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Continuing the discussion from Dhamma doodles 
:
Thank you so very much for your beautiful drawings. I can not express how much they have touched my heart and deepened the Dhamma for me. What a beautiful colouring book and coloured book they would make for people of all ages and following. Again thank you so very much for sharing this wonderful talent for communication. with mega metta.
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Thanks for your kind words, @Robyn!
Iāve moved back into my tent two months ago, so it has become very difficult to make drawings.
We are also building our new monastery Tilorien, and thereās not much time to drawā¦ 
Anyway, hereās a new one (my plan B, in case Tilorien isnāt ready in time before the next winter drives me out of my tent):
Dhamma Pirate
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Is it completely wrong that I now want to start thinking of ways to delay progress at Tilorien? I think the world needs Dhamma pirates! 
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Iāve been trying to convince my fellow sangha members that Tilorien urgently needs a flagpole with a pirate flag, but no success so farā¦ 
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Here Ayya Vimala said that āDonations should always be used for the purpose for which they were givenā, so would it be just be a matter of giving a donation specifically for that purpose? 
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What exactly does it mean to have a fossilized heart?
It probably means different things to different people. 
I was thinking of the perception in meditation when your heart feels like stone, and all the defilements seem stuck in there.
If it means nothing to some people, thatās fine tooā¦ 
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Jain Convert
Thag 4.5
For fifty-five years
I wore mud and dirt;
Eating one meal a month,
I tore out my hair and beard.
I stood on one foot;
I rejected seats;
I ate dried-out dung;
I didnāt accept food that had been set aside for me.
Having done many actions of this kind,
Which lead to a bad destination,
As I was being swept away by the great flood,
I went to the Buddha for refuge.
See the going for refuge!
See the excellence of the Dhamma!
Iāve attained the three knowledges,
And fulfilled the Buddhaās instructions.
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Oh, well done! I particularly love the clothes line with the cow dungā¦
Life as a Jain monastic is indeed hard!
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i donāt think i have ever met a Jain in this life.
Are there actual people who identify as this?
Yes, but they donāt wear dirt or eat dung anymore. Some of them however wear no clothes at all. Their lay community is possibly more numerous than Buddhists in India nowadays. Theyāre split in two main sects and many subsects. I work with a Jain indian. Theyāre very kind people and very diplomatic in terms of talking about spirituality it seems.
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As I understand it they (the āhard coreā monks) donāt wear clothes and also donāt washāso theyāre āwearingā mud and dirt. I donāt know if this is still practised today. Anyway, for lay practitioners it is quite different.
(Probably the monastic community has decreased in number considerably because the pulling out of hair as part of the ordination ceremony has become somewhat unpopularā¦ )
We may certainly find some of their practises quite silly today, but @Gabriel_L is right, we shouldnāt ridicule the people; and we should bear in mind that a core part of their teaching is about non-harming.
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They still pull their hair, beard and eyebrows. It is a very important event called Kesha locha and lay disciples are happy to witness such acts - search for it in YouTube and youāll see it.
I personally think it is very brave of them. It is a pity that most of their original scriptures is now lost.
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When saying that a Jain monastic has a hard life it was really meant that way, not ironically. And of course this requires a lot of bravery.
But I canāt easily see the benefit of such a self-torture, and the author of the above verse (after having become an arahant) even seems to find it harmful. The Buddha too didnāt describe self-torture as leading to any genuine spiritual progress. So what is it good for?
It is definitely not good for anything from the perspective of Buddha Dhamma!
I think the bodhisattva said it lead his mind to be concentrated (!) in a sutta which described the austerities- however it certainly isnāt recommended and concentration can be reached in other ways. I think the concentration was a by product of extreme letting go, if not extreme suppression of cravings.
With metta
Actually, the dung was dried for eating, not for wearing - at least in this particular Theragatha verse: 
And āno pain no gainā is still a wide-spread idea in many spiritual communities - including Buddhists - even today.
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On the bright side, Iām sure cow dung is loaded with probiotics!
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