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

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

How do you feel being the ordained persons?

Should we also take ordination?

Being an ordained person, you feel free,
at peace, oh so happy!

That's actually true that when I first became a monk,
how long ago, 37 years ago,

I had nightmares.
This is true.

I'd wake up in a sweat,

in my nightmare, this is no exaggeration,
this is how much I really, really wanted to be a monk.

My nightmare was I was a lay person.

I thought I wasn't a monk after all.

And I'd open my eyes and I'd see
my robes next to the bed.

Ah, I'm a monk! I really am a monk!
[laughter]

And I'd just go to sleep in this
very peaceful deep sleep.

And that was about for a week.

That's how much I really loved being
a monk and I never looked back.

So that was my nightmare.
I was terrified that I wasn't a monk.

So happy that I was a monk.
So it's a great thing to be!

So that's how I feel being
an ordained person.

I don't know why many of you don't do it.

Actually there's a problem now because
we've got too many people wanting to become monks.

So even just this evening, one Sri Lankan person,
a monk, wanted to come and visit for

the rains, had to tell the secretary, we've got no space.

There's another young man who wanted
to become a monk, can't do it.

There's now too many people on the waiting list.

So should you also take ordination?

Yeah, take ordination but please build some
more huts for the nuns and the monks first of all.

[laughter]
So we've got a place to stay.

So it really is a great thing to do.

I don't know, maybe because of the
global financial crisis that people are bankrupt

[laughter] they're becoming monks to
escape the tax man and everybody else.

I don't know.

But anyway, that's how I feel about being ordained.

So who amongst the Bhikkhunis
are going to answer the question?

How do you feel?
Okay, Bhikkhuni Satyamma.

How do you feel about being..?

Bhikkhuni Satima: I feel great.

Ajahn Brahm: Very good, no, come on,
you've got to do it on the...

Here we go.

This is Bhikkhuni Satima here,
how she feels being a Bhikkhuni.

Bhikkhuni Satima: I feel great, I felt the same
too when I became a Bhikkhuni.

That was, I think I was radiating with joy
so much that I was at the airport and the

flight attendant came up to me and says,
Venerable, you can board the plane first.

So that was the first time that something like that happened too.

Ajahn Brahm: Very good.

Bhikkhuni Satima: So that was...

Ajahn Brahm: One of the privileges you get.

Bhikkhuni Satima: Privileges, yes.
[Laughter]

Another Bhikkhuni: I feel similarly,

I can't say that, you know,
it's all peace and joy all the time.

I brought my defilements with me.

But I just,
this is absolutely how I want to live.

Ajahn Brahm: How long have you been a Bhikkhuni now?

Bhikkhuni: Since 2003.

Ajahn Brahm: Wow, that's eight, nine years.

Bhikkhuni: Something like that.

Ajahn Brahm: Very good.

Bhikkhuni: But it's just a wonderful thing.

I'm just incredibly, it goes beyond grateful.

I'm astounded that I get to do this.

Ajahn Brahm: Very good.

Bhikkhuni Nirodha,
want to have a go?

Bhikkhuni: I just want to add
whether anyone else should do it.

It takes huge commitment.

I think there's a phase in people's practice
as lay people that they have kind of

this idea, maybe they'd like to ordain.
I think it's a beautiful phase.

But it takes huge commitment.

Ajahn Brahm: Just like a marriage,
but it's much more fun than being married.

[laughter]
Bhikkhuni: Precisely.

Bhikkhuni Nirodha: I can't imagine doing
anything else or being anything else.

So just a tremendous sense of gratitude
to the Buddha and to everybody else who helped

to bring these ordinations about.

So it's not only just a Bhikkhuni ordination.

First you ordain as a Samaneri, as an Anagarika,
then as a Samaneri, then as a Bhikkhuni.

So for me it's the culmination
of many aspirations.

And I wish everybody else
would be able to do it.

And I can't think of anything else,
what I would like to do right now.

Thank you very much.

Ajahn Brahm: Are you going to ordain?
[far from mic]

Attendant: I hope so.
[laughter]

Ajahn Brahm: Are you going to ordain?

Attendant: I would like to, I'd encourage it.

Ajahn Brahm: Very good, very good.
[laughter]

I knew that answer because
he's coming to monastery.

So it's very, very good.

And one of the great benefits of being a monk

is because we don't have kids, we lessen the

population of the world, so it means
we're helping with stopping climate change.

The biggest problem with climate change is
too big population,

so I really want sort-of to have
the laws in Australia and other countries

that every other man, 50% of men
have to become monks for life [laughter]

and 50% of the girls have to become
nuns and that way the population will

go down, no climate change,
we'll save the world [laughter]

[Ajahn chuckles] What are you laughing at?
That's actually serious.

No, anyway, could you please...