John Dinsmore now Ven. Cintita (right) on alms round in Burma (statesman.com)
...Basically monastics live simple no-frills lives, but generally do so joyfully. They also tend to exemplify...wisdom and compassion in their lives. Their presence encourages reflection that helps people get their values straight."
Before he embraced Buddhism, Ven. Cintita was John Dinsmore, a divorced father of three with a successful career in computer science. Successful, as he has written on his blog, but not satisfactory. In midlife, he found himself drawn to Japanese Zen, which emphasizes the practice of meditation. Ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 2003, he took the name Kojin Hosen and served at the Austin Zen Center.
But monasticism in the Japanese Zen tradition left room for interpretation. Some monks were celibate. Some weren't. Some had property. Some didn't. Questions nagged him: What am I? What is this ordination?
"It became very confusing to me," he said, "because every Zen priest had a different idea of what it is."
Privately, he took the traditional monk's vows — which included being celibate and not acquiring wealth — and began visiting the Sitagu monastery to seek advice from the abbot.
In 2008, he decided that in order to fully embrace monasticism, he needed to re-ordain in the Theravada tradition and live in a community where the rules for monks were more clearly defined. This led him to Myanmar. And eventually to the idea that this wasn't just a private spiritual journey. That this ancient tradition from the East could offer something useful in the West.
Cintita wants to see monasticism thrive here and believes the best of Buddhism can be an antidote to our "relentless self-seeking behavior," our materialism and unhappiness. As Ven. Cintata sees it, America is struggling with a spiritual crisis, trying to regain — or find — its spiritual grounding.
He hopes to see more Westerners follow his journey to monasticism, but he also recognizes that addressing spiritual needs in the U.S. is not only a job for Buddhist monks. Full article
- To contact Ven. Cintita: bhikkhucintita.wordpress.com
- Buddhism with monsters
On the island of Sri Lanka, Buddhism is not the bloodless intellectual exercise that it appears in Britain. A couple of months ago I arrived in Sri Lanka and visited a Buddhist temple for the first time. I had discarded my fascination with Eastern philosophies and religions when I became a Christian in my early 20s. Yet over the years I continued to encounter friends and relatives who practiced Buddhism. It seemed mysterious and dangerous for a Christian to take an interest in Buddhist belief systems. However, I absorbed enough to understand that for most Western adherents, Buddhism is a hip philosophy rather than a religion.
