What Buddhist monks do

Factual Questions
1

I had spent two weekends during my college days in a Catholic monastery. I know what the monks there are doing: singing God’s praises, being nice to each other, doing something to earn for their livelihood and useful to society, like operating a school and a publishing shop, and reading reading reading. All these things they do to get to heaven when they die, to a better place up there.

Now,on T.V. documentaries I have seen Buddhist monks chanting in their choir. They don’t look much different from Catholic monks, even the physcial layout of their choir, up to the sanctuary and altar.

May I ask the Buddhists here in these forums or Buddhist enthusiasts, what are the Buddhist monks chanting about in their choir, the praises of God? And do they expect to get to heaven when they do die? For Buddhism there does not seem to be any kind of heaven analogous to the Christian one.

Susms Rio Sep

PS With apologies to Catholic nuns and also Anglican and Lutheran ones, try this question and answer for humor: What do nuns talk about the whole day in their convent? What else, but nonsense.

Another one: What do monks do the whole day in their monastery? (You got it.) What else but monkey business.

2

Note that there are many different Buddhist sects, and many different schools in each sects so details of monastic life does vary a lot. That being said, I’ll answer for the Chan/Zen sect which is the one I know best.

Monks typically get up around 5 am, sometimes earlier. There is a period of meditation after which the morning meal is eaten. Breakfast is the main meal of the day and consists simply of vegetables and rice. Buddhist monks are strict vegans, with onions and garlic being often forbidden also.

After breakfast, morning is spent on manual labour. This involves taking care of the temple ground, its gardens, etc. There is a small lunch, and monks will often go to the city to beg for alms. This is a tradition that goes back to the days of the historical Buddha.

Other daily activities include formal talks on the doctrine and personal interview with one’s master.

After the evening meal, there is another period of meditation and then it’s lights out.

A number of times a year, monks perform sesshin, which is an intensive training period that lasts about a week. During sesshin, the schedule is a lot more tight and there is typically over 6 hours of meditations a day.

Here’s a link to the International Zen Center in Kyoto. It’s a temple that allows foreigners to do short-term residencies. Their schedule listed on the page is fairly typical of regualr temples.

Chants.

Buddhist monks typically chant sutras, that is, sacred texts. These will vary depending on the sect. In Japan they are sung in Sino-Japanese. That is, the text is in Chinese, but the Japanese reading of the characters is used instead. Owing to the huge number of homophones, Sino-Japanese is unintelligible without the written text. Plain (though classical) Chinese is obviously used in China, while in other places the original Pali or Sanskritt texts might be used.

What do the text talk about? They are not prayers in the Christian sense, think of them more like works of philosophy, or the writings of Paul. If you’re curious, here are translations of texts commonly used in the Zen sect:

Heart Sutra
Diamond Sutra
Exerpts from the Lotus Sutra

Not a sutra, but recited daily in many Rinzai Zen temples, Hakuin’s Song of Zazen

Monks will also chant their vows daily, these differ, again, depending on the school.

3

Jovan, had you ever stayed in a Buddhist monastery? Try also some days in a Catholic monastery. You will find the surprising similarity between their lifestyles.

About the Buddhist monks’ chanting, what is their purpose? With Catholic monks, it is to praise the Lord or God, He the Master of the Universe persona. The Catholic monks singing or reciting the praise of the Deity makes the Deity happy. What or whom do the Buddhist monks make happy? if that be their purpose. On the part of themselves, the Catholic monks get to be holier and holier: holiness being a function of how much you make the Deity happy. What about the Buddhist monks, do they get to be holy and holier with their chanting?

Do you have some of your particular Buddhist school humor? Let’s have some of that, shall we?

Susma Rio Sep

PS By chance, are you a member or long time guest of that monastery of Buddhist Zen monks? If so, good; then I can really get to know more about Zen monasticism from one with hands on experiences.

4

Not a monastery, but a lay center. The schedule is similar, but there is no begging.

Everything a Buddhist monk does should have for ultimate goal enlightenment. That is, a state of being devoid of attachment and hence, suffering. Note that suffering doesn’t mean exactly the same thing in Buddhism than it means in Christianity. In some schools, monks seek to attain their own enlightenment, in others, they seek enlightenment for every sentient being. Some schools teach that enlightenment can be achieved by anyone in this current lifetime. Others teach that it will take several aeons of practice to do so.

In the Zen tradition, chanting is a form of meditation. It is a tool to help focus our minds. It is also a way to memorize and assimilate important texts. There are no prayers directed at anyone in Zen.

Other schools, however, like the Pure Land sect, teach that enlightenment cannot be attained through individual effort only. You need the help of external powers, namely the Buddha Amitabha. Followers of the Pure Land sect chant the phrase: “namu Amida Butsu”, over and over again. Litteraly, it means something like “Praise to the Buddha Amitabha”. Amitabha is very close to the concept of “saviour”. There is no enlightenment, save through the help of Amitabha. Note that it’s only one small group of sects that holds these beliefs.

If you’re curious about the similarities and dis-similarities between Zen Buddhist and Christian monastic lives, I recommend the following books:

The Practice of Zen Meditation
Living in the new Consciousness

By Father Enomiya-Lasalle, a German Jesuit who also became a Zen master. If you can read German, he has written several more works.

Zen et Christianisme (in French)

By Evelyn de Smedt. I don’t think this has been translated, but it’s an interesting comparative study of Buddhist and Christian mysticism.

Living Buddha, Living Christ

By Thich Nhat Hanh, probably the most famous Zen master alive. It’s a very easy to read book that was hugely popular, though you may find it a bit “light”.

5

Jovan: I’m aware of at least one Zen tradition in which prayers are directed at someone: Kwan Yin. Now, she’s not exactly worshipped, but she is prayed to.

6

I just read that they eat whatever is offered to them, including meat. Also, here’s a Buddhist monk that drinks milk daily.

Just curious: Why can’t they eat onions or garlic?

7

Note to others following: Kuan Yin, known in Japanese as Kannon, Kanzeon, Kanjizai and Avalokitesvara in Sanskritt is the Bodhisattva (deity, saint) of compassion.

I think it’s almost a matter of semantics, but I would say that it’s not exactly praying. Although, in fact, this will depend on individuals. When you are “praying” to Kuan Yin, you are using a personification of a virtue (compassion) to focus your attention, hopefully fostering the growth of this virtue in yourself. Maybe some would call that praying. I feel, however, that it’s not quite the same thing as nenbutsu, or Catholic prayer.

The oldest Buddhist texts are contained in a work called the Tipitaka (Three Baskets). This work is divided in three sections, one of them, the Vinaya Pitaka, deals with rules for monastic life. It is extremely lengthy and detailed. I read somewhere that it’s over twice as long as the Japanese civil code. The general rules for eating are that monks and nuns should not eat meat, unless it is given to them. As a matter of fact, Buddha himself died of food poisoning after eating bad pork.

Theravada schools, which stick to the older teachings, are probably more likely to tolerate eating meat. The logic is that killing animals is wrong but letting food go to waste is worst. So my statement wasn’t terribly accurate of all Buddhist monks but it’s certainly true of most Mahayana monks.

In theory, that is. In practice, eating meat is one of the most often broken rule. Especially in Japan. There’s lot’s of serious monks and nuns who stick to their vegan diet, but there are also a great many not-so-serious ones that never fail to ask for extra roast pork on their ramen.

As to why onions and garlic are forbidden, I can only offer two theories, one I’ve heard recently and one of my own.

The first is that Buddhist should refrain from taking life. All life. Take an apple from a tree, and the tree lives. Remove an onion from the ground and the whole plant dies. The same goes for garlic.

My own theory, however, is that they give you bad breath. I make a point not to eat either before I practice zazen because, in my experience, sitting for two hours with your mouth closed and onion fermenting in your mouth is not a pleasent experience.

8

I agree with you that it’s not the same as the RC prayers to Deity, jovan; however, it seems to be very much like the RC supplications to saints.