How to handle a beggar want to stay in your temple?

Discussion of ordination, the Vinaya and monastic life. How and where to ordain? Bhikkhuni ordination etc.
Swatantra
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Re: How to handle a beggar want to stay in your temple?

Post by Swatantra »

User156079 wrote:
Monks are prohibited to give their alms food to beggars afaik, i dont see why same would not apply to Monasteries and other requisites.
Why is this? Surely if someone needed that food more than they did, it would be metta or just plain decent to give it to the homeless person?
I understand that the food was given to them, but since it is now in their possession, isn't it up to the monk to decide what to do with it?
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lyndon taylor
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Re: How to handle a beggar want to stay in your temple?

Post by lyndon taylor »

Certainly at the Cambodian temple I lived at, alms food was distributed to the congregation, homeless or not after the monks had eaten, this is pretty standard practice at Therevada temples I have attended.
18 years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life and entered a local Cambodian Buddhist Temple as a temple boy and, for only 3 weeks, an actual Therevada Buddhist monk. I am not a scholar, great meditator, or authority on Buddhism, but Buddhism is something I love from the Bottom of my heart. It has taught me sobriety, morality, peace, and very importantly that my suffering is optional, and doesn't have to run my life. I hope to give back what little I can to the Buddhist community, sincerely former monk John

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SarathW
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Re: How to handle a beggar want to stay in your temple?

Post by SarathW »

Some interesting discussion with great photos in SC.

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/wh ... onk/7900/8
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dylanj
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Re: How to handle a beggar want to stay in your temple?

Post by dylanj »

The gift of shelter is mentioned again & again in the suttas.

The proper choice is to allow them to stay. How could one turn them away?
Born, become, arisen – made, prepared, short-lived
Bonded by decay and death – a nest for sickness, perishable
Produced by seeking nutriment – not fit to take delight in


Departure from this is peaceful – beyond reasoning and enduring
Unborn, unarisen – free from sorrow and stain
Ceasing of all factors of suffering – stilling of all preparations is bliss
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manas
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Re: How to handle a beggar want to stay in your temple?

Post by manas »

dylanj wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2018 6:29 am The gift of shelter is mentioned again & again in the suttas.

The proper choice is to allow them to stay. How could one turn them away?
So long as they were quiet and didn't disturb the monks' meditation practice, I would think it would be the right thing, to let them stay. However, if the place got noisy to the point that monks keen on the practice, ended up having to leave, what then? The monastery could become a homeless shelter if one never said no, then, no more monks, no more laypeople visiting...then? Would that be a good thing? Compassion needs to be balanced against Wisdom, I think I heard that said somewhere. Where would the limit be? One homeless person? two? twenty? How far would one allow it? I don't think the answer is completely clear cut.

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