History of Transcendental Meditation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Transcendental_Meditation 

 

The History of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the Transcendental Meditation movement originated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the organization, and continues beyond his death (2008). In 1955, the Maharishi began publicly teaching a traditional meditation technique learned from his master Brahmananda Saraswati, which he called Transcendental Deep Meditation, and later renamed Transcendental Meditation.

The Maharishi initiated thousands of people, then developed a TM teacher training program as a way to accelerate the rate of bringing the technique to more people. He also inaugurated a series of world tours which promoted Transcendental Meditation. These factors, coupled with endorsements by celebrities who practiced TM, along with scientific research that validated the technique, helped to popularize TM in the 1960s and 1970s. By the late 2000s, TM had been taught to millions of individuals and the Maharishi was overseeing a large multinational movement. Despite organizational changes and the addition of advanced meditative techniques in the 1970s the Transcendental Meditation technique has remained relatively unchanged.

Among the first organizations to promote TM were the Spiritual Regeneration Movement and the International Meditation Society. In present times, the movement has grown to encompass schools and universities that teach the practice, and includes many associated programs offering health and well-being based on the Maharishi's interpretation of the Vedic traditions. In the U.S., major organizations included Students International Meditation Society, AFSCI, World Plan Executive Council, Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation, and Global Country of World Peace. The successor to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and head of the Global Country of World Peace, is Tony Nader.

1950s

In 1955, Brahmachari Mahesh left Uttarkashi and began publicly teaching what he stated was a traditional meditation technique learned from his master Brahmananda Saraswati, which he called Transcendental Deep Meditation. Later the technique was renamed Transcendental Meditation.

In 1958, Brahmachari Mahesh, now called Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, began a number of worldwide tours promoting and disseminating Transcendental Meditation. The first tour began in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar). The Maharishi remained in the Far East for about six months teaching his meditation.

In 1959, the Maharishi taught the Transcendental Meditation technique in Hawaii, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London and Germany. He founded the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in Los Angeles, in 1959 and established an office there, which was the only place where TM was taught in the USA between 1959 and 1965.

1960s

In 1960, the Maharishi founded the International Meditation Society (IMS) and trained his first TM teacher, Henry Nyburg of England. During the tour Maharishi made Henry Nyburg his personal representative in Europe and gave him the training and authority to teach Transcendental Meditation, thus making him the first European teacher.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

On 13 March 1961, a meeting called "1961 World Congress" was organised for the Maharishi in the Royal Albert Hall by Leon MacLaren of The School of Economic Science and Dr Frances Roles of the Study Society. Two smaller meetings were held at Caxton Hall prior to the main event.The Royal Albert Hall meeting was attended by 5,000 people. The School of Economic Science was instrumental in promoting TM in the UK from the 1960s.

In collaboration with The Study Society and the School of Economic Science, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi established The School of Meditation in London in 1961, under the direction of Bill Whiting its purpose was, and remains, to study and teach the principles and practical application of meditation. Many of the subsequent leaders of The School of Meditation were students of the Maharishi. The School of Meditation is now an independent, self-governing organisation. By 2011, SoM had initiated 15,332 people into the practice of meditation, it has branches in several parts of the UK as well as in Greece and Holland.

The Maharishi lectured at Caxton Hall in London and the talk was attended by Leon MacLaren. In the 1950s, he first TM teacher in the U.S. was a who was joined by a male instructor in 1966.

The first international Teacher Training Course (TTC) was held near Rishikesh, India, in 1961, to train teachers of Transcendental Meditation. Over 60 meditators from India, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Britain, Malaya, Norway, the United States, Australia, Greece, Italy and the West Indies attended the course. Teachers continued to be trained as time progressed and by 1978, there were 7,000 TM teachers in the U.S alone. The Maharishi appeared on BBC television and gave a lecture to 5,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1974.

According to a history written by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 21 members of the Indian Parliament issued a public statement endorsing TM in 1963. According to the Maharishi, news articles on the technique appeared in Canadian newspapers such as the Daily Colonist, Calgary Herald and The Albertan.

The Students International Meditation Society (SIMS) began in Germany in 1964, was incorporated in the USA in 1965 and continues to function in some countries. Another organization, the American Foundation for the Science of Creative Intelligence (AFSC) taught TM to business people at Connecticut General Life Insurance Co., General Foods, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and AT&T. In 1967, the TM movement "really took off" when the Maharishi became the "spiritual advisor to The Beatles". In 1968, the Maharishi announced that he would stop his "public activities" and instead begin the training of TM teachers at his new global headquarters in Seelisberg, Switzerland.

1970s

In 1970, the Maharishi held a TM teacher training course at a Victorian hotel located in Poland Springs, Maine with 1,200 participants. Later that year, he held a similar four-week course at Humboldt State College in Arcata, California. About 1,500 people attended and the course was described as a "sort of a crash program to train transcendental teachers". Following tax troubles in India, the Maharishi moved his headquarters to Italy and then to Austria.

Maharishi University in Seelisberg

In 1970, the first scientific study on the Transcendental Meditation technique was published in the journal Science. In the early 1970s, courses on the Science of Creative Intelligence, Maharishi's unified theory of life, were offered at universities such as Stanford University, Yale, the University of Colorado, the University of Wisconsin, and Oregon State University.

In 1972 in Mallorca, Spain, the Maharishi announced his World Plan to establish one Transcendental Meditation teaching center for each million of the world's population.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the TM movement began to shed its identity as part of the hippie counterculture, making incursions into the US American cultural mainstream. From the mid-1970s, the Maharishi began to target business professionals, adapting his message to promise "increased creativity and flexibility, increased productivity, improved job satisfaction, improved relations with supervisors and co-workers". His TM movement came to be increasingly structured along the lines of a multinational corporation. The Maharishi International University was founded in 1974 in Goleta California.

In 1975, Maharishi European University was found in Lake Lucerne Switzerland. That year TM practitioner Merv Griffin invited the Maharishi to appear on his talk show, thereby aiding Transcendental Meditation in becoming a "full blown craze" during that era (according to Time Magazine) and in eventually becoming a global phenomenon with centers in some 130 countries. In 1975 Transcendental Meditation received favorable testimony in the Congressional Record and was advocated by Major-General Franklin M. Davis Jr. of the US Army. Maharishi appeared on the Merv Griffin Show again in 1977.

In 1975, the Maharishi began teaching advanced mental techniques, called the TM-Sidhi Program, which included a technique for the development of what he termed Yogic Flying. The program was said to create the Maharishi Effect, based on studies which reported that in US cities where 1 percent of the population meditated, the crime rate dropped. As early as 1968, the Maharishi stated that 30 minutes of TM morning and evening by 1 percent of the population would "dispel the clouds of war for thousands of years."

In 1976 the headquarters of the US movement moved to the former Santa Ynez Inn, a block from the ocean in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles and published a seven-hundred-page compilation of Transcendental Meditation research, generated by 51 institutions from 13 countries.

A Gallup Poll conducted in August 1976 said that four percent (4 percent) of those Americans questioned had engaged in TM. This was despite the fact that, according to movement records, only .5 percent of Americans had been initiated. The average number of people learning TM fell from a peak of approximately 40,000 a month in 1975 to approximately 3,000 in November 1977. William Sims Bainbridge wrote that, as of 1977, "Most of the million who had been initiated either ceased meditating or did so informally and irregularly without continuing connections to the TM Movement."

The Maharishi Foundation in the UK purchased the historic Mentmore Towers in 1978 for £240,000 for use as a headquarters and college. The stately home, on 81 acres, was built in 1855 and had 60 bedrooms. A spokesman said that repairs could be done cheaply by students in exchange for meditation classes. It was the headquarters of the Natural Law Party and campus of Maharishi University of Natural Law. By 1997, the movement was seeking a larger facility and placed the home on the market for £10 million. It sold two years later for £3 million. During this period the Maharishi's personal residence and international headquarters were located in Seelisberg, Switzerland, in a former hotel on the shore of Lake Lucerne.

Mentmore Towers

In 1979, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the 1977 decision of the US District Court of New Jersey stating that a course in Transcendental Meditation and the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) was religious activity within the meaning of the Establishment Clause and that the teaching of SCI/TM in the New Jersey public high schools was prohibited by the First Amendment.

At that time, according to Humes, the movement directed itself inward, offering additional products and practices to its committed practitioners beyond Transcendental Meditation in order to help them achieve Cosmic Consciousness. According to Bainbridge, the most dedicated movement members were TM teachers whose financial and social status depended on a flow of new students. After the number of new initiations collapsed those teachers lost the promise of success and the movement increasingly emphasized unusual supernatural compensators. During this period, the movement began making increasing claims about the powers of TM and the TM-Sidhi program, including the reduction of crime by the practice of "Yogic flying". According to Nancy Cooke de Herrera, an early teacher of TM and a TM-Sidhi practitioner, Charlie Lutes, former President of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, saw the introduction of the TM-Sidhi program as a financial ploy to increase income in the wake of declining public interest in TM.

In England, the Maharishi Foundation bought Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, Roydon Hall in Maidstone, Swythamley Park in the Peak District and a Georgian rectory in Suffolk, and his income was reported at six million GBP per year in 2008.

1980s

In 1984, about 1,200 members of the movement moved into Manila at the invitation of Ferdinand Marcos, the President of the Philippines. They named him the president and founding father of the Unified Field Based Civilization. Marcos praised Maharishi's plan to use the Philippines as the base for "this new kingdom of enlightenment" and, in a public ceremony, rang the "Maharishi bell". Imelda Marcos was given the "crown of consciousness of the royal order of the age of enlightenment". The members rented an entire floor of Manila's finest hotel, along with hundreds of rooms in other hotels. They bought a large but financially troubled university, the University of the East, for $1 million, leading to a boycott by students and attacks on the Maharishi as an imperialist. A government cabinet member reported that the movement members had deposited millions of dollars in Philippine bank accounts and were negotiating to buy several more colleges and universities in the area, plus hotels and other buildings. Posters promoting the benefits of Transcendental Meditation were posted across the city and the members spread out across the city to promote the technique, leading to a response from Catholic Cardinal Jaime Sin. The movement took responsibility for the lack of violence at a large anti-government rally protesting the assassination of Benigno Aquino, but not for violent attacks by the military on rioters, two typhoons, or an eruption of Mount Mayon, which also occurred during their stay. The University of the East was purchased back by its stakeholders, and the movement characterized the entire transaction as a $250,000 loan.

In the 1980s the TM movement's US national offices and the Maharishi International University College of Natural Law were located in Washington D.C. five blocks from the White House. From 1981 to 1987 this was also the location for the organization's "administrative headquarters" for North America as well as a national organization of 6,000 American medical doctors who practiced TM, a private school, a clinic, and a TM meditation center. In 1991, The Washington Post reported that the Maharishi, referring to Washington DC, had advised TM practitioners: "save yourself from the criminal atmosphere". As a result, 20 to 40 TM practitioners put their homes up for sale in an effort to move away from the city. According to the Sunday Times, the movement continued to expand during this period despite accusations of fraud by former practitioners and claims that extraordinary powers could be gained through TM and its advance programs.

TM teachers began teaching meditation in Romania in 1982, Poland in 1985 and in Yugoslavia in 1987.

1990s

In 1990, a delegation of Transcendental Meditation teachers from Maharishi International University traveled to the former Soviet Union to provide instruction in Transcendental Meditation. The trip, initially scheduled to last ten days, was extended to six months and resulted in the training of 35,000 people in the technique.

In 1990, the Maharishi moved his headquarters to MERU, Holland, a wooded area outside of Vlodrop, Netherlands, near the German border. The 65-acre (260,000 m²) grounds of a former monastery became the capital of his Global Country of World Peace (GCWP).

The late dictator of Romania, Nicolae Ceaușescu, tried to purge all practitioners of transcendental meditation from the government.

In 1993, the Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation (MVED), a non-profit corporation, was formed to oversee the teaching of Transcendental Meditation and related courses in the United States. The terms "Transcendental Meditation" and "TM" are service marks owned by Maharishi Foundation Ltd., a UK non-profit organization and licensed to the MVED. In 1993 Maharishi Vedic University awarded an honorary doctorate degree to then newly reelected President Joaquim Chissano. In his acceptance speech, Chissano said he credited TM as being the source of all positive changes in his country. he said the results of inviting the Maharishi to Maputo in 1992 were balance and peace. Maharishi called Chissano "a guiding light for all heads of state".

In 1995, the Maharishi changed the name of Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa to Maharishi University of Management.

Maharishi Centre for Educational Excellence, Bhopal, India.

The Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools (MVMS), an educational system established in 16 Indian states and affiliated with the New Delhi Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), was founded the same year. Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools has 148 branches in 118 cities with 90,000 to 100,000 students and 5,500 teaching and support staff.

By 1998, the global TM organization had an estimated four million disciples, 1,000 teaching centers and property assets valued at $3.5 billion.

2000s

Meditation chambers at the former Academy of Meditation in Rishikesh, now owned by the Indian Government.

 

In 2004, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi directed Transcendental Meditation practitioners at the Maharishi village at Skelmersdale, Lancashire in England to beam peace-loving thoughts to the British electorate with the aim of overturning the Labour government. The Maharishi said: "The good effects of transcendental meditation — increased creativity and long life — should not be given to a dangerous country that is constantly busy destroying the world." After Tony Blair's Labour Party won reelection in May 2005, the Maharishi withdrew all instruction in Transcendental Meditation in the UK. The ban was lifted about the same time that Tony Blair left office as Prime Minister.

In 2006, The Columbian newspaper reported that according to the TM movement 6 million people had learned the technique worldwide. In 2007 and 2008, the government of Kyrgyzstan announced a crackdown on illegal religious groups operating in the country, including the "Maharishi cult".

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died on 5 February 2008 and the leadership of the global Transcendental Meditation movement passed to Maharaja Adhiraj Rajaraam, who is also head of the Global Country of World Peace.

In July 2008, Brahmachari Girish Varma, a nephew of the Maharishi, announced the formation of the Maharishi World Peace Movement in Jabalpur to accomplish the Maharishi's plan for India and to achieve world peace. Varma serves as chairman. The movement's principles include practicing the Maharishi's Vedic Health Rituals, daily practice of yoga, and the construction of Vastu-style homes. Varma also announced the creation of a media news source and portal.

The New York Times reported in 2011 that according to the "national Transcendental Meditation program" enrollment had tripled over the last prior three years. The organization attributes the increased enrollment to reduced course fees and recent research studies. The Hindu reported in 2011 that "nearly 10 million practitioners in 50 countries" had learned the technique.

Characterizations

Public presentation

Sociologist Roy Wallis wrote about the three stages of the development of TM through 1977, as identified by Eric Woodrum. The "Spiritual-Mystical Period", from 1959 to 1965, identified Transcendental Meditation as the primary component of a holistic approach to spiritual evolution. The "Voguish, Self-Sufficiency Period", from 1966 to 1969, saw a rapid expansion through identification with "aspects of the counter-culture" as the organization simultaneously adapted to its changing image. The "Secularized, Popular Religious Phase", from 1970 through 1977, when the movement identified the "practical physiological, material and social benefits" of TM to mainstream people with virtually no references to non-worldly topics. Wallis writes that according to a former follower, TM had dropped its "distinctly religious rhetoric" over time "except for an inner core of followers" until the late 1970s when TM developed the TM-Sidhi program to develop "occult powers".

According to sociology of religion scholar, Lorne L. Dawason, the change from religious terms in the 1950s to an emphasis on scientific verification in the 1970s was to improve public relations and bring the TM technique into American public schools. In Gurus in America, Cynthia Humes characterizes the TM movement as meandering from "plastic export Hinduism" to a non-devotional meditation method marketed as a "scientific technique" and then back to a "multinational, capitalist, Vedantic Export Religion", zig-zagging back and forth, depending on the receptivity of the target audience.

Origins

Author Peter Russell states that the Maharishi believed the knowledge of the Vedas had been lost and found many times and its recurrence is outlined in the Bhagavad-Gita and the teachings of Buddha and Shankara. Bromley writes that "TM incorporates the teachings of Krishna, the Buddha, and Shankara" and that the Maharishi says he has "rediscovered a lost form of meditation that traces back to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

Alternative medicine author Vimal Patel writes that the Maharishi derived TM from Patanjali's Yoga. Chryssides writes that the Maharishi and his teacher, Brahmananda Saraswati, were from the Shankara tradition of Advaita Vedanta and that the TM-Sidhi program is "based on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras".

According to religious scholar and evangelist Kenneth Boa's book, Cults, World Religions and the Occult, the view that the Transcendental Meditation technique is rooted in the "Vedantic Hinduism" is "repeatedly confirmed" by the Maharishi's writings including Science of Being and the Art of Living and his Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. Boa writes that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi "makes it clear" that Transcendental Meditation was delivered to man about 5,000 years ago by the Hindu god Krishna, then repeatedly lost and restored by Buddha, Adi Shankara and Brahmananda Saraswati. Religious studies author Carl Olson writes that the Maharishi himself "discovered" Transcendental Meditation. According to religious scholar Cynthia Humes, Maharishi said TM "was his own guru's meditation practice" and that he was preserving teachings "enlivened by his master Brahmananda Saraswati" (Guru Dev). Another scholar says that the TM technique was derived from an old Hindu technique. Author Patricia Drake writes that "when Guru Dev was about to die he charged Maharishi with teaching laymen, including the Western World, a simple means to meditate". Author John White says "Guru Dev taught Maharishi both the technique and the philosophy that have resulted in the current phenomenon called transcendental meditation". [sic] 

Tai chi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_chi

 

Trappist monk praying in his cell.

Monasticism (from Ancient Greek μοναχός, monakhos, from μόνος, monos, 'alone') or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions as well as in other faiths such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. In other religions monasticism is criticized and not practiced, as in Islam and Zoroastrianism, or plays a marginal role, as in modern Judaism. Women pursuing a monastic life are generally called nuns, religious or sisters or rarely, Canonesses, while monastic men are called monks, friars or brothers.

Many monastics live in abbeys, convents, monasteries or priories to separate themselves from the secular world, unless they are in mendicant or missionary orders. Titles for monastics differ between the Christian denominations. In Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism, monks and nuns are addressed as Brother (or Father, if ordained to the priesthood) or Mother/Sister, while in Eastern Orthodoxy, they are addressed as Father or Mother.

Buddhism

Forest dwelling was a common practice in early Buddhism, and it is still followed by some Buddhist sects such as the Thai Forest Tradition.

The Sangha or community of ordained Buddhist bhikkhus ("beggar" or "one who lives by alms".) and original bhikkhunis (nuns) was founded by Gautama Buddha during his lifetime over 2500 years ago. This communal monastic lifestyle grew out of the lifestyle of earlier sects of wandering ascetics, some of whom the Buddha had studied under. It was initially fairly eremitic or reclusive in nature. Bhikkhus and bhikkunis were expected to live with a minimum of possessions, which were to be voluntarily provided by the lay community. Lay followers also provided the daily food that bhikkhus required, and provided shelter for bhikkhus when they needed it.

Young Buddhist bhikkhus in Tibet

After the Parinibbana (Final Passing) of the Buddha, the Buddhist monastic order developed into a primarily cenobitic or communal movement. The practice of living communally during the rainy vassa season, prescribed by the Buddha, gradually grew to encompass a settled monastic life centered on life in a community of practitioners. Most of the modern disciplinary rules followed by bhikkhus and bhikkhunis — as encoded in the Patimokkha — relate to such an existence, prescribing in great detail proper methods for living and relating in a community of bhikkhus or bhikkhunis. The number of rules observed varies with the order; Theravada bhikkhus follow around 227 rules, the Vinaya. There are a larger number of rules specified for bhikkhunis (nuns).

The Buddhist monastic order consists of the male bhikkhu assembly and the female bhikkhuni assembly. Initially consisting only of males, it grew to include females after the Buddha's stepmother, Mahaprajapati, asked for and received permission to live as an ordained practitioner.

Bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are expected to fulfill a variety of roles in the Buddhist community. First and foremost, they are expected to preserve the doctrine and discipline now known as Buddhism. They are also expected to provide a living example for the laity, and to serve as a "field of merit" for lay followers—providing laymen and women with the opportunity to earn merit by giving gifts and support to the bhikkhus. In return for the support of the laity, bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are expected to live an austere life focused on the study of Buddhist doctrine, the practice of meditation, and the observance of good moral character.

A bhikkhu (the term in the Pali language) or bhikshu (in Sanskrit), first ordains as a Samanera (novice). Novices often ordain at a young age, but generally no younger than eight. Samaneras live according to the Ten Precepts, but are not responsible for living by the full set of monastic rules. Higher ordination, conferring the status of a full Bhikkhu, is given only to men who are aged 20 or older. Bhikkhunis follow a similar progression, but are required to live as Samaneras for longer periods of time- typically five years.

The disciplinary regulations for bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are intended to create a life that is simple and focused, rather than one of deprivation or severe asceticism. However, celibacy is a fundamental part of this form of monastic discipline.

Christianity

The Monastery of Saint Anthony in Egypt, built over the tomb of Saint Anthony, the "Father of Christian Monasticism".

Monasticism in Christianity, which provides the origins of the words "monk" and "monastery", comprises several diverse forms of religious living. It began to develop early in the history of the Church, but is not mentioned in the scriptures. It has come to be regulated by religious rules (e.g. the Rule of St Basil, the Rule of St Benedict) and, in modern times, the Church law of the respective apostolic Christian churches that have forms of monastic living.

The Christian monk embraces the monastic life as a vocation from God. His objective is to imitate the life of Christ as far as possible in preparation for attaining eternal life after death. 

Coptic monks between 1898 and 1914

In 4th century Egypt, Christians felt called to a more reclusive or eremitic form of living (in the spirit of the "Desert Theology" for the purpose of spiritual renewal and return to God). Saint Anthony the Great is cited by Athanasius as one of the early "Hermit monks". Especially in the Middle East, eremitic monasticism continued to be common until the decline of Syriac Christianity in the late Middle Ages.

Around 318 Saint Pachomius started to organize his many followers in what was to become the first Christian cenobitic or communal monastery. Soon, similar institutions were established throughout the Egyptian desert as well as the rest of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Notable monasteries in the East include:

• Monastery of Saint Anthony, one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world.
• Mar Awgin founded a monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis in Mesopotamia (c. 350), and from this monastery the cenobitic tradition spread in Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Georgia and even India and China.
• St. Sabbas the Sanctified organized the monks of the Judean Desert in a monastery close to Bethlehem (483), now known as Mar Saba, which is considered the mother of all monasteries of the Eastern Orthodox churches.
• Saint Catherine's Monastery was founded between 527 and 565 in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt by order of Emperor Justinian I.

In the West, the most significant development occurred when the rules for monastic communities were written down, the Rule of St Basil being credited with having been the first. The precise dating of the Rule of the Master is problematic. It has been argued that it antedates the Rule of Saint Benedict created by Benedict of Nursia for his monastery in Monte Cassino, Italy (c. 529), and the other Benedictine monasteries he had founded as part of the Order of St Benedict. It would become the most common rule throughout the Middle Ages and is still in use today. The Augustinian Rule, due to its brevity, has been adopted by various communities, chiefly the Canons Regular. Around the 12th century, the Franciscan, Carmelite, Dominican, Servite Order (see Servants of Mary) and Augustinian mendicant orders chose to live in city convents among the people instead of being secluded in monasteries. St. Augustine's Monastery, founded in 1277 in Erfurt, Germany is regarded by many historians and theologians as the "cradle of the Reformation", as it is where Martin Luther lived as a monk from 1505 to 1511.

Today new expressions of Christian monasticism, many of which are ecumenical, are developing in various places such as the Bose Monastic Community in Italy, the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem throughout Europe, the New Skete, the Anglo-Celtic Society of Nativitists, the Taizé Community in France, and the mainly Evangelical Protestant New Monasticism.

Hinduism

A meeting of various Shankaracharya - heads of monasteries called mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition. The title derives from Adi Shankara, an 8th-century CE reformer of Hinduism.

In their quest to attain the spiritual goal of life, some Hindus choose the path of monasticism (Sannyasa). Monastics commit themselves to a life of simplicity, celibacy, detachment from worldly pursuits, and the contemplation of God. A Hindu monk is called a sanyāsī, sādhu, or swāmi. A nun is called a sanyāsini, sādhvi, or swāmini. Such renunciates are accorded high respect in Hindu society, because their outward renunciation of selfishness and worldliness serves as an inspiration to householders who strive for mental renunciation. Some monastics live in monasteries, while others wander from place to place, trusting in God alone to provide for their physical needs. It is considered a highly meritorious act for a lay devotee to provide sadhus with food or other necessaries. Sādhus are expected to treat all with respect and compassion, whether a person may be poor or rich, good or wicked. They are also expected to be indifferent to praise, blame, pleasure, and pain. A sādhu can typically be recognized by his ochre-colored clothing. Generally, Vaisnava monks shave their heads except for a small patch of hair on the back of the head, while Saivite monks let their hair and beard grow uncut.

A sadhu's vow of renunciation typically forbids him from:

• owning personal property apart from a bowl, a cup, two sets of clothing and medical aids such as eyeglasses;
• having any contact with, looking at, thinking of or even being in the presence of women;
• eating for pleasure;
• possessing or even touching money or valuables in any way, shape or form;
• maintaining personal relationships.

Islam

Islam forbids the practice of monasticism. In Sunni Islam, one example is Uthman bin Maz'oon; one of the companions of Muhammad. He was married to Khawlah bint Hakim, both being two of the earliest converts to Islam. There is a Sunni narration that, out of religious devotion, Uthman bin Maz'oon decided to dedicate himself to night prayers and take a vow of chastity from his wife. His wife got upset and spoke to Muhammad about this. Muhammad reminded Uthman that he himself, as the Prophet, also had a family life, and that Uthman had a responsibility to his family and should not adopt monasticism as a form of religious practice.

Muhammad told his companions to ease their burden and avoid excess. According to some Sunni hadiths, in a message to some companions who wanted to put an end to their sexual life, pray all night long or fast continuously, Muhammad said: “Do not do that! Fast on some days and eat on others. Sleep part of the night, and stand in prayer another part. For your body has rights upon you, your eyes have a right upon you, your wife has a right upon you, your guest has a right upon you.” Muhammad once exclaimed, repeating it three times: “Woe to those who exaggerate [who are too strict]!” And, on another occasion, Muhammad said: “Moderation, moderation! For only with moderation will you succeed.”

Monasticism is also mentioned in four places in the following verses of Qur'an:

Then We caused Our messengers to follow in their footsteps; and We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow, and gave him the Gospel, and placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him. But monasticism they invented - We ordained it not for them - only seeking Allah's pleasure, and they observed it not with right observance. So We give those of them who believe their reward, but many of them are evil-livers.

—Qur'an Verse 27, Surah Al-Hadid (chapter 57)

They have taken as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were bidden to worship only One God. There is no god save Him. Be He glorified from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him)!

—Qur'an Verse 31, Surah Al-Tawba (chapter 9)

O ye who believe! Lo! many of the (Jewish) rabbis and the (Christian) monks devour the wealth of mankind wantonly and debar (men) from the way of Allah. They who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah, unto them give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful doom

—Qur'an Verse 34, Surah Al-Tawba (chapter 9)

Thou wilt find the most vehement of mankind in hostility to those who believe (to be) the Jews and the idolaters. And thou wilt find the nearest of them in affection to those who believe (to be) those who say: Lo! We are Christians. That is because there are among them priests and monks, and because they are not proud.

—Qur'an Verse 82, Surah Al-Maeda (chapter 5)

Jainism

Digambara Jain monks renounce all clothing.

In Jainism, monasticism is encouraged and respected. Rules for monasticism are rather strict. A Jain ascetic has neither a permanent home nor any possessions, wandering barefoot from place to place except during the months of Chaturmas. The quality of life they lead is difficult because of the many constraints placed on them. They don't use a vehicle for commuting and always commute barefoot from one place to another, irrespective of the distance. They don't possess any materialistic things and also don't use the basic services like that of a phone, electricity etc. They don't prepare food and live only on what people offer them.

Judaism

Judaism does not encourage the monastic ideal of celibacy and poverty. To the contrary—all of the Torah's Commandments are a means of sanctifying the physical world. As further disseminated through the teachings of the Yisrael Ba'al Shem Tov, the pursuit of permitted physical pleasures is encouraged as a means to "serve God with joy" (Deut. 28:47).

However, until the Destruction of the Second Temple, about two thousand years ago, taking Nazirite vows was a common feature of the religion. Nazirite Jews (in Hebrew: נזיר) abstained from grape products, haircuts, and contact with the dead. However, they did not withdraw from general society, and they were permitted to marry and own property; moreover, in most cases a Nazirite vow was for a specified time period and not permanent. In Modern Hebrew, the term "Nazir" is most often used to refer to non-Jewish monastics.

Unique among Jewish communities is the monasticism of the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, a practice believed to date to the 15th century.

A form of asceticism was practiced by some individuals in pre–World War II European Jewish communities. Its principal expression was prishut, the practice of a married Talmud student going into self-imposed exile from his home and family to study in the kollel of a different city or town. This practice was associated with, but not exclusive to, the Perushim.

The Essenes (in Modern but not in Ancient Hebrew: אִסִּיִים, Isiyim; Greek: Εσσηνοι, Εσσαιοι, or Οσσαιοι; Essēnoi, Essaioi, or Ossaioi) were a Jewish sect that flourished from the 2nd century BC to AD 100 which some scholars claim seceded from the Zadokite priests. Being much fewer in number than the Pharisees and the Sadducees (the other two major sects at the time), the Essenes lived in various cities but congregated in communal life dedicated to asceticism, voluntary poverty, daily immersion (in mikvah), and abstinence from worldly pleasures, including (for some groups) marriage. Many separate but related religious groups of that era shared similar mystic, eschatological, messianic, and ascetic beliefs. These groups are collectively referred to by various scholars as the "Essenes". Josephus records that Essenes existed in large numbers, and thousands lived throughout Roman Judaea.

The Essenes have gained fame in modern times as a result of the discovery of an extensive group of religious documents known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are commonly believed to be the Essenes' library—although there is no proof that the Essenes wrote them. These documents include multiple preserved copies of the Hebrew Bible which were untouched from as early as 300 years before Christ until their discovery in 1946. Some scholars, however, dispute the notion that the Essenes wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. Rachel Elior, a prominent Israeli scholar, even questions the existence of the Essenes.

Taoism

Throughout the centuries Taoism developed its own extensive monastic traditions and practices. Particularly well known is the White Cloud Monastery in Beijing, which houses a rare complete copy of the Daozang, a major Taoist Scripture.

Other religions or movements

China's Wudang Mountains is a center of Taoist monasticism and the practice of 

• Ananda Marga has both monks and nuns (i.e. celibate male and female acharyas or missionaries) as well as a smaller group of family acharyas. The monks and nuns are engaged in all kinds of direct services to society, so they have no scope for permanent retreat. They do have to follow strict celibacy, poverty and many other rules of conduct during as well as after they have completed their training.
• Bön is believed to have a rich monastic history. Bön monasteries exist today, and the monks there practice Bön-Buddhism.
• Manichaeism had two types of followers, the auditors, and the elect. The elect lived apart from the auditors to concentrate on reducing the material influences of the world. They did this through strict celibacy, poverty, teaching, and preaching. Therefore, the elect were probably at least partially monastic.
• Scientology maintains a "fraternal order" called the Sea Organization or just Sea Org. They work only for the Church of Scientology and have signed billion year contracts. Sea Org members live communally with lodging, food, clothing, and medical care provided by the Church.
• Sikhism and the Bahá’í Faith both specifically forbid the practice of monasticism. Hence there are no Sikh or Bahá’í monk conclaves or brotherhoods.
• Quanzhen School of Taoism has monks and nuns
• Way of Former Heaven sect of Zhaijiao.
• The Transcendental Meditation movement sponsors two monastic groups: the Thousand-Headed Purusha for men and the Mother Divine for women. The US residences for the groups were in Heavenly Mountain, North Carolina. There is also a Purusha program at an ashram in Uttarkashi, India. The Global Mother Divine Organization describes itself as the women's wing of the Global Country of World Peace.
• Zoroastrianism holds that active participation in life through good thoughts, good words and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaotic influences at bay. This active participation is a central element in Zoroaster's concept of free will, and Zoroastrianism rejects all forms of asceticism and monasticism.

Bhikkhu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhikkhu 

 

Bhikkhu
Buddhist monks in Thailand
Chinese name
Chinese	比丘

Transcriptions
Native Chinese name
Chinese	和尚

Transcriptions
Burmese name
Burmese	ဘိက္ခု
Tibetan name
Tibetan	དགེ་སློང་

Transcriptions
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Tỉ-khâu
Thai name
Thai	ภิกษุ
RTGS	phiksu
Japanese name
Kanji	僧、比丘

Transcriptions
Tamil name
Tamil	துறவி tuṟavi
Sanskrit name
Sanskrit	भिक्षु (Bhikṣu)
Pali name
Pali	Bhikkhu
Khmer name
Khmer	ភិក្ខុ (Phikkhok)
Nepali name
Nepali	भिक्षु
Sinhala name
Sinhala	භික්ෂුව
Telugu name
Telugu	భిక్షువు bhikṣuvu

A bhikkhu (Pali: भिक्खु Sanskrit: भिक्षु , bhikṣu) is an ordained male monastic ("monk") in Buddhism. Male and female monastics ("nun", bhikkhunī, Sanskrit bhikṣuṇī) are members of the Buddhist community.

The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the prātimokṣa or pātimokkha. Their lifestyles are shaped to support their spiritual practice: to live a simple and meditative life and attain nirvana.

A person under the age of 20 cannot be ordained as a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni but can be ordained as a śrāmaṇera or śrāmaṇērī.

Definition

Bhikkhu literally means "beggar" or "one who lives by alms". The historical Buddha, Prince Siddhartha, having abandoned a life of pleasure and status, lived as an alms mendicant as part of his śramaṇa lifestyle. Those of his more serious students who renounced their lives as householders and came to study full-time under his supervision also adopted this lifestyle. These full-time student members of the sangha became the community of ordained monastics who wandered from town to city throughout the year, living off alms and stopping in one place only for the Vassa, the rainy months of the monsoon season.

In the Dhammapada commentary of Buddhaghoṣa, a bhikkhu is defined as "the person who sees danger (in samsara or cycle of rebirth)" (Pāli: Bhayaṃ ikkhatīti: bhikkhu). He therefore seeks ordination to obtain release from it. The Dhammapada states:

[266-267] He is not a monk just because he lives on others' alms. Not by adopting outward form does one become a true monk. Whoever here (in the Dispensation) lives a holy life, transcending both merit and demerit, and walks with understanding in this world — he is truly called a monk.

For historical reasons, the full ordination of women has been unavailable to Theravada and Vajrayana practitioners, although recently the full ordination for women has been reintroduced to many areas.

Historical terms in Western literature

A bonze farmer

In English literature before the mid-20th century, Buddhist monks were often referred to by the term bonze, particularly when describing monks from East Asia and French Indochina. This term is derived Portuguese and French from Japanese bonsō, meaning 'priest, monk'. It is rare in modern literature.

Buddhist monks were once called talapoy or talapoin from French talapoin, itself from Portuguese talapão, ultimately from Mon tala pōi, meaning 'our lord'.

The Talapoys cannot be engaged in any of the temporal concerns of life; they must not trade or do any kind of manual labour, for the sake of a reward; they are not allowed to insult the earth by digging it. Having no tie, which unites their interests with those of the people, they are ready, at all times, with spiritual arms, to enforce obedience to the will of the sovereign.

— Edmund Roberts, Embassy to the eastern courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat

The talapoin is a monkey named after Buddhist monks just as the capuchin monkey is named after the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (who also are the origin of the word cappuccino).

Ordination

Theravada

Theravada monasticism is organized around the guidelines found within a division of the Pāli Canon called the Vinaya Pitaka. Laypeople undergo ordination as a novitiate (śrāmaṇera or sāmanera) in a rite known as the "going forth" (Pali: pabbajja). Sāmaneras are subject to the Ten Precepts. From there full ordination (Pali: upasampada) may take place. Bhikkhus are subject to a much longer set of rules known as the Pātimokkha (Theravada) or Prātimokṣa (Mahayana and Vajrayana).

Mahayana

Tibetan monks engaging in a traditional monastic debate.

In the Mahayana monasticism is part of the system of "vows of individual liberation". These vows are taken by monks and nuns from the ordinary sangha, in order to develop personal ethical discipline. In Mahayana and Vajrayana, the term "sangha" is, in principle, often understood to refer particularly to the aryasangha (Wylie: mchog kyi tshogs), the "community of the noble ones who have reached the first bhūmi". These, however, need not be monks and nuns.

The vows of individual liberation are taken in four steps. A lay person may take the five upāsaka and upāsikā vows (Wylie: dge snyan (ma) "approaching virtue"). The next step is to enter the pabbajja or monastic way of life (Skt: pravrajyā, Wylie: rab byung), which includes wearing monk's or nun's robes. After that, one can become a samanera or samaneri "novice" (Skt. śrāmaṇera, śrāmaṇeri, Wylie: dge tshul, dge tshul ma). The last and final step is to take all the vows of a bhikkhu or bhukkhuni "fully ordained monastic" (Sanskrit: bhikṣu, bhikṣuṇī, Wylie: dge long (ma)).

Monastics take their vows for life but can renounce them and return to non-monastic life and even take the vows again later. A person can take them up to three times or seven times in one life, depending on the particular practices of each school of discipline; after that, the sangha should not accept them again. In this way, Buddhism keeps the vows "clean". It is possible to keep them or to leave this lifestyle, but it is considered extremely negative to break these vows. 

In Tibet, the upāsaka, pravrajyā and bhikṣu ordinations are usually taken at ages six, fourteen and twenty-one or older, respectively.

Robes

A Cambodian monk in his robes

 

Two monks in orange robes

The special dress of ordained people, referred to in English as robes, comes from the idea of wearing a simple durable form of protection for the body from weather and climate. In each tradition there is uniformity in the colour and style of dress. Colour is often chosen due to the wider availability of certain pigments in a given geographical region. In Tibet and the Himalayan regions (Kashmir, Nepal and Bhutan) red is the preferred pigment used in the dying of robes. In Burma, reddish brown; In India, Sri Lanka and South-East Asia various shades of yellow, ochre and orange prevail. In China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam grey or black is common. Monks often make their own robes from cloth that is donated to them.

The robes of Tibetan novices and monks differ in various aspects, especially in the application of "holes" in the dress of monks. Some monks tear their robes into pieces and then mend these pieces together again. Upāsakas cannot wear the "chö-göö", a yellow tissue worn during teachings by both novices and full monks.

In observance of the Kathina Puja, a special Kathina robe is made in 24 hours from donations by lay supporters of a temple. The robe is donated to the temple or monastery, and the resident monks then select from their own number a single monk to receive this special robe.

Additional vows in the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions

In Mahayana traditions, a Bhikṣu may take additional vows not related to ordination, including the Bodhisattva vows, samaya vows, and others, which are also open to laypersons in most instances.

Japan and Korea

Saichō petitioned for a Mahayana ordination platform to be built in Japan. Permission was granted seven days after his death and the platform was completed in 827 by his disciple, Gishin.

Saichō believed the 250 precepts were for the Śrāvakayāna and that ordination should use the Mahayana precepts of the Brahmajala Sutra. He stipulated that monastics remain on Mount Hiei for twelve years of isolated training and follow the major themes of the 250 precepts: celibacy, non-harming, no intoxicants, vegetarian eating and reducing labor for gain. After twelve years, monastics would then use the Vinaya precepts as a provisional, or supplemental, guideline to conduct themselves by when serving in non-monastic communities. Tendai monastics followed this practice.

During Japan's Meiji Restoration during the 1870s, the government abolished celibacy and vegetarianism for Buddhist monastics in an effort to secularise them and promote the newly created State Shinto. Japanese Buddhists won the right to proselytize inside cities, ending a five-hundred year ban on clergy members entering cities.

Currently, priests (lay religious leaders) in Japan choose to observe vows as appropriate to their family situation. Celibacy and other forms of abstaining are generally "at will" for varying periods of time.

After the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, when Japan annexed Korea, Korean Buddhism underwent many changes. Jōdo Shinshū and Nichiren schools began sending missionaries to Korea under Japanese rule, and new sects formed there such as Won Buddhism. The Temple Ordinance of 1911 (Korean: 사찰령; Hanja: 寺刹令) changed the traditional system whereby temples were run as a collective enterprise by the Sangha, replacing this system with Japanese-style management practices in which temple abbots appointed by the Governor-General of Korea were given private ownership of temple property and given the rights of inheritance to such property. More importantly, monks from pro-Japanese factions began to adopt Japanese practices, by marrying and having children.

In Korea, the practice of celibacy varies. The two sects of Korean Seon divided in 1970 over this issue; the Jogye Order is fully celibate while the Taego Order has both celibate monastics and non-celibate Japanese-style priests.