What do buddhist monks do

Some Theravada Buddhists believe one cannot realize enlightenment without maintaining monastic vows, while Mahayana Buddhists believe laypeople also can realize enlightenment ; but nearly all agree monastic life is more conducive to awakening. Cultural, economic, and practical considerations can come into play as well. Some Buddhist traditions believe that joining the monastic order accumulates merit for monastics as well as their families. One key reason Buddhists take monastic vows is to live a life of renunciation.

Some monastic communities like the Forest Sangha even have a Twitter account. Once a year, during the autumn festival of Kathina, families offer monks and nuns all the cloth they need for robes to get them through the winter months.

The lay community provides the monastic community with material support in exchange for the spiritual support they receive from them, in the form of ceremonies, guided meditation, or ad-hoc advice. Like anything, people interpret the rules in different ways, and some bend them a little too far. And the monks have been known to bend the rules as well. One small sect of Western Buddhists admitted to receiving rental income from people in receipt of housing benefit. A number of Buddhist groups use this justification to get other things like meditation classes, books and so on.

People who break the rules will always exist — but for hundreds of Buddhist communities around the world, the system of mutual dependence is a really important part of Buddhist spirituality. No economic model is perfect, but this system at least allows both the monastic and the lay community to meet their spiritual and material needs. This is a personal interpretation of the Buddha's teachings and does not claim represent the views of all Buddhists.

Liked this piece? Check out the rest of Economy Explores: Religion. This site uses JavaScript. Please enable it to get the full experience. Without money, how do monks get by? What do lay Buddhists get in return? How does the last row of novices differ from the others, and why might this difference exist? Ordination Ceremony at Longchang Monastery source. Music and sound are important aspects of life in a Buddhist monastery.

Bells, cymbals and other percussive instruments signal transitions between daily activities. They also accompany sessions of chanting that have a singing quality. These chants produce a distinctive, impressive sound and can last for hours.

To the right are monks reciting sutras at Shaolin Monastery Henan province. Can you locate two percussive instruments in this photo? Monks at Shaolin Monastery source.

Today, greater ease of travel has facilitated international exchange for monks and nuns. The monks below are attending a ceremony to celebrate the commemoration of a stele inscription. What do you notice about this delegation of monks? What do you think the two monks in the back are carrying? Monks attending a ceremony source. Buddhism was imported into Tibet from India during the Tang period. There are exceptions to this, such as monks who are too old or ill to go on daily rounds. Following the emergence of the coronavirus in Thailand, in mid-March , senior abbots in Bangkok released guidance that temples be closed and that festivals as well as rituals be postponed.

There are many reasons why this practice was allowed despite the risks brought about through close contact between the monk and his lay donor. In religious terms, monks provide laypeople with an opportunity to make merit.

Many Thai Buddhists believe that making merit — good karma — through giving can help mitigate the effects of wicked acts. These are acts motivated by greed, hatred or delusion. Giving food to monks is not the only way that Thais make merit , but it is a common one, tied to daily life throughout the country.

Merit making can also have political consequences. In monks in Myanmar took part in protests against the government that started with complaints against a spike in oil prices but quickly took on more overtly political overtones. This act, while not common, has a long history in Theravada Buddhism. The early 20th-century supreme patriarch of Thailand, Prince Wachirayan, wrote that this was a way that Theravada monks can rebuke laypeople for improper actions that threaten either the teachings of the Buddha or the monastic community.