life is terrible everywhere if you allow it to be the boss. And you don't have to run away to any place to dedicate your life to peace. I suppose a monastery should not be a place for people to run away to. If you want to be there, there ought to be a good reason and that's not because you feel trapped.
You can be in a very bad mood and be in a very good mood. It's up to you. If it can be helped, try not to be feel trapped and that probably could be done if you are thankful about what you have. You have your martial arts for example and your mind and your health. Just imagine about the next person being sick and handicapped. In fact, if you are make the best of your situation, you could live a life of quietness, solitude and disipline. If you learn to like the things you are doing and appreciate what little things you have, it would ease a lot of pain. Don't be sorry at all for creating a thread like this. I think you could learn a lot this way. Since things are by no means permanent, you could take joy in noting that you could simply change your life into something that you like. You just have to put in the right effort and that perhaps should start with thinking right. Thinking negatively attracts negative vibes.
You do not need to learn Chinese Buddhism by travelling to China and there is nothing wrong with the Western Civilisation in itself.
Infact, there a perfectly good Chinese Buddhism Organisation which is a branch of Fo Guang Shan International. This organisation preaches Humanistic Buddhism which emphosis Buddhism within our human realm, so you do not have to run away from others or yourself.
http://www.londonfgs.org.uk/Web_2009/EN/about_ibps.htm
It is located in London.
The Chinese government didn't just do bad things to Tibetans. They do bad things to their own Chinese people too. But, damage is done.
The reason I said Chinese is because to a guy who knows nothing of Buddhism, a monastery seems to be synonymous with China, whenever I think if one, I see China in my head. If Thailand or Tibet or Korea, etc had more in terms of what I'm looking for then whatever, the location of the place doesn't matter.
And the monastery being in Asia is the point.
To move out of this disgusting wasteland that I live in, and stop being a slave to a system and living my life as nothing but a pawn in somebody else's scheme where I do nothing but produce and consume and then have marriage and reproduction shoved in my face, so there is a new generation of people to take my place and produce and consume when my meaningless life is over.
I want to live in the middle of nowhere, nothing but buddah statues and work that is self sufficient like monks do.
I am an extremely angry and bitter person, and I will never get better because that's the way I have grown up to view life for now over 20 years.
And what I was asking was, can I escape modern civilization and go live a simple life, thousands and thousands of miles away from anybody I have ever met?
I can't not feel trapped when I am most definitely trapped everybody is trapped. If people weren't trapped then our system wouldn't work.
I hate life, I have never really enjoyed any of it, I have never had a moment that I have thought "Ya know what's just good?.... Life! I love that life stuff, gotta get me more of that life! ITS GREAT!".
Yeah, I like martial arts, but I can't do them much any more because of my job, and if you have an IQ of 91 and spend a month revising like hell for GCSEs and still come out with an E as your highest score on a test, then going to college and getting a decent job isn't really an option.
I can speak a bit of Mandarin, I don't plan on going straight away, I can learn in the space of two years or so, or however long it takes to fake my own death.
If you want help, seek a professional.
If you find yourself "in a bad place" emotionally, a far and distant monastery will do nothing for you, particularly as you have scant knowledge of Buddhism, and feel you cannot change (you can. It takes dedication and mindfulness, but you can).
Inflicting this attitude on others is both misguided and unproductive.
Your last post is both worrying and healthy.
It's patently obvious that you are not taking in what we say, and as such, we can do nothing for you here.
I'm closing this thread, because I don't feel it is either helpful or productive to anybody.
PM if you want to carry on discussion.