When I was ordained for the second time, I asked my upajjhaya if I might keep the name I’d been given when I was ordained the first time. He granted my request without hesitation. But I think it would be rather eccentric to ask to choose one’s own name when ordaining the first time. I expect some upajjhayas would agree to it and others not.
In the event of their agreeing to it, the name would still need to be one that accorded with the local monk-naming conventions. For example, in the commonest naming system used in Thailand and neighbouring countries, the first letter of one’s name has to be based on the day of the week on which one was born:
Sunday: name beginning with a vowel
Monday: a velar consonant
Tuesday: a palatal consonant
Wednesday daytime: a retroflex consonant
Wednesday nighttime: y, r, l or v
Thursday: a labial consonant
Friday: s or h
Saturday: a dental consonant
" I believe in general in Thailand monks go by their lay name. Hence Ajahn Geoff, Ajahn Dick, etc."
The above copied from the other thread linked by Trusolo.
On the other hand you have monks of the Ajahn Chah lineage with Pali names - Brahm, Sumedho, Amaro
I wonder if it has to do with Dhammayuttika vs Maha Nikaya lineage.
In Thailand the use of one’s Pali name in everyday intercourse is a peculiarity largely confined to non-Thai monks ordained in the Ajahn Chah tradition.
Thank you Bhante. Clearly, “Chah”, “Mun”, “Bua”, etc are birth names not ordination names. Sri Lankan monastics do seem to use their ordination names. I’m not sure of the Burmese custom, but I understand “Mahasi” is a nickname (“Big Drum”), rather than an ordination name.
In Sri Lanka your name is legally changed if you are a citizen. You have to return your national identity card and get a new one with your ordination name (and hometown). Using your name from lay-life is completely unheard of. Keep in mind that ordination in SL is seen as a lifetime thing.
Yes, it’s a common practice to refer to Burmese monks by the name of their monastery: Mahasi, Ledi, Sitagu, Jetavana, Webu, etc. Though it’s not an invariable practice; the Paṭṭhāna Sayādaw (U Nārada) for example, was so named on account of his lifelong devotion to promoting the study of the Book of Conditional Relations.
Sure.
At the group of monasteries where I ordained this is normal. You can ask your teacher for suggestions, but a lot choose their own or have a friend choose. My name wa part of a list of 5 names my teacher at the time had and then some Dhamma friends voted for me.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.
I once met a Sri Lankan monk, and they were thrilled to meet a Turkish Buddhist. He asked me straightaway if I had picked a Pāli name for myself, which I said I was thinking “Simsapa” and he was delighted (after teasing me if I was sure I didn’t want a “cooler” sounding name), saying “So be it!”
Obviously I’m not gone forth or something like that. But it was a fun episode.
The ordination is more about giving up what you already have, rather than about gaining something that you don’t have. The giving up includes all that you formerly considered you and yours (in the lay life), including your personal name and entire social identity. Effectively you become a ‘nobody’ in the eyes of the world, and all those people and things, that meant something to you before, now mean ‘nothing’. It is like your individuality dying (in your mind) without committing actual suicide. If you are not indifferent to your ordination name, why ordain at all? Choosing your own name upon ordination means you have one more thing to give up, your ordained name.
Because that is only where the journey begins, being indifferent may not be fully helpful, its not always the case that the one Ordaining you is some sort of Higher Power…
