This post responds to a frequent question, “What is different with Wayist monks, compared to Christian and buddhist monks?”
In our tradition, the term monk is not a gender-specific term. Monks of different gender share the same facilities and perform the same tasks.
Wayist monks are not mendicant or begging-monks (the Sanskrit words biksu and bikkhuni denote beggar monks and nuns) as one finds in Buddhism and Hinduism. Our monks do not wander around looking for alms and handouts. They may, in fact, wander around to give and help sentient beings in need.
Wayist monks deliver services to their community. Many of these professional services are paid for by recipients. Monks are teachers, healers, and leaders of devotional meetings. They keep devotional and monastic centers running. They clean, cook, shop and enjoy natural life as would any person, yet they are dedicated to serving humankind and ask no more of the world than material survival and basic conditions.
Monks do not take vows of poverty or celibacy, nor do they take lifelong vows. Some people come to the novice monkhood for a shorter time to consolidate personal growth or facilitate healing, or to learn more. Some take personal vows, none of which is any of our business.
From a Wayist perspective, “poverty” is as much a mindset than a social state. Some people consider themselves poor while living in developed-world cities and lifestyles, while another may consider themselves well-off while living in material conditions unthinkable and impossible for others. For example, how poor is a person who is guaranteed of a bedroom, 3 meals a day, medicine, education, peaceful surroundings, and retirement, clothing and all travel expenses paid? How noble is it to vow poverty if this is the poverty you get? We are realistic about life, we think outside the box.
Wayists, monks included, are encouraged to live full lives and experience the human condition completely. It is through being a sentient being that we distill wisdom from life, and that is reason why we were born as humans. As soul beings, there is no school that can teach us the wisdom we need to acquire to become wise spiritual beings, except for this human experience as sentient beings on Earth.
Therefore, it is thinkable that monks may have sensuous relations with nature, food, humans and animals. All of us devoted to the bodhisattva path devote our lives to help all sentient beings graduate this school of life. To do that we must study a lot, meditate and self-reflect a lot, we learn, teach, heal ourselves, help others heal, we administer programs and organize, we clean and cook and maintain our infrastructure, we create learning materials and present it, we have students and we are students. It is a full-time commitment.
Wayism International embraked on a 20-year phase to increase the number of female monks. This is a response to some Buddhist traditions who discourage and even disallow female monks. We want to provide a home to women who want to dedicate their lives to spirituality and serving humanity. In our tradition, in the East, female monks are called गुर्वी gurvi, meaning ‘venerable woman’. The root of this term is guru, religious teacher.
TRAINING
Anyone who enters the monkhood starts as a novice. People who attend meditation retreats and live in a monastic setting are referred to as novice monks. As monks advance, some may go through an intern phase where they shadow or assist ordained monks.
Most may train for 2 years, but 5 years is not uncommon before ordination.
A stipend is paid to interns and ordained monks. Novice monks on the other hand, pay to join the monastic lifestyle. Novice monks, or visitors, pay a daily fee equal to what residential meditation programs cost. This may vary from one monastery to another, depending on the cost of living of a country.
Monks receive a stipend to help with living costs not provided by the monastery. These costs may be personal products or preferences for lets say a particular toothpaste or toothbrush (for example), and spending money or bus money when on an excursion or outing. In Canada and US, the stipend for a monk may be somewhere in the region of $150 to $200 per month. However, in some Asian countries that same stipend may be about $30 per month. Some monks save up to travel to visit family once a year.
DISCIPLINED AND DEDICATED LIFESTYLE
Wayist monks may be seen writing code for web applications, creating graphics and making online courses. Some may have an online following of students. Some are life coaches while other facilitate meditation sessions. Anyone will be seen sweeping, cooking, doing laundry. Everyone will be seen studying, reading, reflecting, listening, teaching, training. We may work irregular hours because of international time zones.
We live a disciplined, structured and focused lifestyle. The focus is on helping humanity at large to gain the wisdom and skills to reach enlightenment (becoming spiritual beings and nurturing their spiritual selves). We accept leadership and instruction, and we give same. We live in commune and share resources. We resolve our own issues before things become a problem. We manage our personal relationships outside the monastery so as not to interfere in our self-imposed and communal duties.
We are always free to go, take our skills into the market. We can relocate to work at other centers, especially to help new startups or learn from other teachers, or start healing clinics and teach elsewhere.