4 April 2008

Letter 1.1

The ordination went off well. Mostly it just involved my requesting to be given robes, reciting the Ten Precepts (vows), and ritual acceptance in the Order, but they made a bit of a fuss over it, and a lot of people attended. Every evening people came to visit me, which is very funny. They venerate me, since I'm a Venerable (Venerable Vináyadhára·Sámanero, to be exact), which means bowing down before me. The men touch my feet. I'm not supposed to have any contact with women though. All the time they're venerating I'm hoping my robes stay up, because they're pretty tricky things to wear. Done up properly, they look nice, and saffron is a nice color. One fellow thinks he’s being very Western by calling me Reverend instead of Venerable. I know he means merely 'one who's revered', but I can't help smiling and picture Santa Claus and Thanksgiving and Sunday morning sermons to brightly scrubbed young faces… And, of course, they give me everything I could possibly use and many things I could never use: 3 blankets, shawls, a thousand billion sticks of incense, a lifetime supply of candles, all my meals, and what do I give in return? - my blessing. If that sounds like a con job, I'm not surprised, yet if this robe, if not what's in it, makes them feel this way, is it really?...

There is only one rule (out of 227 that monks follow) that gives me any trouble. That is the rule against singing. I'm just used to humming; it's in me blood. I'm getting the better of it, though; now that I've learned a few Pali chants I’ve set them to little melodies and whenever I feel an irrepressible urge to burst out singing I launch into a little chant…

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