What is it to be a monk?

In a small room of a shared house sits one man. By day he works a job and by night he eats and lives simply, with his wife, and not much my modern materialist standards. By title he is not a monk but his reading material is work of the Buddha, Lau Tzu, and so on.

In a temple in Thailand a monk sits in an air conditioned room, in standards high and above the average person, playing play station and watching porn. Nearby the police are called in to investigate how local chickens are dying. A local stake-out spies monks stealing chickens to rape in their bedrooms.

Nearby the temple locals are encouraged to give food and monetary donations to the temple and passing monks. A number of monks sell gold, Buddha images, lottery tickets, some work as whores. Monks have a privileged life where they never need graft a hard day, never need farm dry soils in baking heat and with the knack of sleeping in near lotus position they have the art of making recital time into a daily rest-break.

In the small room of the shared house, the one man takes from no one.

Where is the monk?

According to sources close to me, who do very much have the authority to make such claims, say that there are no monks left in the world, only the lazy, work-shy kinds who avoid the work of the commoner by wearing the robe of the holy. These same sources say that, while the occasional real monk does still wear a robe and live the Dharma, the true monk now is simply someone who; lives a simple life within the world of normal people, extends good feelings, develops themselves, attaches to no title, belongs to no sect, never visits a temple and asks for nothing of anyone.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao