New Tricks

Here’s a news flash. The world has changed. It’s always changing. What is good for you today, may not apply tomorrow. What was annoying back then makes me smile today. The ants in my laptop that drove me nuts a year ago are now ants in my pants and somehow they don’t bother me at all. They don’t even bite. The world is always changing and will continue to change. There is a reason why we use digital screens instead of stone tables in the modern world.

Many people think that to be a monk you need to wear ochre, orange, or brown robes and live in a temple and not drink or smoke or have sex or pretty much anything other than read and meditate and pray. Monks light incense and they shave their heads and they often wear funny hats and don’t interact with people outside the monastery. They do nutty things like whip themselves for impure thoughts and wear hair shirts to learn humility. Yes, this has been the way for thousands of years. The world has changed.

No longer do the merchants support the monks to ensure redemption. No longer are great monasteries built so that mendicants can pursue a spiritual path free of charge. Today, we must fend for ourselves.

Is this an abandonment of Buddhist principles? Not at all. Some people in Laos cringe and discredit that I was once a monk because I was married (to a nun) at the time. Just recently I told this to some Laos girls and they were so revolted by the thought of a monk marrying a nun, it looked as if they would vomit. There is nothing in the dhamma that says you must follow the dogma of 2000 years ago in order to follow the path. In fact, if you read closely, you will see that it doesn’t matter at all.

In the Bangkok Post yesterday, there was an article about the upcoming observance of the birthday Siddhartha Gautama Buddha. The article focused on Danai Chanchaochai, the CEO of a public relations firm in Bangkok. I found the article to be perfectly aligned with my own beliefs of combining spirituality and modern necessity.

“…dhamma is a natural force, and if we are pursuing a working life we can walk the dhamma path and the two will be going in the same direction. I found that everything in our lives – work, leisure, friends, partners, faith – are all inseparable from dhamma.” – Danai Chanchaochai

I’m not sure why, but it helps me along the way to know that I am not some lunatic trying to cut corners and that there are others who also believe that you can pursue spirituality (watch out! That’s a trap!) without going back to the dark ages and a perfectly useless dogma for today’s world.

Is this just about Buddhism? Not at all. No matter what faith you find is best to help you along the path, it is important to know that the world is changing and no matter who your messiah may be, they probably wanted you to stay current. The world is changing very fast and the batteries on my laptop are running out and there is an ant in my pants and a Beer Lao dark before me and a big smile on my face because I have no guarantees that I will live beyond this moment.

How about you? Are you happy in this moment? Did you think you had to wear a habit to talk to God? Think again, that was soooo five minutes ago.