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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.
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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 Nibb�na, 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
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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-
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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 S�sana. The
challenges of our age are unique and unprecedented, and
they require intelligent responses governed by the wide,
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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 całość w formacie PDF ]