I'm happy to have come across this board and see the writings of so many serious practitioners.
I myself am seriously considering going forth. I think about Sri Lanka. I've pretty much fulfilled my obligations to wife and kid. My daughter is almost 30 now and materially things would allow me to leave my spouse in no hardship. I'm in Canada. I'm 52 . Ah... what passes for I is of the nature to grow old, most certainly. South East Asia is probably the only place I could ordain at this age.
It seems to me the contradictions inherent in a lay life which worships materialism and sensuality continuously present challenges that could be--and probably ought to be--largely avoided, by ordaining. I get why lay life must be like that: folks are just trying to grapple with dukkha and do so by trying to flush it away with a river of pleasure borne of sensuality, materialism, relationality, entertainment....
Yes, I know, that one can still train in such an environment, but if one has an option . . . why not exercise it? And of course my view of the monastic lifestyle is certainly foggy, overly idealized, and in actuality would be much different than I can imagine it to be. But, really, I'm sort of a functional monastic now, as much as I can be as a householder. I meditate every day without fail, usually a couple of hours, or more if work life and home life allow, more on retreats, and I've been doing this for long enough and consistently enough that my tastes have really, really, really changed. The baubles of materialism and sensual life just don't glitter any more. That mode of life is insipid now.
Were I younger, I would not hesitate to go forth. I hesitate only because of my age. It gives me pause, makes me wonder whether it is perhaps too late this time around.
Plus, practice as a layman is working... my mind IS inclining increasingly towards peace. My mind IS becoming more detached. Nibbida IS arising. So as nibbida matures, it seems so natural to let go into the next mode of life. But then I think, about the age thing, and also consider that maybe there's no need to make a move. It's working. Just let the practice keep working, and like the Ganges inclines towards the sea....
That said, my mind is also growing so uninterested in what passes for common pursuits that it creates a lot of problems between myself and others, particularly my spouse. No doubt, she would rather have a "normal" guy; I'm incapable of being normal, and would actually intensify my practice would it not push us over the edge immediately.
Well... there's a good intro I guess. Stay tuned.
Nice to meet you all.
Comments welcome.
PhiloDhammo.
Hello
Re: Hello
Hi PhiloDhammo and welcome to Dhamma Wheel.
I hope you find some inspiration and companionship here.
I wish you well in untangling your domestic affairs prior to ordination.
metta
Ben
I hope you find some inspiration and companionship here.
I wish you well in untangling your domestic affairs prior to ordination.
metta
Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
Re: Hello
Welcome PhiloDhamma!
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.
- BB
- BB
-
retrofuturist
- Posts: 27858
- Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:52 pm
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Re: Hello
Greetings PhiloDhamma,
Welcome to Dhamma Wheel and good luck with your plans.
Metta,
Retro.
Welcome to Dhamma Wheel and good luck with your plans.
Metta,
Retro.
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
