How is the order decided?

[Jo Tummers]

Dear Ajahn Brahmali,

Ajahn Brahm talks in his Dhamma talks sometimes about the time that he was not an abbot yet, but third or fourth in line. How is the order of the monastics determined, and what does it actually mean? In other words: what is the function of that order?

Thank you in advance for your reply,

Jo

[Ajahn Brahmali]

Dear Jo,

The order is based on the date of ordination. The longer you have been a monk the higher up the line you are.

The general idea is that people who have been monks for a while are more experienced and therefore should take a greater lead in Sangha affairs. Someone like Ajahn Brahm, who has been a monk for almost 40 years, obviously needs to take a leadership role, whereas a newly ordained monk should use at least the first five years of their monastic life to learn. But at the same time the Sangha, as it was originally established, has a democratic structure. Any formal decisions taken by the Sangha, so-called Sangha-kamma ("action of the Sangha"), must be unanimous. This means that even the most recently ordained monk has an equal say to the most senior one. So you can see the idea is to have a balance between natural authourity and formal equality.

In many monasteries this ideal is not realized and the abbot of the monastery (a position that didn't even exist at the time of the Buddha!) often ends up being all-powerful.

By the way, I recently had an inquiry about Buddhist groups in the Netherlands. Would you be able to recommend any group for meditation and Dhamma discussion?

With metta.

[Jo Tummers]

Dear Ajahn Brahmali,

Thank you for your clear reply. There is a list of meditation groups in the Netherlands. There are not many Theravada groups, as most Dutch Buddhists practice Tibetan Buddhism. But in this list about all traditions are covered more of less. You can find it here: http://www.boeddhisme.nl/meditatiegr...ieperstad.html It's all in Dutch.

Metta,
Jo