Forest Path - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

113
Hey Man, don’t give up your music!
Samaõera Gunavuóóho
Barely a month in the robes, I am a newly ordained samaõera who
still tries to understand exactly what has happened to his life. Sometimes
I wake up from sleep in a moment of disorientation and ask,
“Where am I and why am I dressed like this?” I thought my goal in
life was to be a jazz recording artist, but somehow I have made the
transition into the Theravadin monastic lifestyle. I have a desire to
better understand the transition; and I admit that it is only now
through writing this piece that I am able to start investigating the
deeper reasons of why I am willing not to play music again. I wish to
open this piece as an exploration of my experiences in music practice
and monastic practice in hopes of better understanding what
happened.
When I look deep in my heart and ask why I practise Dhamma, I see
that the answer comes forth with great energy. I practise to learn the
truth of how nature works and to do what is good. After the heart
has spoken, I feel a heating-up of the body with an increased flow of
blood, my back straightens up nobly, my mind becomes quiet and
my gaze softens. I am also told by my heart that the same goal had
been the powerful current that had carried me through all those
years of music practice. When this is revealed, I see that I have not
given up what I find truly important and I see that there was a
natural flow to the recent transition I’ve made into the monastic
lifestyle. Like a raft, music practice was able to bring me part-way
across the river, but I have now switched to the raft of Buddhist
monasticism which I believe has the ability to crossover to the shore
of liberation.
By looking at the similarities between my music practice and this
monastic practice, I am able to feel a deep sense of gratitude for my
past musical experience while investigating the differences in how
the monastic practice goes further on to my goal. I have experienced
the role of devotion, sacrifice, the teacher, solitude, the , awareness,
creativity, effort and challenge in both my past music practice and
the monastic practice of the Thai forest tradition.