Requesting Ordination
Taking Ordination Again
Rinpoche gave the following advice to a man who was a fully ordained monk for some years, then disrobed. After he disrobed he continued to offer service in Dharma centers. He then wrote to Rinpoche requesting if he could become ordained again. Rinpoche gave the following reply.
My very dear Kevin,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. If you returned your vows without breaking them, or even if you broke them but you did not hide that, then it’s OK, you can take ordination again. It is especially good to do that now your mind has become stronger. So, it’s OK, you can take them again. Then, you should continue your life in that way, thinking of its purpose, until you achieve stable realizations, bodhicitta, and special insight.
With much love and prayers...
Request to Take Ordination
A student wrote to Rinpoche saying he’d completed a five-month lamrim retreat and had enjoyed it very much. He said he had realized his love of solitude and celibacy, among other things, and had made prayers to continue his lamrim meditations and to be ordained. Rinpoche sent the following reply.
Dear Scott,
There are many benefits of being a monk. If you become a monk, then you gain so much more merit from living life meditating each day, or doing retreat. Then things will be easier.
Please think about this quotation from the Buddha:
If all the beings in the universe were to become bodhisattvas as lay people, and they each offered a butter lamp as vast as the great ocean to a stupa containing the relics of all the [past] buddhas, this would not equal even a fraction of the merit gained by a single ordained bodhisattva offering one butter lamp to the holy stupa—Lord Buddha.
The nature of life is impermanence. Any day, any moment, you can die. So, meditate on death and impermanence. In Buddhism, this is the most important thing, especially in the beginning, for overcoming delusions. It makes one able to achieve bodhicitta, realize emptiness, begin the path, and complete the path. Therefore, you need to meditate on death and impermanence.
You have already done enough things in this life as a lay person There is no need to do any more activity as a householder. As long as you are going to be in retreat, becoming ordained would be very beneficial, and the merit of doing so will bring realizations much sooner.
I am offering you a gelong shemtab. You don’t have to wait. You can become a gelong tomorrow after taking ordination.