Monastery experience and thoughts

[Useless folk]

Hi everyone i'm new. I am temporarily in the Buddhism monastery. It's like  It was founded by a rich master. I come here to have a few insights about them. They are like a family monastery. People here are good human beings. There's no question about it. But they live a quite primitive lifestyle. For ex: spitting around ( including the master) . I can't blame them though because my country does not ban this act. I am from Vietnam. But I still have disdain for such acts. Their toilet and washing rooms are dirty and stingy but they don't allow me to wear shoes in those rooms. The shower in the male washing room is out of order so i can't wash my hair. A joint washing room that i almost could not find space to put my clothes. People are a little bit irresponsible in this case. They should have put their clothes in the washing machine when they are out.  It's a little bit annoying. I feel like people here don't have any sense of hygienic standard at all. And they have me live in a room that only has a sleeping mat without a bed. The first day i could not sleep and almost wanted to leave but decided to carry on. My back still is not used to it yet .

Interestingly I met a man whose left arm is severely wounded. His right hand is a bit wounded too. Later i founded his legs are wounded too. It became suspicious to me from the beginning that he did it himself. Since our ages are the same we talked and got along quite well.

I asked him directly about his wounds and he admitted he did it himself in order to bleed to death. I asked him why and he said he's too tired of life and does not at all want to be part of the chain others have founded. He feels like he's a redundant person and not creating anything new for the world. I kinda understood what he meant. This man kinda wants to be an inventor or scientist who discovers something new but he's just not good enough. He tells me more about his personal life and my projection was confirmed. 

He's a kind and quite articulate man. I wanted to tell him that only 1 in a million can become a scientist or inventor or discover sth new. The rest just focuses on joining the already created working chain to make a living but decided to keep my mouth shut. His family has him in this monastery hoping he can decide his life ( continuing to live outside or become a Buddist). Honestly I think it's difficult for a man with his character to work as an employee in a company. He's not good salesman i am sure. 

If anyone tells me they want to commit suicide i will think they are weak souls but about this man i cannot. He's actually brave to cause such injuries for himself. Even his friend ( a martial artist said he would not have guts to). A few questions come to my mind: Should we have enough compassion to help someone die peacefully when they actually no longer want to live because for such people living longer just makes them suffer more. You have to be sentitive enough to see the suffering inside the man i met. He definitely tried but chose the wrong path to follow and he's just not good enough.

About the monastery: It helps! Even after some uncomfortable things i still feel it helps. I am a bit fatter. I feel more energetic. 

People here are kindhearted but dogmatic. 

I will live here until April 22th or 23rd. 

[Salvijus]

Interesting 

 

[Rilles]

Good, now your spiritual fantasy bubble is popped. Move right along.

[Useless folk]

@Rilles yeah. It's not a bad thing anyway. I've decided to extend my time here. I will stay here for at least 26 days in total

[Maya_0]

All those things you complained about in the monastery, consider them as a spiritual trial ; they are there to test your ability to be non judgemental and remain equanimous. 

 

As for the man, I'm glad he came to the monastery because I believe that's the right place for him. It's true that there is a lot of suffering in life and some people live in circumstances that make living difficult. But fortunately there is a lot we can do as humans to mitigate our suffering in life and ultimately, become liberated from our egoic identity.

[daniel695]

On 17/04/2019 at 3:23 PM, Useless folk said:

Should we have enough compassion to help someone die peacefully when they actually no longer want to live because for such people living longer just makes them suffer more.

I don’t know men, I think we should let them suffer until they realise the reason they suffer is because of their own doing . We should minimise their physical pain even that will only make them stronger in the long run. I’m not saying pain is necessarily in some case pain and suffering are definitely necessarily. I mean your basically choosing to learn through pain and suffering instead of love and compassion because your at low level of consciousness. Your experience is eye opening. When it’s the right time god will take your live away until then learn the lessons you need to learn.

[Useless folk]

i am still living in this monastery. I must say people here are extremely superstitious and living a primitive style. I have tried to forbade myself from judging others but judgement just comes on its own. Pp here think by reading lectures their disease would be killed without treatment. They even try to drag me into their stupidity. They are trying to get me to drink the water they call "Yellow paper water". They believe drinking such water a lot of Buddhas will watch over them. 

They see Buddhas as super physical beings who still exist and play a role in their life not realizing Buddhahood is real, Buddha is just a pointer.

As for the man who wanted to commit suicide, i am surprised to know he's a somewhat harcore meditator. The more I know him the more I am starting to know what's in his mind. He's an intelligent meditator but has wasted his time choosing the wrong path (I'm really worried for him). A thought has popped up in my mind: We must become financially independent first before we put our effort for enlightement work. If we are poor and enlightened it would be suicidal because when you're enlightened you are likely to just do nothing. Your survival depends on others

2) You can become enlightened and yet remain immature. 

3) Good people are more than usual ( I would say 99% ) are good just because they have some kind of ideaology or some sort of moral code has been implanted into their mind since they were children or because they are good because deep down they know that's the only way for them to survive. Most people here choose to live in this monastery because they are unable to make money living outside playing the monetary games humans invented.

4) Truly spiritual people wouldn't want to follow the herd lol. I've realized it just by observing the above-mentioned man. He just flows with existence without caring much about the stances others conform to when we all pray together. 

5) Enlightened people are not accepted by the masses ( this could be just my assumption) . I notice it in that man. The man just keeps getting reminded by others to follow what the rest does even though he doesn't really care or get annoyed by any criticism. 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by Useless folk