Last month, my team and I had the opportunity to live in the Tibetan province of China. It was a really cool experience to live amongst Tibetan Buddhist monks. The part that was not all that fun was the drastic weather change. For most part of the race it has been fairly warm, but it was very cold and it snowed twice in Lebrang, China where we stayed.
Living amongst monks really changed my perspective of a monk. I thought that monks did not involve themselves in any material pleasures. I had a preconceived notion that monks live life as simple as possible, but I quickly found out that this is not one hundred percent true. So I decided to do some research and this is what I found.
The most obvious thing I learned … was detachment. They lead simple lives and are attached to no material pleasures. They are content with what they have and they derive their happiness through prayer and serving others. Their food is simple — often consisting of just some Tibetan bread, a simple vegetable and loads of Tibetan tea (doused with butter!).
This is just one of the few things that I thought monks do for their cause of suffering to reach Nirvana. Since I actually got to live and hang out with the monks, I found out that this is not true for every monastery. The monks that I lived amongst had iPhones, iPads, cars, and ate. I was confused at first when I saw monks with all of their electronics. They were also involved in extracurricular activities like basketball. All of this was unusual for me because I always thought a monk lives the simplest of lives so they can reach Nirvana. It was one part of the suffering they put their self through.
It was sad watching them suffer for sake of nothing. It was sad seeing them so devoted to a god that doesn’t exist. I watched some of them spend hours a day praying and walking clockwise around their buildings praying. There were plenty of times I wanted to ditch China rules and tell them about Christ, but for the sake of our contacts I didn’t. I spent a lot of my time getting to know the monks and people around town that spoke English. When I was not doing that, I spent a lot of time walking around the monastery praying for the monastery and the people because I still believe there is power in prayer. One of the coolest things was that two different monks let me pray for them before we left. I was praying that the Holy Spirit would give them visions in their dreams of who Christ is. I prayed that the Holy Spirit would reveal himself to them as they go about their daily lives.
My month in China is a month that I will never forget. Christianity has been popular and accepted everywhere I have been this year. This was the first time in my entire life I have been in a place where Christianity was not even talked about nor mentioned. It really put things into perspective to know that there are people that have no clue who Christ is and will die and spend eternity without Christ. Christ has called us to be disciple makers. The reality is we all have friends, neighbors, and even family that don’t know who Christ is and we have the opportunity to tell them without having to jump through hula-hoops to tell them, but that’s not the case for them. I had to be very strategic about how I went about my Father’s business.
If you have the opportunity to tell somebody about our Father’s love, please tell him or her. We have the opportunity to set people free from the bondage that they are living in through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in us.
(Tibetan Monastery that housed over 3,000 monks)
(more gods)
(monks praying)
(Tibetan prayer flags)
(one of the buildings)
(riding in a taxi w/ some monks we made friends with)
