Buddhist time

Publié le 15 avril 2008 par Gaelle, Aisyah, Socheata... what else ?

So... the main point of the trip was "spirituality", as Angeli said. Yes but... I had already visited many temples last time and I was feeling much more like discovering Burma than visiting the temples a second time. So, curiously enough, I saw only 3 temples and skipped the visits of Sunday afternoon to go and meet people.

          What's interesting in Burma is that the Buddhism is much more... "relax". Many monks over 25 are good monks, who respect the rules and principles. But so many of the young one just appear to do whatever they want. To be a novice is a required step in Burmese life and it looked to me like many of them just put on the saffron robe but forget what is going with it.
          I will always remember this monk, of about 20 y/o, walking next to two girls, his skirt low enough to show his underpants... A girl from Holland also told me she saw a monk drinking beer and another one with his arms around the waist of a girl, while she was driving a motorbike.

         They are not good monks, they should rather go bacj to aCe sont de normal life if they cannot bear the rules of the monkhood. I mean, I am not saying that drinking beer or huggng a girl is bad. For lay people. I'm just saying than when we make a choice, we should assume the consequences and act according to it. If they want to flirt, they should just disrobe...
        But, again, I've heard about the junta turning some people into monks and "allowing" them to behave badly, in order to discredit the moral status of the monks, so that people are less liable to follow their example and respect them so much. Who knows...

          But it is so easy to be a monk. You don't need to work and people give you food or money. In the morning, dozens of young novices go into the streets and beg for money. Not food. Money. I once gave them strawberries and they kept on waiting for money. One even followed us into a wihan, but one of the monks from this temple arrived and ushered him out.