< Return to Video

How does it feel to be a monk or a nun? | Ajahn Brahm

  • 0:00 - 0:06
    How do you feel being the ordained persons?
  • 0:06 - 0:10
    Should we also take ordination?
  • 0:10 - 0:16
    Being an ordained person, you feel free,
    at peace, oh so happy!
  • 0:16 - 0:23
    That's actually true that when I first became a monk,
    how long ago, 37 years ago,
  • 0:23 - 0:26
    I had nightmares.
    This is true.
  • 0:26 - 0:29
    I'd wake up in a sweat,
  • 0:29 - 0:34
    in my nightmare, this is no exaggeration,
    this is how much I really, really wanted to be a monk.
  • 0:34 - 0:37
    My nightmare was I was a lay person.
  • 0:37 - 0:39
    I thought I wasn't a monk after all.
  • 0:39 - 0:42
    And I'd open my eyes and I'd see
    my robes next to the bed.
  • 0:42 - 0:46
    Ah, I'm a monk! I really am a monk!
    [laughter]
  • 0:46 - 0:48
    And I'd just go to sleep in this
    very peaceful deep sleep.
  • 0:48 - 0:51
    And that was about for a week.
  • 0:51 - 0:54
    That's how much I really loved being
    a monk and I never looked back.
  • 0:54 - 0:58
    So that was my nightmare.
    I was terrified that I wasn't a monk.
  • 0:58 - 1:01
    So happy that I was a monk.
    So it's a great thing to be!
  • 1:01 - 1:03
    So that's how I feel being
    an ordained person.
  • 1:03 - 1:05
    I don't know why many of you don't do it.
  • 1:05 - 1:09
    Actually there's a problem now because
    we've got too many people wanting to become monks.
  • 1:09 - 1:14
    So even just this evening, one Sri Lankan person,
    a monk, wanted to come and visit for
  • 1:14 - 1:17
    the rains, had to tell the secretary, we've got no space.
  • 1:17 - 1:22
    There's another young man who wanted
    to become a monk, can't do it.
  • 1:22 - 1:24
    There's now too many people on the waiting list.
  • 1:24 - 1:27
    So should you also take ordination?
  • 1:27 - 1:32
    Yeah, take ordination but please build some
    more huts for the nuns and the monks first of all.
  • 1:32 - 1:35
    [laughter]
    So we've got a place to stay.
  • 1:35 - 1:37
    So it really is a great thing to do.
  • 1:37 - 1:41
    I don't know, maybe because of the
    global financial crisis that people are bankrupt
  • 1:41 - 1:47
    [laughter] they're becoming monks to
    escape the tax man and everybody else.
  • 1:47 - 1:48
    I don't know.
  • 1:48 - 1:52
    But anyway, that's how I feel about being ordained.
  • 1:52 - 1:56
    So who amongst the Bhikkhunis
    are going to answer the question?
  • 1:56 - 2:00
    How do you feel?
    Okay, Bhikkhuni Satyamma.
  • 2:00 - 2:02
    How do you feel about being..?
  • 2:02 - 2:03
    Bhikkhuni Satima: I feel great.
  • 2:03 - 2:05
    Ajahn Brahm: Very good, no, come on,
    you've got to do it on the...
  • 2:05 - 2:08
    Here we go.
  • 2:08 - 2:17
    This is Bhikkhuni Satima here,
    how she feels being a Bhikkhuni.
  • 2:17 - 2:21
    Bhikkhuni Satima: I feel great, I felt the same
    too when I became a Bhikkhuni.
  • 2:21 - 2:29
    That was, I think I was radiating with joy
    so much that I was at the airport and the
  • 2:29 - 2:34
    flight attendant came up to me and says,
    Venerable, you can board the plane first.
  • 2:34 - 2:37
    So that was the first time that something like that happened too.
  • 2:37 - 2:38
    Ajahn Brahm: Very good.
  • 2:38 - 2:39
    Bhikkhuni Satima: So that was...
  • 2:39 - 2:41
    Ajahn Brahm: One of the privileges you get.
  • 2:41 - 2:46
    Bhikkhuni Satima: Privileges, yes.
    [Laughter]
  • 2:50 - 2:52
    Another Bhikkhuni: I feel similarly,
  • 2:52 - 2:57
    I can't say that, you know,
    it's all peace and joy all the time.
  • 2:57 - 3:00
    I brought my defilements with me.
  • 3:00 - 3:15
    But I just,
    this is absolutely how I want to live.
  • 3:15 - 3:19
    Ajahn Brahm: How long have you been a Bhikkhuni now?
  • 3:19 - 3:20
    Bhikkhuni: Since 2003.
  • 3:20 - 3:23
    Ajahn Brahm: Wow, that's eight, nine years.
  • 3:23 - 3:24
    Bhikkhuni: Something like that.
  • 3:24 - 3:27
    Ajahn Brahm: Very good.
  • 3:27 - 3:31
    Bhikkhuni: But it's just a wonderful thing.
  • 3:31 - 3:37
    I'm just incredibly, it goes beyond grateful.
  • 3:37 - 3:39
    I'm astounded that I get to do this.
  • 3:39 - 3:41
    Ajahn Brahm: Very good.
  • 3:41 - 3:43
    Bhikkhuni Nirodha,
    want to have a go?
  • 3:43 - 3:47
    Bhikkhuni: I just want to add
    whether anyone else should do it.
  • 3:47 - 3:50
    It takes huge commitment.
  • 3:50 - 3:55
    I think there's a phase in people's practice
    as lay people that they have kind of
  • 3:55 - 3:59
    this idea, maybe they'd like to ordain.
    I think it's a beautiful phase.
  • 3:59 - 4:02
    But it takes huge commitment.
  • 4:02 - 4:06
    Ajahn Brahm: Just like a marriage,
    but it's much more fun than being married.
  • 4:06 - 4:10
    [laughter]
    Bhikkhuni: Precisely.
  • 4:12 - 4:16
    Bhikkhuni Nirodha: I can't imagine doing
    anything else or being anything else.
  • 4:16 - 4:21
    So just a tremendous sense of gratitude
    to the Buddha and to everybody else who helped
  • 4:21 - 4:24
    to bring these ordinations about.
  • 4:24 - 4:27
    So it's not only just a Bhikkhuni ordination.
  • 4:27 - 4:33
    First you ordain as a Samaneri, as an Anagarika,
    then as a Samaneri, then as a Bhikkhuni.
  • 4:33 - 4:39
    So for me it's the culmination
    of many aspirations.
  • 4:39 - 4:45
    And I wish everybody else
    would be able to do it.
  • 4:45 - 4:49
    And I can't think of anything else,
    what I would like to do right now.
  • 4:49 - 4:52
    Thank you very much.
  • 4:57 - 5:00
    Ajahn Brahm: Are you going to ordain?
    [far from mic]
  • 5:00 - 5:02
    Attendant: I hope so.
    [laughter]
  • 5:02 - 5:03
    Ajahn Brahm: Are you going to ordain?
  • 5:03 - 5:06
    Attendant: I would like to, I'd encourage it.
  • 5:06 - 5:10
    Ajahn Brahm: Very good, very good.
    [laughter]
  • 5:10 - 5:12
    I knew that answer because
    he's coming to monastery.
  • 5:12 - 5:14
    So it's very, very good.
  • 5:14 - 5:18
    And one of the great benefits of being a monk
  • 5:18 - 5:21
    is because we don't have kids, we lessen the
  • 5:21 - 5:27
    population of the world, so it means
    we're helping with stopping climate change.
  • 5:27 - 5:30
    The biggest problem with climate change is
    too big population,
  • 5:30 - 5:35
    so I really want sort-of to have
    the laws in Australia and other countries
  • 5:35 - 5:40
    that every other man, 50% of men
    have to become monks for life [laughter]
  • 5:40 - 5:44
    and 50% of the girls have to become
    nuns and that way the population will
  • 5:44 - 5:49
    go down, no climate change,
    we'll save the world [laughter]
  • 5:49 - 5:53
    [Ajahn chuckles] What are you laughing at?
    That's actually serious.
  • 5:53 - 6:23
    No, anyway, could you please...
Title:
How does it feel to be a monk or a nun? | Ajahn Brahm
Description:

Ajahn Brahm and the nuns on his meditation retreat talk about their feelings about being ordained.

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
Buddhist Society of Western Australia
Project:
Dhamma Shorts
Duration:
05:55

English subtitles

Revisions