Personal Experience My Life as a Monk Essay example

I was born in 785 AD. The year today is 810 AD, which makes me currently twenty-five years old. At the age of fifteen I decided to join the monastery. It is not as easy as everyone thinks, you don’t just come in and say you want to join. It is a spiritual journey, it takes time. It takes long because you have to be sure that this is the life you want to lead. You can quit anytime while you are trying to join a monastery if you decide you cannot make it your life devotion, but once you say your final vows it is very difficult to get out. My family and I decided it would be a great opportunity for me to join a monastery because I wanted to get an education and many of my family members had gone into monasteries and convents, but I was still†¦show more content†¦I was also taught about music and how to copy manuscripts. While I was on my journey to becoming a monk I was taught that we were to go with minimal everything. They say our spirit is more important than our phy sical body. That means not taking baths regularly. We also do this because the water is not safe to use. We had to come up with ways to keep smelling good so we use fragrant flowers that we grow in our gardens. It is funny to see some of my fellow brothers sometimes wearing the flowers on a string around their necks. We also use berries. We make them into a paste and rub it on our faces. Once it dries we scrape it off and we save it to make paints to use on the illuminated manuscripts. In our monastery we each have individual rooms. Here we also had minimal stuff. We have a mattress made from hay, a blanket and a pillow. We are not allowed to have any personal items. If at any time we had something that was not issued to us we were punished. These punishments could be less food or for the others not to talk to us. Our clothes are just long tunics with another cloth draped over it. We tie it with a string. Some brothers decide not to wear the shoes that are issued to us. Although w e were not expected to take a vow of silence at our monastery some of the brothers did. Since they did not speak they had to come up with signs to be able to communicate with the rest of the monks. Some were easy and you got what they were trying to say and othersShow MoreRelatedFamily And Identity In Erasure, By Percival Everett1678 Words   |  7 PagesStagg Lee is the author of â€Å"My Pafology† a story about a black boy that depicts the typical black male in society. However, when Monk is not occupied by his profession, he struggles with identity crises in his personal life. Throughout his life, family has been an important aspect. His parents were one of the reasons why he had a sense of identity. However, that all changes when family secrets are revealed. Family and art, is used by Everett in the story to show how Monk struggles with his self-identityRead MoreBuddhism Reflection Paper1010 Words   |  5 PagesTheravada. 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