Buddhist Lent Day; at Wat Nak prok

Buddhi Chaudhary

Closing the government offices, along with many private businesses over these three days, as Buddhists across the country marked the Asalha Puja or Buddhist lent day (Khao Phansa; in Thai). As a respect to the Buddha, his teachings and followers, drinking or selling alcohol, eating meat are prohibited acts; instead, the Buddhist devotees come to the monastery and participate for the merit making tasks. The scattered monks in different country, provinces and monks who were attending to their task arrive to the temple and mark this very important Buddhist lent day.

 With the participation of eighty two monks and novices along with hundreds of Buddhist devotees, the Buddhist lent (Khao Phansa ) was started at Wat Nak prok the temple where, currently, I am living at. There were more than fifty monks. Among them sixteen monks and novices were foreigners who came from countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam etc. The main devotees were Vietnamese who arrived to the monastery and invited to the monks for the Buddhist lent for this coming three months.

History of Buddhist Lent Day  

At the beginning of the Buddha Time, the Buddhist Lent was not appointed, so each monk could teach the congregations throughout the year.  Whenever a monk determined that he would like to teach his congregations and he was available, he went to do.  Sometimes, some monks did not go out to teach anyone, but they saw some places suitable to meditate, they went to do so.  The most places for them were in the forests or on the faraway hills which they had to past the country.

                                

Because of the monks’ traveling and farmers worked in their farms in the rainy season, the monks damaged the farmers’ rice sprouts unintentionally because they misunderstood that the rice sprouts were grass.  So, the farmers went to sue the Lord Buddha that the monks damaged their rice sprouts, why the monks did not stay in the temples during the rainy season like birds.

To solve this problem, the Lord Buddha determined that the monks had to stay in the temples during the rainy season, from the first waning moon day of the 8th Lunar month to the 15th waxing moon day of the 11th Lunar month, called the Buddhist Lent.  So, the monks have not gone anywhere to practice meditation or to teach anyone.  If someone wants to listen to the sermon, he/she has to go to the temple instead of inviting the monk(s) to visit his/her place.

In another aspect, the Lord Buddha had changed this problem to be a good chance for the monks that when the monks stayed in the temples, the new monks were trained by the senior monks fully and continuously which resulted good in the moral cultivation, Dhamma and Monastic Disciplines Transfer and Teaching.

So, the Lord Buddha announced that the monks had to stay in the temples during the Buddhist Lent, the new monks studied Dhamma from the senior monks, and the senior monks taught Dhamma and the monastic disciples to the junior monks. 

Not only that, the senior monks had to plan what they would do after the Buddhist Lent, where they would go to spread Dhamma, and how they could improve their Dhamma teaching to be appropriate to places and social, etc.

From that time on, staying in the temples during the Buddhist Lent of the monks is good for people, junior monks, and senior monks.

The Monastic activities during the Lent

The monastic routines during the Buddhist Lent are as same as other days except going out of the temples, so the monks have a good chance to do many things such as meditation.  Moreover, the monks can improve their teaching and have more time to study the Pali Cannon as well.

If you have a chance to visit many temples, you will see that Thai Buddhist guys prefer to be ordained during the Buddhist Lent.  When they are monks and the senior monks have to stay in the temples, so the new monks and the senior monks are in the same places, the senior monks will teach what they are expert to the new monks.

Simply, the Buddhist Lent is the Moral Camping period for monks.  It is the time for monks to study Pali Cannon because the monks have more time than other periods.

The monks not only study the Pali Cannon but also practice meditation. Moreover, when there are many new monks, their families and relatives will go to the temple to visit the new monks.  Even if the new monks are able to teach Dhamma, the senior monks can, so the new monks’ families and relatives have a good chance to listen to the senior monks’ sermon and make merit. So, it is also the moral study time for the congregations.

What the Buddhists should do during the Buddhist Lent
During the Buddhist Lent, both senior and junior monks stay in the same places, so it is a good chance for the congregations to make merit with a lot of merit fields.  Our forebears never let the monks to have the special time only, they did too.  Our forebears had this special time by making a pledge to do some special things during the Buddhist Lent.