One of my team’s ministries is Monk Chat. It is exactly what it sounds like. Monks are sitting at tables outside the temple, and we can sit with them and ask questions. They can ask questions of us as well. The goal is for them to practice English and form friendships with foreigners.
On Saturday, we talked with Jai. Jai is his given name, Tumana is his monk name. When Buddhist monks begin, they pick a monk to follow. They take on that monk’s name and wear the same color robe as him. Women can also be monks, but they all wear white. The men have maroon, orange, brown, or yellow they can wear.
Jai is 26 and has been a monk or novice since he was 10. From age 10 to 20 he was a novice, and at 20, one can become a monk, so he did.
According to Jai, Buddhism does have any gods, they just have the Lord Buddha, who was a great man, and all of the monks that followed his moral teachings. Buddhism also does not give a beginning of the world. They say that someone asked the lord Buddha and he never gave a direct answer.
There are 227 rules to follow as a male monk, and 311 as a female monk. Jai explained that the different amount of rules were for safety reasons, such as walking alone at night.
One thing Jai stressed is that Buddhists do not pray to the lord Buddha. When they bow, they are paying homage to him. When in the temple, Buddhists bow three times, the first to honor the lord Buddha, the second to honor the enlightened monks, and the third to honor the monks at that temple.
It was a pretty interesting conversation and we are about to leave for today’s chat, so let’s see where God takes us!
