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training prescribed by the Buddha for the Sangha? Did he intend the Order to consist entirely of ritual specialists and cultural custodians, and to postpone the treading of his path to liberation to some future existence? To arrive at a correct conception of the goal of monastic training we have to pierce through the established social norms and popular conventions that govern Sangha life today, not stopping until we have recovered the original conception of the monastic calling sounded by the Buddha himself. It is this conception that must be drawn out from the mas- sive volumes of Buddhist scriptures, rejuvenated with a breath of fresh air, and placed before the monk s inner eye as the real reason for his vocation. 86 It is towards the realization of this ideal that the monastic training should be directed. To work out the details of this is a task that must be given a great amount of careful and intelligent thought. Here I can only speak in generali- ties. The first, and overriding generality, is to recognize that the primary purpose behind the monastic path is personal growth and spiritual transformation in the direction point- ed to by the Buddha: growth towards Nibbàna, final libera- tion from suffering; transformation guided by the clear-cut steps of the Noble Eightfold Path. Stated so baldly, however, this expression of the goal may be too abstract, too remote from the everyday concerns and aptitudes of a young monk who is just setting out in his training. So let us put it differ- ently, into a language that is more immediate and concrete: The purpose of the monk s life is to train the mind, to purify the mind, to mould the mind in the direction of liberation from greed, aversion, and delusion; to implant in the mind the purifying qualities of detachment, loving kindness, compassion, and wisdom, and to share these aspirations with others. Whatever mode of expression is chosen is of secondary importance. What is of primary importance is a clear recognition that the guiding purpose of the monk s life should be the spiritual growth and self-transformation of the individual monk, and all other aspects of the training should be subsumed under this. To follow through such a suggestion will require that the Sangha rediscover a discipline that has almost been 87 lost, namely, the practice of meditation. Meditation, the methodical development of tranquillity and insight, was the original lifeblood of the renunciant life, yet for most monks today it has become only a word, perhaps a topic of sermons and seminars, or a ten-minute silence in the daily devotional service. In my view, a monastic life that does not centre upon the practice of meditation is merely a shadow of the genuine monastic calling, an evasion of the task entrusted to the Sangha by the Awakened One. I am aware that not all who go forth are capable of a life of full-time meditation, and I certainly would not pro- pose that all monks be obliged to follow such a lifestyle. Few in fact will be able to find happiness in a life devoted solely to contemplation, and throughout its long history the Sangha has had the flexibility necessary to accommo- date members of diverse skills and temperaments. Within the Sangha there must be administrators, scholars, teach- ers, preachers, social advisers, counsellors, ritual special- ists, and others, and the monastic training must prepare monks to fill these varied niches what the Christian monastic tradition calls the active vocations. The more intellectually inclined monks must also be exposed to the various branches of modern knowledge which will enable him to establish bridges between the Dhamma and the intellectual advance of humankind: philosophy and psy- chology, comparative religion, history and literature and art. But for the monastic life to remain faithful to its origi- 88 nal calling the practice of meditation must be restored to its rightful place: not at the fringes but at the centre. The meditative life, however, must also be integrated with a wider sense of the universal, social message of the Dhamma; otherwise it can become self-enclosed and stag- nant. In fact, one of the most regrettable turns taken in the historical evolution of Theravada Buddhism, not confined to Sri Lanka but quite pervasive here, has been the sharp division of the Sangha into meditating forest monks and non-meditating town-and-village monks. This fissure has deprived both groups of the healthy balance needed to make the Dhamma a spiritually nourishing force both in this country and in the wider world. The forest monks live almost entirely aloof from society, and thus, except by silent example, rarely contrib- ute their meditative insights and refined moral sensitivity to resolving the profound ethical and spiritual dilemmas confronting the broader human community. Responsibil- ity for upholding the social and communal dimension of Buddhist life devolves on the active town-and-village monks, who are only too prone to assume the role of cus- todians of a particular social and ethnic consciousness. Today it isn t only Buddhism in Sri Lanka that is at the crossroads, but the Sangha as well, and the direction it takes will determine the future destiny of the Sàsana. The challenges of our age are unique and unprecedented, and they require intelligent responses governed by the wide, 89 profound perspectives of the Dhamma. Mechanical rep- etition of the formulas of the past simply won t work. If the Sangha continues to adhere unthinkingly to established, self-stultifying structures and does not take up the urgent task of internal criticism and renewal, it will be condemn- ing itself, and Sri Lankan Buddhism, to irrelevance. For both alert lay Buddhists and the world community as a whole, it will be just another antiquated institution strug- gling to hang on to its privileges. Today a cloud of moral and spiritual confusion hangs over humankind, a cloud that grows increasingly darker and thicker. It is the true [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ] |