As monks lead such secluded lives, how qualified are they to give advice to lay people on their family and work problems?
Ajahn Amaro answering questions in the sala at Amaravati
People from every social class and livelihood, old and young, male and female, go to visit senior monks. People discuss their lives and problems with these monks in the same way that people in the West might talk to a priest or therapist. As a result, such monks tend to have a good grasp of the kinds of issues facing their lay disciples.
A life devoted to understanding of the human mind means that senior monks, particularly the meditation masters, have gained deep insights into the way that the mind works, how it creates suffering and how it can be free of it. Through having looked profoundly at how their own minds work, these monks understand those of others. Although the situations provoking emotions may vary, the emotions themselves are universal. By addressing the thoughts, beliefs, desires and fears that underlie various problems, monks can get to the root of the matter at hand, without being hampered by lack of personal experience of particular situations.
Ajahn Jayasaro with the laity at Amaravati
More questions and answers HERE
Source:
- Without and Within – Ajahn Jayasaro
In the article Cuanto la meditación va bien, todo va bien [(When meditation goes well, everything goes well) available only in Spanish, for now], I had the chance to talk about how the understanding and the adequate relation with the internal process of the mind could had a direct effect on our external situations; how we relate with things affect completely the way those conclude and the way how we perceive them. Those experienced monks represent a means to ordinary people like us to get in contact with the root of our own causes, helping us to be more conscious in how to solve and approach them; and at the end, the solution will depend on us and the outline of practice we chose.
