Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 52-minute Q&A, Khensur Rinpoche recalls monastic life at Sera Monastery in Tibet with striking specificity. He describes how patron offerings worked — from a simple cup of tea to a full assembly ceremony — and how new monks surrendered all possessions to their teacher, receiving back only tsampa and clothing, with butter or meat appearing only when sponsors provided it. He explains how the monastery divided student-care duties by academic ability: stronger scholars taught up to forty pupils while weaker ones managed material welfare. The talk turns vivid when Rinpoche describes the evening assembly routine — a large wooden log dropped in the courtyard as a signal, a monk dragging a clattering stick through the corridors to summon stragglers, the Kamsang Geshe’s talk followed by group memorization circles, open debate until the supervisor left at ten, then late-night solo recitation. An intimate oral portrait of traditional Tibetan monastic economics, pedagogy, and daily rhythm.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 45 RS 1991 04 15.mp3
UUID: b1370fc7-aaad-4deb-997f-cc5bd7bdf212
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Rinpoche's Story (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1991-04-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 52.1 minutes
Words: ~4,572
Was first born or after three months? I found some someone would immediately ask to have prayers to be made, some would wait a few months. And here I’ve got something about the written requests. What would written requests So I she said that the the request the people didn’t have didn’t necessarily have to come in person, that that sometimes that they would send a message along with a donation. Yeah.
That’s okay. Sorry. Beginning before any purchase would occur or after to dedicate the merits of them? Sometimes the patron would make a special offering of tea and bread to the monks and there in those occasions then they they would have an actual special assembly just for that patron’s sake. And then they would make the request at that time for these prayers to be made.
If it wasn’t a tea offering, wasn’t wasn’t being made, then the the request would be made in conjunction with the other assemblies, the morning or evening assemblies. Oh, I see. They would just fit that Yes. But if it was a special one, they’d have a whole ceremony? They would the patron would offer tea, then the request would be made, and they would make the prayers.
They’d make the special prayers just for that. So that would actually cost the patron a lot more money, wouldn’t it? So he’d his value. Yeah. You’d have to make a larger offering to do that.
Yeah. I know it’s very difficult, but what would we be looking at in Western equivalent sort of financial terms for all these things? Because people could be in Europe. Tripper. Try to to say in general.
Some of them offered a meal. Some of them just offered tea. Some of didn’t offer either tea or a meal. Some would offer they would give the monks each money. Sometimes they would offer butter lamps, sometimes they would offer so they could offer various things so there was no set amount.
Five rupees, twenty rupees, fifty rupees, hundred rupees. That’s very flexible. That’s according to one’s wishes. And if they’re offering tea, sometimes they will give each month one rupee, two rupees. So if they were offering tea or food, they’d really bring their own tea and food, or would they just pay the money and the monks would?
So I mean the patron wouldn’t bring the food themselves. They would just make an offering to whoever they were sponsoring for the meal. Like if they were for a Sera Je College, if they were sponsoring those monks for a meal, then they would pay the money to Sera Je College and then their kitchen would prepare the meal. Or the So I said, no. What it was meant to what I said, if you were offering to the college, then you could it wasn’t necessary that you’d have to make an offering to the college kitchen.
Sera Je? Yeah. Ah. So but then you wouldn’t but they might offer a little bit to each of the comms signs. One might enter or make an offering additionally to one’s individual kamshan.
As well as the I mean, district caste district caste. Yeah. But just that but it wasn’t necessary. Just that that you covered the expense of the meal as far as whoever the monks were representing for for example, a college. So would you normally go to a khamsun or a college?
Khamsun. The Jindat was according to one’s wishes. Some some offered to the entire monastery, some offered to one of the colleges, and some offered to an individual district house. Different people would do different things. The The Geishis would not come usually to the morning debate session.
If there was something special going on, might come to that. The Lama covers a lot of people, so if there were younger Lamas who haven’t finished their studies yet, then they would they would have to come to debate just like everybody else. So there were some who did and some who didn’t. Then the discipline class, they would usually they wouldn’t come in the morning, would come in the evening. Yeah.
And but they also put they had a lot of other responsibilities that they had to fulfill with and some of the med students and other work that they did so that they quite often wouldn’t come in the morning. So I’ve got here that just the mainly the first four classes came in the morning. Would it be after the first four classes that they started to get students and have other responsibilities? After having studied that? The first four classes.
After having finished that with the Yeah. Well, I’m just relating two things. The fact that that I’ve I’ve got here that only the four classes come in the morning. Is that right? Yeah.
The first four classes? More Shogi Chora. Shogi Chora. Abhidharma would also would be very much like the the discipline class. They they would some of them would come and some would not according to but they would usually come in the evenings.
Oh, so they might come. A few of them might come in the morning. Mhmm. The class, the discipline class, they would have to come. What class would a student be in when they normally were Aloked students of their own?
The the Vinaya Right. That’s what I was yeah. Before they would have students of their own. So that that was the main other responsibility that Rinpoche referred to, was it? The there was in the.
Yeah. So the the the main responsibility would be if they were assigned a student and they would have to ensure the student was conducting himself properly, that they were clothed properly, that they had food sample, for example, if they were sick, they would have to make sure that they went to a dispensary, things like that. But this was the main responsibility with the student if they were assigned a student. And so wouldn’t be everyone in the class that was? Most of them would have a student.
If you had a student, then it was your responsibility to make sure that he went to debate, that he can conduct himself well, that he had his clothes, was dressed properly, that he had food, that he he wasn’t sick. Quite a big responsibility, isn’t it? You have to be like your parent. So what class was Rinpoche in when he got his first students? With respect to just the the you know, roughly two types of in a in the discipline class, Vinaya class.
Those who were good at texts, who had studied well, who were doing well in their classes, then their main responsibility would be to teach the students. Whereas those who weren’t doing so well in their studies, they would be responsible for the material well-being of the students by taking care of, make sure they were clothed, if they were sick and if they had money or food, things like that. So those are the better students would be main responsibility would be to teach. When he was in discipline class, his main responsibility was teaching. Taught didn’t have to be concerned with material aspects of taking care of the students.
That’s very interesting. So they really kind of judged the monk’s abilities and personalities and assigned him a responsibility that was suitable. So those who yeah. That’s right. Those who weren’t so good at their studies, they would they might have assigned to them twenty or thirty students who were they were responsible to make sure that there’s their material well-being, you know, buying buying their and things like that.
That many. And then the then the teaching students would have maybe twenty, thirty, sometimes forty students that they have to teach. Oh. And would that be their main teacher, or would it be one of a whole series of teachers? So, yeah, so the students from the Vinaya or the Abhidharma classes would be their main teachers.
And that they teach the very beginning, like the Dudra for For teaching any of the classes that that they for example, one teacher might and they he might have four classes come at one time. For example, the three the three top collected topics classes and and the new text classes, Srinsarpa. And then so then he would ask the first the new text class some question then he go and move on to the doo doo class, the collected topics class, and then this class, and then this class, and then he go back to them. They’d be all be gathered at one time. So he was responsible for different classes.
So that way he keep his knowledge fresh of all the different aspects even though he might be himself studying Alhamdulillah. And then again, they did. He would would be regularly teaching the the lower classes, and he himself would also be studying with other teachers during the course of the day. Mhmm. So he would be gaining a lot of new knowledge.
Reinforcing a lot of old knowledge by teaching. Mhmm. That’s a very good system. With the monks that I had to actually provide the food, where did the money come from for that? Did they actually go out and buy it?
Newly arrived monk would come to his teacher, he would give all everything that he had to his teacher, his possessions and money and his money the teacher would record everything that was received and then he would solely dole out to the student according to his needs. As he went along, would out of that money he would pay for his various material needs and keep an account. So this student in the class or the class would get the the monk fresh from so the yeah. They would receive the new students. Some of the some of the the new monks had lots of money.
Some of them had only very little money, fifty rupees, something like that. And no matter how much money the student brought initially then, how then the whatever was bought was shared out equally. Whatever food was bought was shared out equally. Whatever new clothing clothing was bought was shared out equally to all the to all the students, no matter how much money they they first brought with them. So that’s sort of a wealthy one might carry poorer one in the same group.
Because of the the the wealthy ones would would bring more than the poorer ones, but they would be they would get back equally. So was there a fairly strong feeling of sort of family amongst that group then that had the same? The So as far as yeah. Was like a family and as far as what they were able to to buy, they they just concerned themselves with buying tsampa and clothing. There wasn’t the money to buy anything else.
They couldn’t buy butter or meat or things like that. Just tsampa and clothing. So where did they get the butter and the meat? They didn’t have in general. Didn’t have.
They generally didn’t have? No. Only if a puja was being offered. So and sometimes if a patron offered it then of course they would have it or someone knew somebody that offered to them specifically then they would have it. But in general the teacher would not buy these kinds of things like butter and meat, just something, clothing.
And if in assembly they were offered, for example, five rupees, then the teacher would ask them for the they would give it to their teacher and he would write it in the account book. Ah, it will all be collected by the teachers. So I didn’t really get to keep. So they really had no literally had no money at all? No.
If they had some special need they could go to the teacher and make requests and he would examine whether they really needed it or not. If he thought they did then he would go ahead and give them the money. He didn’t then they wouldn’t get the money. Say Rinpoche, for instance, would have gone to Sera Je when he was about eighteen. So by the time they were in Vinaya or Abhidharma and they had these students to care for, how old would they roughly be?
Okay. Okay. But can I maybe I mean, he’s remember to calculate maybe about twenty nine when he was in his Vinaya class? He was teaching one. Mhmm.
Not a not a wheeler dealer. And did they actually go outside of the monastery to buy these things or did they pool up with another one of their teachers? Or was there were there some shopping monks or what? They so they would go to Lhasa, to buy things. So each teacher would Gigi.
Gigi. And the so so so. They would go individually to Dubai. Alright. So did they get lot lots of practice with trading then?
Sometimes the traders would come to the monastery. Sometimes the monks would go to this massa to buy. Do they have a a shop at in all those things? The. So they had they had a shop where they sold rice and tea and butter and things like that.
So they could buy it there too? To you can talk them on your your cigarette. Were near around the monastery, there were just makeshift shops just with an awning, just a cover of a piece of cloth, and people sell things like meat and grains and milk and yogurt. In the monastery or around Just around the monastery. Yeah.
They’re just a makeshift so they could buy things there. So, I mean, the shops back then were just they weren’t not much of anything at all. They just sold salt and tea and butter lamps and things like that. The During the the the break time at the at the district houses Oh, I see. When they they would clap and all the monks and then and then and before and this was they would have a prayer session, and this was called.
Ah, that’s what that one was. That was an evening session, was it? That’s just a triple a. Six o’clock. Yeah.
Six o’clock. Oh, yeah. Okay. That’s good. If the length of days was long, the daylight was long, then they’d have it at six.
If it was shorter days, they would have it at five. So I I just got here that all the classes including the paramedic class and above would go home. That would mean just back to their rooms, I think. That’s right. It’s just just the And the lower classes would would go and listen to their teacher.
Yeah. We covered that. Yep. There was that. Good.
Each person oh, yeah. That’s alright. That’s all done. So, yeah, they go to their teacher for those last two hours. So that means that each monk has two teachers, one that supplies the food, I think we’ve gone through it before, but just checking, one that supplies the food and one that gives the actual teaching.
Two or three teachers who taught them texts. Then some of had many teachers who they’d go teachings with, but they only had this one teacher who was responsible for their materials. I see. What I don’t why would they have many teachers? Some of the teachers weren’t able to teach regularly, so when they taught, whenever they taught then the students would go to them, but other times they’d have to go to another teacher in another class.
So they ended up having more than some of them had two or three teachers because it was just to facilitate their studies and one of the teachers couldn’t for one reason another regularly. So they would presumably know who they had to go to in the evening. Do the teachers liaise with each other? Or I mean, yeah, what was the talk to the very students, and somebody would always know who would be teaching would be teaching that day or the next day. So it’s just a matter of communicating between the students amongst the So they just they just sort of find out that day who they were going to.
No. Sometimes it it would it was quite regular. I mean, it we began a text, a particular then it would be quite regular at the same time with the same teacher. Normally, that’s the way it would proceed. How many teachers would Rinpoche have in in when he was studying in the early years at last?
Yeah. Did he have many teachers? Mhmm. But for for example, Geshe Rabten’s book. Yeah.
He had two teachers. You previously came to Australia before? Are these teachers. This is Rinpoche. He’s talking about himself.
Rod. Throws it down. As tall as a person. And this Oh. It’s like a log.
It’s a really big log. There’s some small one. Some are small, like, three feet long. Some are bigger, as tall as a person. It’s a it’s a log, basically, and and and and then his assistant would throw it down into the courtyard.
Is that right? Usually, they would just bring this this the shorter one. Mhmm. Sometimes they’d bring the big one, usually, they’d bring the shorter the shorter one. Mhmm.
Ten AM. But they and they’ll throw it from the, what, the top floor down into the courtyard. Make a noise. You just you just throw it down. From above?
You hold it like this and just pull it up. Just standing on the ground. Just drop it. Sag on the little bit. Sag the Yeah.
Yeah. On the standing on the ground. Just throw it down. Oh. Oh, okay.
Uh-huh. So all those junior classes? They would they would listen to whatever it was. Once they once they heard that sound, then they would listen to whatever came next. They would stop and listen.
Oh, they didn’t go into the courtyard themselves? Arse or they had already assembled in the courtyard, and that was just to attract attention. So there would be a lot of activity in the courtyard already. The monks would already be there. Right.
Oh, that was more or less to just call their attention to listen. And then the kamsangegen would come with the with the lights. Then the the kamsangegen. Torch? Torch?
Torch. So, yes, just a small torch burning torch, not a not a flashlight. Alright. I’ve got I’ve called it’s got a called a candle with a little flame in one hand and a piece of wood in the other. And that check.
Yeah. Again, it might be someone else. So it’s like So it’s like what they carry is like a lamp, oil lamp. Ah yes. Oil lamp, burning oil lamp.
Stick with the rope to the top of your Sorry? The oil lamp in one hand. The stick with the rope in the other. Yeah. The rope the stick had a piece of hole on it, and there was a there was a rope going through the hole.
So he held onto the rope and he dragged the stick along and it would clatter along the ground. This is the big tree, the three foot. The Jupa Chingchenpo. This was a small stick. It would just have a string on it.
And then he would just drag it along the ground. And it would clatter. So this is a different person to the one who goes in the courtyard with the big stick. They only use that big big big log during large assemblies. So they would only use this stick on it with a string.
That would be normally they’d use that. So it will make that that dragging along sound. So there would be stone floors, I suppose. So, yeah, so the bottom floor would be stone, and the rest the other floors would be wood. Yeah.
So he walk all up and down, top and bottom? Parts of the. Yeah. This is only in the in the break time, is this? And what about the big the big shing in the courtyard?
That’s the same? Just in the break time at the council? That’s Shing. So they only use that for the first on the first time they have these assemblies for the first classes. They would bring that big log and throw it just on that occasion.
This is the cumsin. Yeah, during your break time. So if a student didn’t arrive, then here we go here we go to his home and look for We look for him. And it’s a that walks with that thing that goes cha cha cha. The shing kegre.
Then I’ve got here, then they all kneel before the kamzenggegen. This is in the courtyard who teaches us it looks like is it then the Kamzengeshi who teaches them in the courtyard, those junior classes? It’s yeah. So that’s the it’s the that teaches. Is that right?
Yeah. It’s not the. It’s just. Geisha. So it’s alright.
Kamsan Geisha. That’s okay. So the Kamsan Geisha would give a talk. So he gives a talk, but the the one who calls them all to the talk. The is concerned with the discipline.
Yeah. That’s alright. I’m just checking because and then kneel before the and he gives the. They get Leptholic Chakseopur? That’s right.
I have a kneel. They do prostrations. Prostrate. Okay. How do the monks sit, though, when they’re listening to teachings usually?
The students would be the class representative, and then the the any of the reincarnated teach lamas. Then they would That were in that class. That were in that class. And then and then there was no particular order after that. Right.
And they’d be sort of bending over the heads. Yeah. Like he did. Yeah. Yeah.
Really bowed down. Okay. So you have what? Well, first of all, the must give a little teaching, and then they have to memorize or practice, and then comes with a piece of wood and a light. It throws the wood on the floor.
I think your order is they’re getting the order wrong. There’s some confusion about that order. What’s the Kamsang Geshe spoken for, say half an hour, do they then do memorizing written Kamsang Geshe. The the same Shabke Shi will finish giving his his whatever we had to say. Mhmm.
And they would they would make these they make circles, and they would repeat together whatever was what was to be memorized. So quite often he would give something which was to be memorized and they would after he was finished, it’s they’d form a circle and repeat three times what it was to be memorized. Uh-huh. I will memorize three times. Okay.
So then the Kamsankegan would come again and draw it to a close. Is that right? Yeah. Younger comes and get again young. He would remain there watching them.
Oh, and then when when they’d done it long enough, he Then they do the stick again, would he? The the bats are The the again would give us some kind of teaching, and then they’d circle and repeat whatever to be memorized three times, and then they they would break up into debate. Oh. And then the the Go into the debating lines. They would debate.
And then the Comms and Gee Gein was there all this time watching. And then at about ten o’clock, he would leave. And once the Comms and Gee Gein left, then they they could they were allowed to leave. And some would just leave it immediately and back to the room. Some would remain and continue to debate.
Oh, I see. So he’d just go. He didn’t ring his little stick anymore. As long as the Komsengeguin was there, they weren’t allowed to leave. Just got threw his stick on the floor again, so that’s all wrong.
Do they do prayers then? I’ve got they did prayers and with the chant leader from each group leading. Is that at the end or at the beginning of the evening? From Kutti, there were no other special prayers. There were no other prayer sessions.
But except sometimes if somebody was seriously ill, then maybe around eight o’clock that again the Komatsenge again would throw the stick down and then the then they’d say with that such and such a person was sick, and we’re going to do some special prayers. And then but that’s this was not regular. This is only special occasion. I’ve got this all out of sequence. So I’ve also got a bit about a chant leader, but I can put it in earlier with the.
But is the chant leader called the? K y o. K y o. P a n. I I have to check.
Ben was the person who Before. It’s a general term. It means someone who is a I mean, it’s just like the kyopan. So kyopan is like the the special name. I see.
What they would what the actual name that they would use. And means just the head of the class who would represent the class and exit and keep an eye on the class. That’s a general word. The special word that they use was. Okay.
Just the new Shinsava Right. Would attend this. Alright. Much All the classes would attain enlightenment curry. I see.
Yeah. So the older classes. Yeah. Everyone attain enlightenment curry. attain enlightenment curry.
Then they go to their rooms or whatever they do. They do their own. Debating. Patriots in. Reciting what he what he he wouldn’t he wouldn’t debate at night at late into the night.
He would but he would recite what he had memorized. So with memorizing, does does he look really late into the night, almost to morning till before they went to bed. Memorizing. Reciting what they’ve memorized? Reciting what they’ve memorized.
How did they know if they made a mistake? Did they have someone else there reading the text to check on them or what? And song is just according to one’s own self would know if you had a mistake. You know this order of the verses, way they went, that you would realize that you were out of things were out of order, that you had made a mistake. So but it was it was just oneself, one’s mindfulness.
So is all memorizing really in verse form? Is it always yeah. In verse, but memorizing stuff? The Shum Shum Lord Zen Zan Yaki. Some of some of the text were in verse form.
Some were written in just prose form. They’re different different forms. Sera Monastery in Tibet than what it is these days, and she intends. Sera. Sera.
So, I mean, it’s it just say it’s different. I know things things are different now, and it’s better than it not existing at all. So we’ve we’ve been talking about a typical day in the break month in. Is that just clearing Month month of the month. Right.
In in in the break month. So every day for this month, we follow this routine. No. Okay.