Day 2 – Monk Life

 

What i remember most about today is the Monk chat. We had the opportunity to visit young monks at the temple, who were kind and willing to converse with us in English. I was particularly looking forward to this activity as I have a great interest in philosophy, and religion. Speaking with the monks would offer me great insights to their philosophy, their way of life and their thinking.

Spoiler: The Monk chat very indeed very interesting.

Expectations vs reality

When I entered the premises, I expected to see monks walking around, barefoot, with heavy chanting beads, but instead we were greeted with monks carrying electronic devices, one using a laptop, surfing the net, and another using a smartphone. I was taken by surprise, and was somewhat. Impressed.

While chatting with the monks, we learned that there is a strong Buddhist culture in the country, where majority (>80%) of the population is Buddhist. All Thai males are expected to go through a phase (at least one month) of monastery life, sort of like a rite of passage. They then have a choice to continue education, join the workforce, or to become a “full-time monk”. Families are supportive of youths who choose the monastery life. Another new fact I learnt about monks is that – they enter university as well. Monks go to university as well, called the “Monk University”. Monks, like us, do have to study and take exams. They study philosophy, Eastern and even Western philosophy. Their way of life is incredibly simple and ritualistic. Monks I feel, are incredibly self disciplined. They are human beings like us, with primal urges and we are so very often faced with temptations. Their ability to stay good and abstain from bad habits is applaudable.
Food for Thought – maybe I am influenced by my urban upbringing in Singapore, but this leads me to question Chiang Mai’s prevailing monk practices/ culture. Despite keeping an open mind to appreciate and understand other cultures, I honestly struggle to understand the existence of these strong practices in today’s context. I don’t mean to be disrespectful of their culture and practices, but these are questions I formed after the monk chat:

From what I have gathered, monks don’t contribute really to the economy. Rather, the pubic and government fund these institutions to help this monastery culture survive. What benefits do monks bring to society other than advocating peace and blessing the public?

Shouldn’t these youths be “deployed” to proper higher education institutions for a different kind of education that would give them skills to secure a job that would help advance the economy? Should there be reforms or is preserving the roots of a religious culture more important? Can a balance be achieved? Hmm.

I feel enlightened after todays monk chat, for I had been so ignorant about 21^st century monks, and their way of life. Despite our vastly different cultures and lifestyles, we do share many similarities such as the usage of social media (yes, monks do use Facebook) and their hunger for learning, and the pursuit of knowledge.

Following the monk chats, we also conducted street interviews by handing out Thai surveys to local youths to help facilitate our research. Thai people, I observed, are generally more pleasant then the Singaporean population. I am slightly ashamed to say this, but back in Singapore, perhaps due to our fast-paced lifestyles, if you were to approach the public to do a short survey, chances are that you get turned down or scoffed at. In Thailand, it is a different story. People here are extremely polite, and were willing to complete the surveys. It warms my heart to see that despite the language barrier and cultural differences, the Thais remained helpful and friendly towards us. I do hope that Singaporeans learn from the Thais and adopt a friendlier attitude…

Inspired by today’s monk chat, and my own personal journey of understanding my religious beliefs (or lack of), I shall sign off with a quote by Dalai Lama:

“Religion, any religion, no matter what sort of wonderful religion, never be universal. So now education is universal, so we have to sort of find ways and means through education system, from kindergarten up to university level, to make awareness these good things, the values, inner values.”

Janice Leong