![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sangham saranam gacchami
So last night I formally took the Buddhist refuges and precepts for the first time.
As a ceremony, it was distinctly underwhelming. We didn’t even look at the Pali. “Okay everybody, sit there and let’s read the sentences on the sheet in front of you. All together now…”
There wasn’t much sense that it was anything special, or anything individual, which disappointed me. Of course, I chose Theravadan Buddhism and this sangha to a large degree based upon their lack of preoccupation with ceremony and dogma. But I feel like taking the precepts and refuges is something of a rite of passage which should be observed with a little more decorum.
Of course, there’s really no need to look externally to give importance and meaning to one’s vows. It’s up to each person to determine what the precepts mean for them, and to what degree they are able to live up to their own ethical standards. I guess I just thought the sangha would take a more active role in promoting them by putting a bit more celebration or formality around the ceremony of taking the precepts.
no subject