Becoming a Buddhist is a meaningful and beneficial way to live your life and help others. It is a great blessing for us that the Buddha established the monastic tradition, which is still in existence today.
Thanks to the passion, commitment, and labor of countless monks and nuns throughout Asia over the past two thousand years. The life of a Buddhist monk or nun bears a huge responsibility for oneself and others, despite the many advantages of ordination.
How to Become A Buddhist?
One should have a solid grounding in the Buddha’s teachings before pursuing ordination. For instance, the Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, and the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment.
A student who requests ordination often has completed several years of study and practice under the supervision of an experienced teacher. If you are starting, look around your neighborhood for a center or study group. You can develop a grasp of the lessons there. Additionally, enlist the aid of other dharma students and seek the direction of a knowledgeable teacher.
What does It Means to be A Buddhist?
First, being a Buddhist is having a strong conviction in the amazing potential that aware beings are born with. That is the potential to realize or awaken to a pure state independent of the influence of ignorance-based greed, hatred, and illusion.
The deeper potential of the mind is fulfilled through uprooting and renouncing ignorance and growing mindfulness and wisdom as their antidote. Being a Buddhist means a lot to me and is at the core of my traditional lifestyle.
Using A Spiritual Advisor
We need to succeed in our practice. We require a teacher and mentor for any endeavor we attempt. This is particularly true regarding our spiritual path, where a knowledgeable instructor can advise us.
When we are prepared to make the commitment necessary for the monastic vows of ordination. You must have a teacher who can authorize your ordination. Our teacher will know how to assist in laying the groundwork for the monastic life.
Choosing A Buddhist Path
The next stage is legally identifying as a Buddhist by taking refuge after recognizing the significance of the Buddha’s teachings. Also, believing they fit for your spiritual growth. Spend as much time as is necessary building your spirituality.
Know who you are and if you would feel at home as a nun or a monk. One must improve one’s practice by accepting laid vows to prepare for life with vows. Many students will also practice celibacy for a while before undergoing ordination.
Thinking About Ordination
Spend time, if feasible, residing in a monastic community to gain insight into what it’s like to be a monastic from the local monks or nuns. Consult monks and nuns who have kept the vows. And can provide extremely useful advice on upholding one’s commitment.
The monastic community is pleased to hear that you are considering a life as a monk and want to help you get ordained. Programs are being created so lay practitioners thinking about ordination can learn about and experience monastic life in a safe retreat.
A Permanent Commitment
Part-time ordination programs are available in several monasteries in Asia, generally for males. Buddhist monks and nuns take their vows for life. Thus it is crucial to ponder carefully and thoughtfully on the benefits and drawbacks of each option before choosing one.
Thanks to them, one can live as a monk for a few days, weeks, months, or years. But in the Tibetan tradition, a lifelong commitment is made. The vows are made to keep them throughout one’s entire life. And even while there are instances of persons taking vows only to return them and live a worldly life subsequently, this is not advised.
Buddhism and Fulfillment
Suffering and happiness are discussed in the first and second verses of the Dhammapada, the oldest recorded collection of Buddha’s sayings. Therefore, it is not surprising to learn that Buddhism has much to say about happiness.
Buddha’s contemporaries referred to him as “ever-smiling,” and pictures of him nearly invariably show him grinning. Buddha’s grin, however, derives from a deep sense of inner tranquility rather than the self-satisfied, monetarily prosperous, or famed man’s smile.
Being A Community Member
You join a group known as the Sangha when you become a Buddhist monk. After being ordained, one typically lives in a monastic community for at least five years. The community’s mission is to learn and apply the Buddha’s teachings while disseminating them wherever feasible.
Before ordination, one should look into the opportunities to join monastic groups. This is not always practicable, though, as monastic communities are still developing in many regions of the world. In some circumstances, one can live inside a dharma center while being watched after and protected by their instructors.
We also share our resources, routines, practices, and personalities when we live in a community. Since many of us were raised in cultures where individuals value expression, learning to live in a community can present many challenges. The vinaya for monastic life is extremely precise in how we live in the community to safeguard our ordination.
Planning for Yourself
Traditionally, the four essential needs of food, clothes, a place to live, and medicine are supplied when someone enters a monastic community. However, because Buddhism is still a young religion in many parts of the world, there aren’t many resources available to support monastic communities.
It is crucial for persons thinking about becoming ordained to consider the support systems available to them after ordination. Many nuns and monks serve the dharma groups in their area in exchange for the necessities of life.
Monks and nuns should not labour in the outside world to sustain themselves since this goes against the Vinaya. To guarantee their stability after receiving ordination, those aspiring to become monks or nuns should speak with their instructor.
Conclusion
Putting an end to the nightmare’s cycle. The mind creates the nightmare, and since the mind, like the brain, is fundamentally open and flexible, it can detangle and reprogram itself. We can regain our fundamental capacity for independence and creativity. Then use that authority in a morally responsible manner. A Buddhist must be dedicated to awakening.
Also read: Who wrote the bible: The accurate truth about its author and writers
