Alone in Isolation

One day, Lord Buddha was walking to another village when he passed by a field. A farmer & some workers were ploughing it.

The farmer was just about to distribute food to the workers. The Buddha waited with his alms bowl, but the farmer sneered, “I plough and sow, and only then do I eat. O monk, do the same, and only then do you have the right to eat.” “Brother, I too plough and sow,” replied the Buddha. The farmer was puzzled. The Buddha smiled and replied, “I sow the seeds of faith in my disciples. My discipline is the rain. My wisdom is my yoke and plough. I remove the weeds of falsehood. And the result is the fruit of immortality. So, I too plough and sow.” Hearing this, the farmer fell to the feet of The Buddha. “Forgive me”, he said, ”Please accept this food.” The Buddha refused the food. “ I cannot accept food in return for my teachings”. The farmer exclaimed, “Then, my Lord, accept it as offerings from a disciple!” And from that day onwards, the farmer became a monk in The Buddha’s sangha.

Buddhist monks train themselves to let go of everything. They want total freedom, which means breaking all the invisible fetters binding oneself to the world and the Wheel of Samsara (causing infinite cycles of rebirth). They practice to have no craving for sensual pleasures, existence, and non-existence. They practice abandoning attachments to self identification, doubt in Buddha, rules and rituals, sensual desires, ill will, and other fetters.

Abandoning attachment to self identification means a Buddhist stop seeing all beings as having a self or “soul”. It is a critical step to become selfless. A Buddhist stop thinking in terms of I, mine, or myself. He has no more worry about himself since he doesn’t see the body as the self, nor the self is inside the body, nor the body belongs to the self. Every being is just like a robot which has been programmed to have the five aggregates of clinging.

The five aggregates or heaps of clinging are:

1. form (or material image, impression) (rupa)

2. sensations (or feelings, received from form) (vedana)

3. perceptions (samjna)

4. mental activity or formations (sankhara)

5. consciousness (vijnana).

Craving and clinging lead to self identification or belief in having a self. It is a delusion. One starts to believe he is a being. Thus, aging and death come to be. Such is the origin of fear, anger, anxiety, depression, sorrow, grief, lamentation, pain, displeasure and despair. Such is the origin of the whole mass of suffering. It should be reviled instead of seeing it as a treasure.

With the “seed”, “yoke” and “plough” from the Buddha, a monk removes the weeds of falsehood. He is happy enough to live with little subsistence, just enough to maintain his body. He doesn’t need contact between his sensual organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind) and sensual objects (form, sound, odor, taste, touch, thought object). Hence, he has no desire to have much contact with other people or things. He would sit quietly all day for meditation. With enough efforts, the result is the fruit of immortality. This immortality means a state of “unborn”. No birth, no being, no self, means no aging and death. Such is the cessation of the whole mass of suffering. The breaking up of the body is just another “robot” being decommissioned. It’s no big deal.

An awakened monk has no fear, anger, greed, hatred and delusion. He would sow the seeds of faith in his disciples. The so-called “isolation” as seen by ordinary people is just the way common people see it. It is just a perception. In actual fact, monks just don’t enjoy their company, just like how we don’t like to touch fire.