Dear Bankei,

I ordained in Thailand at Wat Pah Nanachat about four years ago. Now I have
moved to a branch monastery in Australia called Santi Forest Monastery,
Bundanoon, NSW. Wat Pah Nanachat (WPN) is the only place in Thailand where
you would really get trained in what it means to be a bhikkhu, in English.
If you ordain in a Thai monastery, even if it is a good one, if you don't
understand Thai you won't be able to learn very much about the way of life
of a bhikkhu. The ordination itself is just a convention, wearing robes and
shaving your head won't purify your heart. In fact because we are dependent
on the gifts of others that increases our kammic responsibility. I had
friends at WPN who had ordained in Thai village/city monasteries (Wat Umong
actually, it calls itself a forest monastery because of its location but in
terms of the style of practice and carelessness about the Vinaya it would be
classified as a Wat Bahn). One of my friends who had ordained at Wat Umong
stayed for a year or so, then disrobed, travelled about a bit more and came
to WPN. One day while he was listening to a Vinaya class as a eight-precept
postulant he realised that while he was a monk before at Wat Umong he had
committed a parajika offence which meant that he could never again be
ordained as a bhikkhu in this lifetime. (sorry to be blunt: one's own
orifices count in parajika 1). If you ordain as a bhikkhu in a place where
you will not get any training in the Vinaya, or not enough anyway, you can
fall into serious offences without knowing that you have, which will
definetly be an obstacle to any meditation you might attempt. The purpose of
ordaining as a bhikkhu is to realise the noble paths and fruits and nibbana,
so it should be done only in a way which is capable of producing those
results.

The Thai tradition of temporary ordinations has many serious disadvantages,
if that is what you're planning to do I would strong encourage you to simply
live in the monastery as an eight-precept laymen which is much more
appropriate for the intention of experimenting with the monastic life.

I'm sorry if this sounds a bit strong, it is a serious matter in terms of
kamma. The moral of the story is: if something's worth doing it's worth
doing properly.

And yes there are some significant differences between the Dhammayut and
Mahanikaya ordination procedures: the kammavaca for upasampada is identical
but the prelimanary traditional chants for pabbaja are quite different. The
mahanikaya version begins with `ukasa vandami bhante...'. If your going to
ordain at a respectable forest monastery where you will get trained in the
Vinaya then you could ask WPN to send you the chanting sheets in English and
Pali roman script, they also have chanting tapes. Or, if you reassure me
that you going to use it well, I could record the chanting for you and email
it.

Yours with metta,

Bhante Santidhamma.

On 18/12/05, Bankei <bankei@...> wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> I am thinking about ordaining for a short period in Thailand next year.
> Would anyone know if there are audio files, on the net somewhere, on the
> chanting involved? I have purchased a book on the proceedure with the
> Pali,
> but it would be easier to learn if I could listen to the Pali.
>
> Also would anyone know if there is a difference between the Mahanikaya and
>
> the Dhammayutika in the proceedure? I think I remember reading somewhere
> that there were slight differences in the wording used, but I cannot
> remember where I read this.
>
> Any tips or suggestions would also be welcome.
>
> Regards
>
> Terry
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>
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