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yourself towards him in a pleasant 
way, his 
main priority is to attain liberation 
from the 
world, training himself in the 
forest. Thus, if you 
were to conduct yourself in an 
inappropriate 
way, it would be an unattractive 
prospect indeed 
for him to teach you; 
2. to understand by example the 
meaning of 
Dhamma we have not yet 
experienced for ourselves: 
with higher virtues, if you just say 
`such 
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and such a virtue' is good in `such 
and such a 
way', it brings the listener no 
closer to understanding 
it. You always need to give an 
example. 
Supposing you tell someone, 
"Keeping the 
Five, Eight, Ten or 227 Precepts 
will make your 
mind cheerful." If someone had 
never heard of 
the Precepts, they would disagree 
immediately 
because 227 Precepts looks like a 
way of removing 
all the cheerfulness from life. To 
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the uninitiated, 
the more Precepts you have, the 
less life 
has to offer. To them, cheerfulness 
is equated with 
keeping no Precepts, because you 
can do exactly 
what you want — you can drink 
liquor and you 
don't need to be faithful to your 
wife any more. 
They would argue that keeping no 
Precepts 
would certainly be more cheerful. 
They have 
seen only cheerful drunks, 
night-club singers, 
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dancers and boxing crowds. Thus 
if you say 
keeping the Precepts makes you 
cheerful, they 
might accuse you of lying. 
However, the day 
such a person meets a monk 
keeping 227 Precepts 
who is peaceful and has a radiant 
complexion 
and who speaks politely, they will 
realize, 
"Yes, the monk is cheerful too", 
but it may be a 
sort of cheerfulness they have 
never encountered 
before. However, if someone never 
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met such a 
monk before, there is no way they 
would believe 
in the capacity of the Precepts to 
make people 
happy; 
3. to recognize a monk able to 
benefit us with his 
teaching: Part of the objective of 
this blessing is 
to allow us to recognize a good 
monk when we 
see one 
and at the same time to 
avoid being 
Blessing 
Twenty-Nine: 
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The Sight of 
a True Monk 
322 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
taken in by those masquerading as 
monks. We 
mustn't overlook qualities that 
make someone a 
`true monk', otherwise, we run the 
risk of meeting 
a monk without recognizing him as 
did the 
main character `Kamanita' of the 
novel of K.A. 
Gjellerup's 
(1906-Danish/1907-German) 
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classic 
Der Pilger Kamanita, who 
searched high and low 
for the Buddha, hoping the Buddha 
would heal 
his broken heart. One night he met 
an old monk 
and sat talking to him all night 
because the monk 
seemed to be able to answer all of 
his questions. 
The next morning he bade farewell 
to the monk 
and continued in his search for the 
Buddha, without 
realizing that the monk he had 
been talking 
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to all night was the Buddha 
himself. Even when 
at the end of his life he was gored 
to death by a 
bull, he still didn't realize who he 
had been 
speaking to! Thus, so you don't 
make the same 
mistake as Kamanita, we must 
instead study this 
twenty-ninth Blessing of the 
MaIgala Sutta. 
B. SEEING A TRUE MONK 
B.1 Definition: The True Monk 
The definition of the word a true 
monk means 
`peaceful one.' However, because 
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we tend to translate 
in a haphazard way, we had better 
compare 
the translations of a few similar 
words: 
• Pabbajita': This word means 
`an ordained person' 
i.e. a person who has gone forth 
into the 
homeless life. They will not marry 
and have decided 
to remain single and to spend their 
time 
training themselves in discipline 
meditation instead. 
A `pabbajita' can belong to any 
religion, 
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not necessarily Buddhist. 
• Thildchu': This term means a 
certain sort of 
`pabbajita' in Buddhism who is an 
almsman and 
must practice the `Dhammas of a 
Peaceful One' 
according to the regulations laid 
down by the 
Lord Buddha. 
• `SAmaAera': This term means a 
novice — which 
is also a type of `pabbajita', but 
they are usually 
of child's age (9-20) or are still a 
postulant. 
Even those who wear white to 
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practice Eight Precepts 
in the temple are also a type of 
ordinand but 
of a precursory sort. Buddhist nuns 
are also a form 
of ordinand. In the Chinese 
religions such as Taoism, 
there are also ordinands with their 
own training 
regulations — and they would also 
be called 
`pabbajita'. 
By comparison, the word `samana' 
should be reserved 
for bhikkhus who really practice 
the 
`Dhammas of a Peaceful One' to 
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the point that they 
are peaceful in body, speech and 
mind. A `samana' 
is a monk whose body, speech and 
mind are already 
well-trained 
and is hereafter 
referred to as a `true 
monk'. 
Just because a person shaves their 
head and dons 
robes doesn't automatically make 
him a `true monk' 
— because there are some monks, 
unfortunately to 
say, who have a daily regime 
which consists of no 
more than eating, sleeping and 
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watching the television. 
Such monks are hardly worthy of 
being 
called a true monk — they can be 
considered more 
like `trainee monks'. They are no 
more than 
`bhikkhus'. You have to be careful 
about your definition 
of a a true monk because if you 
pick the 
wrong sort of monk, (e.g. trainee 
monks who are 
still fighting over almsfood) you 
will find it hard 
ever to see why seeing such monks 
could ever be a 
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blessing. In cases where you see 
monks doing unsuitable 
things, you should remind yourself 
that 
they are just trainees, but not yet 
true monks. For 
the purposes of this Blessing, 
seeing a monk, is to 
see a monk of the type we can call 
a `true monk' —
because there is no guarantee that 
seeing monks of 
any other sort will really be a 
blessing! 
B.2 General Guidelines 
As we shall see later, there are 
different levels at 
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which we can catch sight of a true 
monk. However, 
we can start by making some 
generalizations which 
apply at all levels of description of 
a monk's behaviour: 
I. A true monk must be peaceful 
in action: He must 
be completely free from actions of 
harm to others. 
He cannot carry weapons, pick 
fights with 
others or even walk in a 
demonstration. He cannot 
beat the table with his fist as he 
gives his sermon. 
None of his physical actions must 
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be provocative. 
Anyone who sees him must be left 
with 
nothing other than a positive 
impression. He will 
not be attractive in the same way 
as a handsome 
Blessing Twenty-Nine: The Sight of 
a True Monk 323 
man or a beautiful woman, but he 
will be graceful 
and charismatic in his presence. If 
a bhikkhu 
has no presence, then maybe he 
has no self confidence 
to be anything more than a beggar. 
The 
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a true monk will have confidence 
in his own 
good deeds, so he will not feel 
inferior. 
2. A true monk must be peaceful 
in speech: He must 
be completely free from malicious 
gossip or 
harmful speech or boasting. How 
would you like 
to meet a monk who said, "My 
temple is the best. 
Any other temple is no 
competition. My way of 
meditation is the best. Don't bother 
paying attention 
to any other sort of meditation."? 
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A monk 
must be well-spoken. What he says 
must be serious 
— not said just to make people 
laugh. It is 
not suitable for a monk to speak of 
matters such 
as politics. 
3. A true monk must be peaceful 
in mind: He must 
train himself to rid his mind of 
thoughts of greed. 
If a monk doesn't try to free his 
mind of greed 
by training in meditation, before 
long he will 
want to have supplementary 
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activities like being 
a witch doctor, or a fortune teller, 
or a lottery 
tipster. In the same way, he should 
not allow his 
mind to come under the influence 
of hatred or 
ignorance. However, it is easier 
said than done. 
He must try to train his mind the 
whole of the 
time and maintain a good temper 
always. 
Thus don't go thinking that a monk 
can become a 
true monk simply through his 
achievements in temple 
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construction. Only these four 
practices mentioned 
above can allow the body, speech 
and mind 
of a monk to become sufficiently 
pure for him to be 
termed a `true monk'. He needs to 
practice all four 
in order to really be worthy of the 
name a true monk. 
A further set of generalizations 
about monks' behaviour 
which qualifies him as a true monk 
are as follows: 
I. Must be of no danger to 
anyone: Thus nothing 
about a true monk in body, speech 
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