The life of a monk

Like most people, I thought monks were those who only meditated high up in the mountains from within the walls of their monasteries. That changed when I met some of them in the mon­asteries dotting the Great Himalayan Trail. My search for the Sherpa culture had taken me to Jun­besi, a Sherpa village in the Solukhumbu district. This is one of the oldest Sherpa vil­lages in Nepal. There I met a group of monks from Serlo Gumba who invited me to visit their monastery. Little did I know how much this experience would affect me.

The next day I went to the monastery where I got to have lunch with the Rinpoche, Fengmo, and all the other monks there. Apparently the Rinpoche also liked photography, and so we got along well and had something in com­mon to talk about. Fengmo was the high teacher there who helped me access information about Sherpa culture. Although uniquely knowledgeable, the men were down to earth and easy to approach.

 

So what’s it like to live in a monastery? What do the monks do there?

What I understood from the conversations with the monks is that living in a monastery is very much like living in school dorms. The young monks are there to study, and must under­take a rigorous course of Tibetan and ancient Tibetan scriptures. Their day typ­ically starts with morning classes, breaking for lunch at 11am before heading back to study. Puja takes place every day at 5pm, before the students have dinner at 6pm. Every monk is assigned a broad array of activities: cooking, clean­ing, chopping wood, taking care of the library, and even playing instruments during the puja.

To my surprise these monks were very much like those of us outside the monastery walls. They enjoyed playing football and other sports, they love art, and yes, they love social media too. The teachers didn’t have a similar opinion to social media, however. So disciples are allowed to use their phones only once a week. I was fortu­nate enough to be close to some monks during my time at the monastery, and yes, we are now ‘friends’ on social media.

 

What did I learn about the life of a monk in my short time at the monastery?

Well, the life of a monk consists of much more than meditation. They are just as human and multi­faceted as everyone else. They love having fun, mak­ing new friends, and travel­ling to new places. Basically everything that you or I love doing! The only difference is that they do all of that, and strive to live a balanced and spiritual lifestyle. This is a key takeaway for me, and something I really needed to learn and apply in my own life.