I was just joking, however, the gifs and your words remind me that I should be putting more time into my practice .
PS - not sure if others have noted this already but Yodha apparently means warrior in Saį¹skį¹ta. Wouldnāt be surprised if this was inspiration for the naming of Yoda in Star Wars.
This fellow, āRag-riceā, he sure is a rag.
This place has been made for practising jhÄna,
Like a crystal vase filled to the brim
With the nectar of the deathless,
Into which enough Dhamma has been poured.
Donāt nod off, Ragā
Iāll smack your ear!
Nodding off in the middle of the Saį¹ gha?
You havenāt learnt a thing.
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.
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):
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?