Maybe it is just me but right now I am thinking that monks are pretty selfish people. Maybe not all of them. But from what I learned in my Eastern religion monks care about obtaining peace and well being in this life and the next. That is, obtaining peace for themselves in this life and the next. I know that Gandhi changed the world. But that is not the type of monk I am talking about. I mean the men that go into seclusion in the mountains and pray all day until they become enlightened and teach others to do the same on the mountain until death. Yes, these monks believe that they should show kindness, but isn't the underlying reason they think this way to get good karma for themselves? I don’t imagine monks go too far out of their way to help those in need. I know all that sounds pretty horrible to think about people I don’t know much about. I have read a few books on monkhood written by monks in China and Japan though, and they were fairly consistent with what I said above.
This all came up because I was just thinking to myself - Life is horrible. Death and misery are all around. Pressing on us every day. I thought to my self - maybe I will just go join a nunnery or something. Then I won't have to worry about all the troubles of the world. I can just focus on finding peace within my self. Well immediately I realized the only way I will ever find peace in myself is knowing that I personally went out and fought for what was right. I will find peace knowing I got dirty and helped people face to face.
I was lucky enough to be born into America with a family who is able to send me to school. Why not take advantage of that and learn something in school that will really help the people living in our amazing world that can't enjoy it because they haven't eaten in a week or have no legs to go places or eyes to see them with?
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