[Buddha-l] Bowing to the monk

[Piya Tan]

On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 12:45 PM, [DPD Web] Shen Shi'an <shian at kmspks.org>
wrote:

> Sounds like Ikkyu's case, but he was "more respectable"... since he did
> what he did calmly to "enlighten", not out of pride or anger -
>
> >From http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=766632 :
>
> Wealthy patrons invited Ikkyu to a banquet. Ikkyu arrived dressed in his
> beggar's robes. The host, not recognizing him, chased him away. Ikkyu
> went home, changed into his ceremonial robe of purple brocade, and
> returned. With great respect, he was received into the banquet room.
> There, he put his robe on the cushion, saying, "I expect you invited the
> robe since you showed me away a little while ago," and left.
>

Reminds me of another account I was told of a Sinhalese temple in Malaysia
some decades back, a lay member did somewhat the same thing: he disguised
himself as a "beggar" and went to the temple, and was chased away by the
monk.

I would be more interested to know what his real aim was in doing that?

What if the monk actually welcomed him to a feast? Would that mean the monk
is "good."

A young man once came to me and asked (when I was a monk):
Are you enlightened?
Why, I asked.
Because if you are enlightened you can be my teacher, if not, I don't
want you.
Answer: What makes you think I want you as a pupil?
Based on true incident but exaggerated to fit my ego :)

A good Buddhist training is when turns do not turn out the way we expect,
and we
see negative emotions arising in us, it is a great way of self-knowing. Wow,
I'm like
that, and I need to let go of this bit of darkness here. And so on.

No Buddha without Mara or Devadatta, as it were. (GB Shaw also said that
there
are good women because there are bad women--which is when we see things in a
duality.)

Piya




>
> From: Piya Tan [mailto:dharmafarer at gmail.com]
>
> > There is another account told to me of a monk I knew who was very
> upset when he was told that we respect his robe. He took off his outer
> robe and threw it on the chair, and said: "Go on, respect the robe!..."
>
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