Lesson video

So in this lesson, we'll be learning about Buddhist monks and nuns, and we'll learn about the different schools of Buddhism, and the journey that the Buddhist lay people take to become a full monk.

We'll learn about daily life in a monastic community, and we'll compare life in a monastery to our own daily life.

Throughout this lesson, we'll be looking at the different Buddhist schools, the roles in the Buddhist religion, daily life, and then we'll compare and contrast our own lives to that of Buddhist monks.

For this lesson, you'll need an exercise book or a piece of paper, a pencil, and your brain.

Let's go through our key words.

So Buddhism.

School.

Theravada.

Mahayana.

Vajrayana.

Navayana.

Monk.

Nun.

Novice.

So Buddhism is a very old religion, and over time, different Buddhist groups have emerged.

These are sometimes called schools, branches, or traditions of Buddhism.

Now this means that there are different followers of different branches and they behave in different ways.

They interpret the teachings of Buddha in slightly different ways.

Now there are lots of schools or branches or traditions, but we're going to focus on four major traditions.

Those are Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, and Navayana.

You need to choose the correct answer for this task.

Let's have a closer look at it.

What is another name for a school of Buddhism? A, tree, B, branch, or C, leaf.

Did you get that right? Let's have a look.

So the answer is of course branch, give yourself a tick if you got that right and pause the video if you need to fix it.

So, Theravada is one of the oldest Buddhist traditions, going back to just after the Buddha's passing, at around 500 BCE.

After that, we have Mahayana, emerging at around 100 CE.

Then we have Vajrayana, which emerged around 500 CE.

Now Navayana is the newest or youngest branch of Buddhism, and it was created by an Indian politician, called BR Ambedkar, in 1956.

Take a closer look at that timeline so that you can see the progression of the different of Buddhist schools.

Excellent.

Let's move on to our next task.

True or false? One, Theravada is the youngest school of Buddhism, true or false? Two, Navayana was created by an Indian politician, true or false? Pause the video now so you can complete that task.

Great work, let's have a look.

So number one was false.

Theravada is one of the oldest schools of Buddhism rather than one of the youngest.

Two, Navayana was created by an Indian politician.

That was true.

It was created by an Indian politician in 1956.

Great work if you've got that right.

Pause the video now so you can tick or fix your answers.

Let's move on.

Roles in the Buddhist religion.

Now in each of the traditions or schools or branches that we've looked at, Buddhists can become monks or nuns.

Now we talk about a lay person in the Buddhist religion as somebody who follows Buddhism, but doesn't necessarily commit their whole life to becoming a Buddhist.

Now, when a lay person becomes a monk or nun, it means they commit their whole life to being a Buddhist, to try and reach enlightenment.

Children can also become monks or nuns too.

Complete the sentence.

Use the words to help you.

When a Buddhist lay-person becomes a monk or a nun, this means? Use the words commit and entire life to help you to complete that sentence.

Pause the video now.

Let's see what you wrote, and you can compare it to my own sentence.

When a Buddhist lay person becomes a monk or a nun, this means they commit their entire life to being a Buddhist.

Pause the video now so you can tick or fix your answer.

Let's move on.

So we're still thinking about roles in the Buddhist religion.

Now, in the Theravada school, most monks live as part of a monastic community.

That means that they live in a monastery with other Buddhist monks or nuns.

Now some join as young as seven, but a lay person can join the Buddhist monastic community at any age.

A novice is also called a Samanera, and a full monk is called a Bikkhu.

You can see from this image that the aim is to try and become a full monk through lots of studying and living as part of this monastic community.

Answer the question below.

How young are some monks when they join the monastic communities? Pause the video now.

Did you remember how young some monks are when they join monastic communities? Some monks are as young as seven when they join monastic communities.

Did you remember that? Give yourself a pat on the back if you did.

Pause the video so you can tick or fix your answer.

Let's move on.

Now, when a novice first enters the monastery or a monastic community, they give up all of their possessions and specifically, they cut off their hair.

Now cutting off their hair is a symbol to show that they have left their old world behind, and they're focusing on becoming a good Buddhist.

This is sometimes called asceticism.

My turn, your turn.

Asceticism.

One more time, asceticism.

Great work.

Now asceticism means showing extreme self discipline.

So that means that they live a strict life.

They follow Buddhist teachings and they give up all of their worldly possessions in order to become a good Buddhist.

They show extreme focus on the teachings of Buddha.

They have no possessions and they have no luxuries.

Both nuns and monks cut off their hair.

Answer the question below.

Try to use the words below in your answer.

Let's take a look at that question.

Why do monks and nuns shave their head after entering a monastery? Try to use these key words.

Symbol, focus, Buddhist, novice, monk, nun, asceticism, self-discipline, no luxury, no possessions.

You might not use all of those words, but you might try and challenge yourself to include all of them in your answer.

Why do monks and nuns shave their head after entering a monastery? Pause the video now so you can complete that question.

How many of those key words did you manage to include in your answer? Wow, well done.

Let's take a look at my answer and you can see how I included those key words.

Monks shave off their hair after entering a monastery because it is a symbol that they have left their old world behind, and are going to focus on becoming a Buddhist.

They enter as a novice and become a monk or a nun.

This is sometimes called asceticism and means having self-discipline, no luxuries, or possessions.

Take a closer look at my answer.

You can pause the video and edit your answer, or you can rewrite it so that it mimics mine.

Great work everyone, let's move on.

So, daily life.

Once novices have entered the monastery, they'll follow a fairly strict routine.

It will change depending on which branch of Buddhism the monastery follows, but daily life might look something like this.

Let's take a closer look.

I'm going to get my pointer so that we can have a look.

So 4:00 AM, wake up, 4:30, meditation and morning chanting.

6:00 AM, breakfast, 7:00 AM, meditation, 9:00 AM, chores.

After the chores, that's 10:00 AM, studying the Tipitaka.

11:30, lunch, and that's the last solid meal that they would have.

That means after that they would only be drinking liquids.

12 o'clock, do good deeds for people in the community.

Three o'clock, tea, four o'clock, meditation, 5:30, chores, and seven o'clock, bed.

Take a close look at that timetable.

Think about all of the different elements or parts of the Buddhist's day.

We're going to come back to that in a minute, but before we do, I've got a task for you.

Here is another timetable, however, this one's blank.

I'd like you to copy the table and record your own daily routine.

You can do it hour by hour, or you can be more specific if you like.

You may need more rows than I've got in this table.

Make sure that you've got enough for all of the different parts of your day, from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to bed.

Draw the table and write out your daily routine.

Pause the video so you can do that now.

I wonder what your daily routine looks like? Let's go back and look at that Buddhist monks daily routine.

Here's the monk's daily timetable again.

Have a look at your own timetable and compare it to that of the Buddhist monks.

What is one similarity between your daily routine and their daily routine? Perhaps some of you said, well, we both have lunch, or we both have breakfast, or we both have a bedtime.

Perhaps some of you have said that you have chores or perhaps some of you out there even meditate.

Hmm, what's one difference? Perhaps you're saying, well, I don't go out at the moment and do good deeds for the community because we're not meant to be interacting with the community at this point in time.

Perhaps you're saying, well, I don't meditate.

What's one difference and one similarity? Think very carefully.

You can pause the video now, if you want to take a closer look and find that similarity and that difference Now that you've thought about the similarity and the difference, we're going to compare them in writing.

How does your day compare to a day in a Buddhist monastery? One similarity between my day and a day in the Buddhist monastery is.

I'd like you to write about one similarity between your day and the day of the monks.

Pause the video now, so you can write about one similarity.

Great, now you've written about one similarity, you're going to write about one difference.

Let's look at the sentence starter.

One difference between my day and a day in the Buddhist monastery is.

Pause the video now so you can write about one difference.

I wonder how many of you out there are thinking, gosh, our days are so different.

Perhaps some of you are thinking, well, our days aren't so different.

I wonder how many out there are wondering whether you would be able to live in a monastic community or not.

What would you find most challenging about living in a Buddhist monastery? I'd like you to write a sentence explaining what you would find most difficult.

The thing I would find most difficult about living in a monastic community is.

Pause the video now so you can complete that task.

You might write more than one thing.

I wonder what you said? I think I would find it quite difficult having only one meal a day, we're not being allowed to eat after 12 o'clock.

I'd get so hungry.

I wonder what you would find most difficult.

Perhaps you'd find it difficult to meditate for a long period of time, like two hours, especially if you've never done it before.

There's lots and lots of interesting things about living in a monastic community, but it would definitely be a dedication and you'd have to work hard to make sure that you could follow the rules.