Question

Do Steve and Rosemary encourage their students to ordain as a Monk or a Nun?

Answer

Basically we don't encourage making decisions for other people, otherwise we get blamed! So we don't really directly encourage people to become anything. We encourage people to practice, to develop understanding of the Four Noble Truths, to practice in whatever situation they find themselves in. If these people then find that they wish to develop themselves as a monk or a nun, then we are quite happy with that, because it shows to us that they also want to take their practice deeper. We don't directly encourage people to ordain as a monk or a nun, because we feel it is really a personal decision that each of us has to make. We encourage people to develop a deeper direction in their life, and many of our old students have actually ordained as a monk or a nun for some time, or are still ordained. But one of the reasons we don't encourage it is that often people are not ready for this. If we start to encourage it, they feel like they have to make a big renunciation to be able to practice the Dhamma, and this is not what we, personally, have actually done. So, we can't really encourage people to become monks or nuns when we have found that we have been able to develop a deeper direction in our life and have a high level of renunciation in the form that we have. We encourage people to practice the Dhamma in whatever form they find themselves in, and usually give them ways to reflect so that they can make their own decisions in their life.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.