Deep Commentary

These two verses were taught by the Buddha at Jeta Grove Monastery, in connection with a certain Brahmin. There was once a Brahmin who had left his household life and become an ascetic of another tradition. When he went out for alms, he thought to himself: “The ascetic Gotama calls his disciples ‘monks’ when they go out for alms. He should call me a monk as well.” So he went to the Buddha and said: “Ascetic Gotama, I too live by begging for food. Please call me a monk.” The Buddha replied: “Brahmin, I do not call someone a monk merely because he begs for food. Even if a person outwardly performs all the practices that resemble those of a monk, that alone does not make him a monk. Only one who sees and understands the aggregates as they truly are, and who practices in harmony with that understanding, is truly a monk.” On that occasion, the Buddha spoke this verse. A practitioner who focuses only on outward forms has not yet understood the true meaning of spiritual cultivation. To say that someone is a monk merely because he carries an alms bowl and begs for food to sustain himself is a foolish and laughable misunderstanding. If that were so, then all disabled or destitute people who beg for food would also have to be called monks. This Brahmin had clearly not understood the meaning of the word “monk.” The original Indic word is bhikkhu. In the Chinese Buddhist tradition, it was transliterated as biqiu. The word bhikkhu has three meanings: an alms-seeker, one who makes Māra tremble, and one who destroys evil. “Alms-seeker” has two meanings. First, above, one seeks the Buddha’s Dharma in order to nourish the Dharma-body and the life of wisdom. Second, below, one asks for food from generous donors in order to sustain this illusory body made of the four great elements. “One who makes Māra tremble” means one whose practice causes the forces of delusion to fear. Māra refers to all things that obstruct and hinder the practitioner on the path toward Buddhahood. A practitioner must overcome and break through these obstacles in order to swiftly fulfill the noble aspiration. “One who destroys evil” means one who eliminates all unwholesome and afflictive states within the practitioner’s own mind. Thus, a monk must be someone who lives a pure life of celibacy and discipline, free and unbound, not stained by anything that defiles the originally pure nature. Such a person lives simply and with mindfulness. Only then is one worthy of the name monk. The Buddha made this very clear: a monk must be one who “sees and knows as they truly are” the aggregates, and who truly practices in accordance with that realization.