Living Like a Monk

Part 2 of a series of 5:

For the entire course, we all had to accept a strict moral code:

1. to abstain from killing any being;
2. to abstain from stealing;
3. to abstain from all sexual activity;
4. to abstain from telling lies;
5. to abstain from all intoxicants.

~ Japan Vipassana Association

In practice, precept 4. is so difficult that it translates into no speech or any other forms of communication. This is relaxed on the final day to help prepare to ease you back into returning to the real world. I found it surprisingly easy to keep this code of silence although I found it a bit rich coming from a meditation guru who so obviously likes the sound of his own voice [says the man who's written over 200 blog posts in the last year]. His discourses and meditation instructions (played from a tape) seemed to go on and on. He also enjoyed a good chant at any available opportunity. To be honest though, I couldn’t resist the temptation for a bit of self-expression, I had to jot down a few notes and musings in my diary.

Old students also had to agree to the following extra 3 rules:

1. to abstain from eating after midday;
2. to abstain from sensual entertainment and bodily decorations
3. to abstain from using high or luxurious beds.

They say that you should never trust the cooking advice of a thin chef. I think that’s one of the reasons why the Two Fat Ladies Cooking shows with Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson were so popular. Similarly, I would suggest that you should be suspicious of the advice from a fat meditation guru who tells you to eat until you are only 75% full. Apparently, it is very difficult to meditate on a full stomach. I didn’t get the chance to find out. I followed the advice, eating two and a half vegetarian meals a day and lost a good bit of weight. To be fair, it is excellent advice, as a light, empty stomach seemed to promote space and lightness in the mind. It’s difficult to focus when you’re burping. As I lost weight from my body, I left behind mental baggage too.

In fact, I really appreciated the moral restrictions. The controlled environment provided an amazing opportunity to shed the distractions,stresses and obfuscations of the modern day connected world and made it much easier to travel within. I thought about Thailand where traditionally, all men used to join a temple as monks for 3 or 6 months as a temporary check-out from their normal householder lives. I think it’s a very good practice and would provide a much needed check on some of the excesses of modern day society if the tradition remained. To be continued …