More on Monks

When in the Chiang Rai Airport I saw several monks in their saffron robes wandering to the boarding  gate with shiny Oakley aviator sun glasses and carrying a cell phone...not the flip phones, but what looked like a new i-Phone 6-S.  I remembered seeing several of them in the Bangkok airport, as well.  There is something not quite right about that.  Like seeing the Pope with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, a Bud Light in one hand, while throwing dice with the other hand...standing at the craps table, yelling "hard 8s Lady Luck, hard 8s"...it just doesn't jive.  Anyway, from a quick google search, becoming a monk requires following 227 rules. Several of the rules say monks need to be completely free of all materialistic things. be pure in thought and action, and stay above human failings.  O...K...I'd say these guys are in trouble with the Buddha...Now I certainly wouldn't gamble against a Monk....it doesn't seem....kosher.  But really...putting money on the table that these guys could ever fall into compliance with the other 224 rules?  I don't think so...sorry.

We were on our way down the Mekong river on a Luang Sai River Cruise when the topic of Monks and cell phones came up.  Our tour Guide, La, a practicing Buddhist, told our group that when the Thai and Lao people see the Monks carrying cell phones and wearing sun glasses...they call them "Bad Monks."  "They are not to be believed" La told us.  Good Monks are those respected by the people.  They adhere to the traditional values of their commitment to Buddha.

All boys and men become a monk at some point in life.  However, some only for as little as a weekend, a couple of weeks or months, years or a life time. When it comes to children, it is not usual for the parents to push the son to join the Buddhist temple as a monk if they want a better education or maybe the parents are having trouble providing for there son.  For whatever reason, it is a way to move the child into an improved environment and state of being than the parents could provide.  The young are sometimes called novice monks or European slang is "tiny Monks".  Monks of any age in the Lao and Thai culture are placed at a higher standing than any lay person, regardless of that person's rank or position in society.  All for now.  Ed out.