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ascetic practices before.
2.7 Cares for the Sangha Food:
Food is the very basic offering that a sangha member would get from the
monastery. Meals in the monastery today are much better and healthier than before.
The monastery will provide three meals a day, and if there is anyone in special need of food that cannot be prepared by the temple, and then he or she has to prepare it by him or herself. For example, some people might need extra nutrition such as vitamins due to their health problems. In this case, members will have to buy them with their own money. Cooking in the dormitory is prohibited except for special reasons. Sick monk or nun can prepare their own meals without attending lunch if permitted. Fruits or other dry food donated by laymen will be divided equally to every member.
Clothing and other necessities:
According to The Common Regulations of the Monastic Community, new sangha member can get fabric that is enough to make two sets of inside robe, one outside middle-length robe, one outside long robe, and a bag. However, no one really gets that when joining the Order. New member has to prepare his or her own robes, and he can ask for second-hand robes from others, too. Each member will have his or her own room in the dormitory, and there is a bed, a closet and a desk in the room.
Everything else needed have to be prepared by the members themselves. Previously,
taken each day until he or she eats nothing at all. During these days, he or she can do Buddhist practices upon his or her own choices for six, eight or twelve-incense time. In the very end of the retreat, the participant will gradually increase the food taken.
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every member can get $16 dollar bursary for clothing every year.37 However, C.F.S.
starts to make their own costumes, so no bursary will be given to the members.
Some monks told me that they got bursaries from the temple and C.F.S. Buddhist College when they joined the Order. From my knowledge, not everyone gets that kind of bursary. Thus, resource of clothing is not equally divided for all members.
Furthermore, clothing can be quite an expense for new members. Very basic expense for different robes for both summer and winter, including shoes, is at least two hundred dollars. I have heard someone spent more than three thousand dollars for buying robes when they joined the Order. These members tend to be economically well-off.
Medical Care:
According to the rule in The Common Regulations of the Monastic Community, if a member of C.F.S. cannot afford his or her own medical expenses, then he or she can apply for medical bursary from the monastery. All members’ public medical insurance costs will be paid by the monastery if their names are registered under the household of the monastery. Many of my informants never apply for medical bursary if they can afford the bill, and it is very unlikely that members of C.F.S. will apply bursary if they just go see a family doctor for a few hundred Taiwanese dollars. If the member has no saving before joining the Order, and only relies on allowance given by the monastery every month, then even the least medical expense could be a huge pressure on them. If a member is serious ill, and needed for cares, the monastery will ask other members to take care of them in rotation. However, not every member is that willing to take care for their sick colleagues, so the monastery will hire lay
37 All dollar amounts in my thesis have been converted into U.S. dollars unless it is specifically indicated.
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people for that job. There was a real case that I had encountered about six years ago.
There was a nun who had been in monastic life for almost ten years, but a few years after she joined the Order, she started to suffer Rheumatoid arthritis. It was a family inherited disease, so almost all her siblings had that problem. Three of her sisters were lay supporters of C.F.S. Not only they donated a large amount of money to the monastery, they did a lot of volunteer works at C.F.S., too. The sick nun had married before and had children, but after she divorced with her husband, she never had any contact with them. Therefore, when she was so sick to the point that she could not do any chores at the monastery, her sister took her back home and cared for her. All medical expenses were paid by the nun’s sister, and she was economically well-off and willing to do that. The sick nun stayed with her sister for two years, and for some reasons which I did not know, the old Chan master asked the sick nun to go back to the main temple, and provided medical cares for her. At the time she went back to the main temple, she required twenty-four hour personal care. At first, the
monastery asked other members to take terms in order to take care of her. Each term is four hours. However, they later found out that many members complained about that. In addition, when there was monastic activity going on in the monastery, everyone was busy with her own works. Therefore, because of the shortage of human resource, the monastery hired a laywoman to care for the sick nun. She died after about one month stay at the monastery. This case example shows a few problems on the medical care for their members:
1. Unwillingness to care for the sick: Not everyone is that compassionate and considerate to the sick, so even if they are forced to do that, their attitudes toward the sick can be cruel. This happened in that case, too.
2. Shortage of human resource: In C.F.S., there is no professional caring centre for the sick and aging. It is already short in the number of members to cover all
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temple’s works, so when everyone is busy, no one has free time to do extra job.
There is another underlying problem on medical welfare of C.F.S. beside these two.
Many sick members of C.F.S. chose to go back to their homes or asked their relatives to take care of them in the monastery because they did not want to become burdens for the monastery. Other members might judge about how much trouble the sick member causes to the monastery. Furthermore, whether one can get medical bursary successfully or not sometimes depends on how close you are with the people who are in decision making. Thus, even though there is medical welfare provided by the monastery, some of my informants are still worried about being ill one day.
Aging Care:
If any member who has been ordained as a bhikshu or bhikshuni for more than thirty years in C.F.S., then the monk or nun can be exempted from all monastic chores and jobs. However, if the monk or nun is willing to help out, then the
monastery will give them an easy job to do. In addition to that, they do not have to participate in any of the required group practice such as morning and evening chanting. These retired monks and nuns can spend their free times on their own Buddhist practices at the main temple. If one joined the Order at a late age, then he or she must know how to take care of his or her own.
Other welfares:
There is a small amount of bursary for the sangha member every month. The amount differs between the main and branch temple. It ranges from $75 to $120 dollars. Members in the supervised positions will get $20 dollars more each month, and those who work in the kitchen and reception office will get $15 and $12 dollars
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more each month, too. After one being ordained for five years, his or her allowance will increase $1.5 dollars each year. The increase can be up to $100 dollars the maximum. With this allowance, members can buy things that they need. Accepting money donation other than relatives and personal friends are prohibited. All private money donations from the lay supporters have to be given to the monastery except during Chinese New Year. Sometimes, more allowance will be given if there are a lot of ritual services during that month, but the amount would not be more than thirty dollars.