Mutual Support Between Monks, Brāhmins and Householders

Monks, Brāhmins and Householders are very helpful to you. They provide you with the requisites of robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines in time of sickness. And you, Monks, are very helpful to Brāhmins and Householders, as you teach them The Teachings that are good in the beginning, the middle, and the end, with the correct meaning and wording, and you proclaim the spiritual life in its fulfillment and complete purity. Thus, Monks, this spiritual life is lived with mutual support for the purpose of crossing the flood and making a complete end of discontentedness.

(Reference: ITI 107)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares exactly how he setup the “mutual support” between the Ordained Practitioners and Household Practitioners.

Through the Ordained Practitioners needing food, water, clothing, shelter, and medical care from Household Practitioners, they did not need to work in a typical career. Instead, they can focus 100% of their time dedicated to learning, reflecting, and practicing these Teachings to improve the condition of the mind and their life. Ordained Practitioners, and those Teachers who choose to live their life based on donations from Household Practitioners, will have the ability to gain deep wisdom in these Teachings through not needing to pursue a typical career.

But, in choosing this lifestyle, Ordained Practitioners and Teachers who are supported by the offerings of dedicated Household Practitioners, there is the responsibility to apply time, effort, energy, and resources towards the determined, dedicated, and diligent learning, reflecting, and practicing of these Teachings to acquire wisdom. Then, those who are supported by the dedicated Household Practitioners are able to offer back to them, the wisdom of these Teachings. Household Practitioners can then learn, reflect, and practice these Teachings while flourishing within their Community. In this way, there is an exchange of support in both directions and there is “mutual support”.

Through wise decision making of the Teachers and Students, wholesome results (i.e. wholesome Kamma) are experienced as more and more individuals are able to gradually progress towards Enlightenment.

With the Household Practitioners spending an extensive amount of time, effort, energy, and resources to acquire offerings for Teachers, it is the responsibility of the Teachers to ensure they are not allowing those offerings to go to waste. Instead, applying consistent and ongoing efforts to deeply learn, reflect, and practice these Teachings to develop one’s wisdom will provide the needed ability to share something back with the Household Practitioners.

Teachers need to ensure they are polite, kind, friendly, and respectful to Household Practitioners with gratitude and appreciation for the sacrifices they make in order to provide offerings. Additionally, Household Practitioners should ensure they are polite, kind, friendly, and respectful to Teachers with gratitude and appreciation for the giving up of any aspirations for a career in business or other fields but instead, choose to dedicate their time, effort, energy, and resources towards the development of their own life practice on The Path to Enlightenment to share that wisdom with others.

In this way, all individuals, Teachers and Students, are meeting in the middle with politeness, kindness, friendliness, and respect for each other while practicing gratitude, appreciation, patience, and generosity. In this way, these Teachings can flourish through continuous learning, reflecting, and practicing within a Community supporting, encouraging, and motivating each other towards the attainment of Enlightenment.

Why Do Ordained Practitioners Beg for Food?

It is a common misunderstanding that people think Ordained Practitioners (i.e. Teachers) are begging for food. Ordained Practitioners are not begging for food nor anything else. They are walking through The Community providing the opportunity for Household Practitioners (i.e. Students) to practice generosity to acquire merit which will assist them in developing the mind to attain Enlightenment.

As part of what The Buddha shared as Teachings, he developed a system of “mutual support”.

The mutual support between Ordained Practitioners (i.e. Teachers) and their Students (i.e. Household Practitioners) is designed to ensure that there is opportunity for both Teachers and Students to practice The Teachings according to what leads to Enlightenment - namely “generosity”.

Teachers are giving up their career and worldly life. They have eliminated, or are working to eliminate, their craving/desire/attachment to worldly life of having an extensive amount of possessions, a career, etc. Through applying effort to develop their life practice to understand and practice The Teachings, they are being a deep and dedicated Student.

To be the very best Teacher, one would need to first be a very deep and dedicated Student and Practitioner.

So by living on donations of food, water, clothing, shelter, medical care, and financial support, Teachers are able to get deeper and deeper into their own practice of these Teachings to acquire wisdom of The Teachings. In this way, a Teacher is able to become a very deep, dedicated, determined, and diligent Student that leads to the elimination of craving/desire/attachment to worldly life, ultimately benefiting the Teacher and their Students. The Teacher is then better prepared to share the wisdom they cultivated on The Path to Enlightenment to help their Students to then get closer to and attain Enlightenment for themselves. It was the Student’s offerings that supported the Teacher aiding them in their journey to Enlightenment through generous donations, and it is the wisdom they cultivated that is then shared with the Students that helps them to progress in their journey to Enlightenment. This is the “mutual support” that The Buddha envisioned and created during his lifetime.

To be a good Teacher, one first needs to be a really great Student.

Through the work of being a very deep Student, a Teacher is then best prepared to be able to share these Teachings with Students to help them learn, reflect, and practice towards the attainment of Enlightenment.

A Teacher should have a well developed practice of generosity, in that, they are giving and sharing The Teachings of The Buddha without asking for anything in return. They should have no expectations of their Students and focus on sharing The Teachings with all those who have a sincere interest in learning and growing on The Path to Enlightenment.

Generosity is a significant aspect of practice that one needs to develop in order to attain Enlightenment. An individual would be unable to attain Enlightenment without a well developed practice of “generosity”.

Generosity is a readiness and taking the action of frequently giving something more than is strictly necessary, such as time, effort, energy, financial support, or resources without any expectation of anything in return. A practice of giving and helping others as part of an ongoing and comprehensive life practice. This action can help you develop and cultivate a more caring and compassionate mind as one chooses to consistently give and share through their life to eliminate selfishness. Generosity eliminates craving/desire/attachment in the mind, thus, helping to eliminate discontent feelings from the mind.

Generosity without judgment or expectation of anything in return is a practice that can transform the mind in ways you never thought possible.

Students are focused on living a household life where they do have certain possessions, a career, and other aspects of worldly life. As a Student progresses forward in life, due to pollutions of mind, they will face various struggles, difficulties, and challenges. Due to the lack of wisdom of The Natural Laws of Existence, a Student will experience various challenges in life that they find difficult to overcome and it is The Teachings of The Buddha that will guide them to an improve condition of mind and life.

Because a Teacher has given up their worldly life to focus on sharing Teachings with Students, Students will then provide support to their Teacher to assist them in sustaining their life and to be able to offer these Teachings to them and others throughout the world.

In this way, there is “mutual support”.

The Teachers are sharing The Teachings of The Buddha to help their Students improve their life and Students are providing life sustaining resources that support the Teacher to sustain life and acquire the needed resources to offer these Teachings to them and others.

Without this mutual support, the entire Path to Enlightenment would collapse as we see today in many parts of the world. We would find that it would be utterly difficult for anyone to get to Enlightenment without this system of mutual support.

There would not be the ability for Teachers to deeply develop their understanding and practice of these Teachings while practicing generosity by sharing The Teachings and Students would not have the ability to develop their mind by learning and practicing these Teachings while practicing generosity to support the continued sharing of these Teachings. Essentially, people would be “stuck” and unable to progress to Enlightenment because the entire system of “mutual support” would break down and there would not be the practice of generosity for Teachers and Students to get closer to Enlightenment.

If Teachers charged money for their services, they would not be practicing generosity. If Students are paying a fee for classes, courses, and retreats, they would not be practicing generosity. Therefore, without this regular and ongoing practice of generosity where Teachers are regularly sharing Teachings and Students are regularly sharing their time, effort, energy, and resources to help the Teachers continue to share The Teachings, the system of mutual support would not exist, individuals would not be practicing generosity, people would not be getting to Enlightenment, and The Path to Enlightenment would completely and entirely collapse.

This would leave the world without the needed Teachings of The Buddha to improve society and, thus, help all of humanity evolve to a higher consciousness where we are loving, kind, and gentle to each other while being able to acquire a peaceful and joyful mind and life.

Therefore, it is important that we do not think of it as Ordained Practitioners, including Teachers, are “begging for food”, because to “beg” would be to have craving/desire/ attachment while pleading with Students to give them something. This is not what The Buddha taught as Practitioners are guided to “await what is given” rather than to have expectations that something will be given or to beg for something to be given.

Instead, The Path to Enlightenment is based on “mutual support” and through this mutual support, there will be Teachers in a Community who are interested and willing to teach based in loving-kindness, compassion, and generosity while there will be Students who have a sincere interest to learn and are willing to practice generosity to support the continued sharing of these Teachings.

In this way, Teachers have the ability to develop and Students will have Teachers available to help them develop.

If we appreciate, value, and respect Teachers who offer these Teachings at no cost, then Students will need to do their part to provide the needed support for a Teacher to exist in the world through providing the basic necessities to sustain life and resources to support the continued sharing of these Teachings.

If a Teacher is practicing in the way that is needed to share these Teachings into the world, they would use a portion of the offerings (i.e. donations) to sustain their life with food, water, clothing, shelter, and medical care and also allocate a certain amount of the resources provided by their Students towards improving their ability to share these Teachings. In modern times, this might include any of the following:

• Website

• Video Conferencing Membership

• Computers, Lights, Microphone, and equipment to share The Teachings.

• Meditation Cushions and Chairs

• Classroom Supplies (carpets, water, cups, bathroom supplies, white board, markers, etc.)

• Signage Advertising Classes

• Transportation to and from classes, courses, retreats, and appointments with Students.

While a Teacher may offer their classes and other programs for FREE, it is not free for a Teacher to offer their Teachings. A Teacher will need support on a continuous and ongoing basis to be able to continuously share The Teachings of The Buddha.

By supporting a Teacher to share The Teachings of The Buddha, you are supporting your ability to learn The Teachings and the ability of others to learn The Teachings while training the mind to eliminate craving/desire/attachment, the cause of discontentedness.

But, a Teacher (i.e. Ordained Practitioner) is not begging nor should they ever have an expectation of their Students to make offerings.

By a Teacher sharing their Teachings without any cost for the Student, this makes The Teachings of The Buddha available to the widest audience possible and removes any potential financial obstacle that may or may not exist for a Student. These Teachings are to help an individual rise above and move beyond the daily struggles and difficulties in their life. Many of those struggles and difficulties will hinder an individual from financial success.

If a Teacher offered their Teachings at a price for classes, courses, or retreats, an individual who is struggling with finances due to their lack of wisdom of these Teachings, would be unable to access the very solution to the struggles they face. The very Teachings they need to overcome the financial roadblocks would be inaccessible to them because there is a certain fee that is required to learn the wisdom they need to achieve improved financial success and other life successes in personal and professional relationships. Essentially, they would be “stuck” in the financial difficulties without the ability to ever learn and practice The Teachings they need to overcome their struggles in life.

Therefore, a Teacher needs to function without any selfish desires or attachment to financial success. A Teacher needs to be willing and able to offer their Teachings at “no cost”. If they assign a cost to their Teachings, there would be countless beings who would be left behind due to their inability to pay for the classes, courses, and retreats that they need in order to acquire the needed wisdom to overcome their struggles and difficulties in life.

If you decide to support Teachers, Ordained Practitioners, and/or Temples, you are providing the needed resources to make these Teachings available to you and many others in the world. And, you are developing your practice of “generosity” to develop and enhance the mind towards the attainment of Enlightenment by eliminating craving/desire/ attachment, the cause of discontent feelings, thus, helping to eliminate discontent feelings from the mind.

Do keep in mind, that a Teacher, Ordained Practitioner, and/or Temple should not expect, ask, nor beg for support. Instead, they would just give and share allowing their Students to also give and share.

In this way, the system of mutual support, wisely created by The Buddha during his lifetime, continues with Teachers and Students progressing towards Enlightenment through the practice of “generosity” to acquire “merit”. Through a regular, consistent, and ongoing practice of “generosity” by both Teachers and Students, The Path to Enlightenment is fully intact and accessible to “all beings”.

To learn more about producing wholesome Kamma through practicing generosity, see the books titled “The Natural Law of Kamma” (Volume 6) and “Generosity” (Volume 13) of this same book series.