Source: The Buddhist Channel/Albert & Logan News
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=9,8228,0,0,1,0
Eight possessions. That is all a Buddhist monk can own. Three robes, an alms bowl, a needle for mending robes, a razor for shaving, a water filter and a bathing cloth.
Thai Buddhist monks are also celibate and discouraged from even embracing another person, unless it is their parents. They start each day at sunrise and cannot eat after noon.
They forsake “dressing up and beautifying themselves’’, must shave their head and are forbidden to sing or dance.
Food is provided by the community or in their alms bowl, but they do not beg for food, they merely carry the bowl.
Wearing a bright orange robe, Ajahn Joe is one of six monks who live at the Wat Thai Buddharam temple in Forestdale, which has 2000 members. Born in England, Ajahn Joe came to Australia with his family when he was only one.
Spending most of his school years in Sydney until Year 10, his family moved to Brisbane, where he attended Beenleigh State High School for a short time.
After working first at his parents’ petrol station and then as a waiter, Ajahn Joe moved to Melbourne.
He said he moved for love, but when that did not work out, he shared a house with a girl who was Buddhist.
“I read some of her books (on Buddhism) and wanted to find out more so went to the Thai temple with her,’’ he said.
Raised as a Protestant, the visit was a life-changing experience, one which led to him becoming a monk after six months’ training, age 21.