Ordination Questions

[think87]

Hello

I was wondering, mostly due to the fact that i am finishing up clearing debts to ordian in thailand, what keeps someone from saying hes debt free and ordaining but having a $20000 student loan!? i was also interested about the other questions? ie. parents permission, free of disease etc. would answering one or more of these untruthfully make the ordaination invalid? or would it just cause the person bad karma by begining the spiritual life from a lie? also what would happen to the debt if say a creditor wanted that money years later? would the thai people be that generous? All this thinking started when a family member asked me if this meant so much to me then why dont i just skip paying things and leave. " who will know? " she said. i will not be taking this advice but all the same am very curious as to the anwsers and what such a situation would entail.

( as you can tell ive been pondering this for a little while and am sure others have had the same questions, i am a very curious person )

i hope to get a monastics opinion on this

thanks

[Brucenkhamen]

This student loan issue had never occured to me, I'm not sure it's seen as a debt in the same way as say a mortgage is, it's more like a government grant which is paid back in taxes. For example if you left your country to work overseas your government wouldn't pursue you would they, they'd just hold it until you return and started earning money locally. However if you returned as a monk it might be complicated but as long as you are earning nothing you'd presumably pay nothing. I wouldn't expect thai people to pay your student loan for you.

As far as other things are concerned absolutely you can't lie, if there are issues that are a bit fuzzy then you'd need to discuss them with your preceptor. It would be helpful in those circumstances if he were farang or a thai experienced with farang so understanding our culture. Lying wouldn't make your ordination invalid, it would just disturb your conscience for as long as you are a monk, and a clear concience is a big part of being a monk.

[sutnyod]

i hope to get a monastics opinion on this

Hi think,

I recommend reading this link from the sakyadhita website

Best

s.

[bankei]

I think it depends on what sort of loan you have.

In Australia there is HECS which doesn't have to be rapid until your income reaches a certain level. So this would be a like a grant as Bruce mentions. But if you have a loan with regular repayments, then that would go against the rule I would think.

You would also need to consider how long you will be ordaining. If temporary, then still having a loan would probably not pose a problem as you will be back in the working world soon to continue the repayments. When I ordained temporarily, I had many loans and I mentioned this to some monks and it wasn't deemed a problem.

But what happens if you intend to ordain for a short time, with your loans, but end up staying?