Of monks and workouts

In your sister paper The Sunday Island of 20th, an article appeared captioned 'Monk works out in Gym'. A Sri Lankan who had come for a work out in a gym in Nugegoda has said 'A young monk sauntered into the gym, removed his robes and changed into a pair of shorts for the work out'. 'I could not believe my eyes. It was the first time I saw a monk removing his robes in public'.

Battaramulle Seelarathana Thera says.' It is in contravention of the code of conduct. It is taboo for a monk to remove his robes in public'. It is my understanding that a monk who removes all his robes ceases to be a bhikku.

This man in robes is obviously masquerading as a monk to bring discredit to the Order of Sangha. Our Sangha Nayaka Theros should investigate this incident as a matter of urgency and take action to expel him from the Order Sangha if in fact, he is an ordained monk and not an impostor.

In the Simile of the Ocean, Paharada the Chief of the Asuras said to the Buddha "the great ocean does not tolerate a dead body a corpse. It will quickly carry it to the shore, cast it on the land'.

The Buddha then admonished Paharada " Just as the Ocean will not tolerate a dead body, even so the Order will not tolerate (within it) a person who is immoral, of bad character, of impure and suspicious conduct, secretive in his actions, not a true recluse but rather a sham recluse, not chaste but pretending chastity, rotten to the core, lustful and of wild behaviour. In such a case the Order quickly assembles and expels such a person. Even if seated in the midst of the monks' assembly, yet he is far from the order and the Order is far from him".

Since Buddhism is not an organised religion, there is every opportunity to bring the Order of Sangha into disrespect by such people as this man ' robes masquerading as a monk. Our Nayaka Theras should be alive to these subtle designs of evangelists.