Coyote wrote:I think we are just going to have to disagree
Easily robed is easily disrobed - Ajahn Chah
Nobody is talking about wasting time, or waiting a long time before ordination. Ordination doesn't automatically guarantee good practice on the path, so your comments about dying tomorrow are irrelevant. Everything I have read, about Buddhism and ordination suggests that jumping in blind is likely not going to go well. There is a reason why you cannot ordain before 20, and in many places not before several years of inquiry. Easily robed then easily disrobed is a burden on the monastic community.
Less BJJ and more dhamma study Coyote.
This is from the Buddhist monastic code as translated by Venerable Thanissaro:
An applicant for the Going-forth must be at least fifteen years old or, if not yet fifteen, "capable of chasing crows away." According to the Commentary, this means that, while holding a clod of earth in one hand, he can chase crows away from food placed in front of him while he is eating it with his other hand.
An applicant for full Acceptance must be at least twenty years old, counting from the time his consciousness first arose at conception in his mother's womb. As this is difficult — if not impossible — to date with any accuracy, the usual practice in calculating a person's age is to add six months to the number of years since his birth, to allow for his having been born prematurely.
So whilst one has to be 20 to gain full ordination, you can become a novice much younger (as indeed we see in Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka etc where little kids are novice monks).
Ajahn Chah himself completed only 4 years of primary school.
You are correct that ordination doesn't guarantee good practice on the path, that is entirely up to the individual. It is however, the path recommended by the Buddha. It is not for you to worry about burdens on monastic communities, don't speak of things you know nothing about. The abbots I have met would sooner you ordained, gave it a shot, and subsequently disrobed, than not ordained at all. This particular poster could become an Arahant in 1 yr or he could disrobe in 1 yr. It is not for you to play soothsayer.
The fact is, there is a young man on here expressing a desire (however potentially misplaced) of going to a monastery, and he is being discouraged by certain posters. On a Buddhist forum.
For shame.