Boozing with a monk?

[Q]

In Tokyo, you'll see a dog praying, a monk rapping the sutras and now... a monk bar that offers their guests booze.

It may seem strange to everyone that... how can monks do such a thing? Especially offering booze to people. Previously I would have thought this way, as I had a preconception of how monks should be, how they should act etc. But now, I think different... Perhaps these monks have a different motivation behind their actions?

We all know that Japan is a society have a certain culture where drinking booze is sort of like the norm, it in fact has turned into part of their culture. I think what the monks are doing is to expose them to Buddhism in their comfort zones.

What do you think? Is this a skillful way of bringing people to Dharma, or it's something else?

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Tokyo monk bar offers cocktail of booze and Buddhism

A bar in Japan run by a Buddhist priest is serving up prayers and sermons along with soul-cleansing cocktails.

Yoshinobu Fujioka owns the bar in central Tokyo and it is regularly filled with business people looking for light relief.

Instead of karaoke, the 36-year-old monk entertains his customers daily with scripture readings and encourages them to chat along to Japanese lyric sheets.

While they are singing, they are swigging cocktails which come in spiritual flavours and are called names ranging from "Perfect Bliss" to an "Infinite Hell".

The current special is "Enslavery to Love and Lust" which is slightly more expensive.

Fujioka has run the Vowz Bar for 13 years and says it is a return to ancient traditions but modernised to make it more relevant to everyday people.

Buddhism is one of two mainstream religions in Japan but leaders have had concerns over the numbers who follow it, marking a fall in interest among the young generation.

Tokyo monk bar offers cocktail of booze and Buddhism

[Big Uncle]

I am not so sure about a monk running a cocktail bar no matter what his motivation may be. It is all stuck in the grey area where motivation and the realm of positive or negative actions. If this monk truly has the motivation to benefit, then his little bar will attract more and more people onto the Dharma. I am sure there is a Vinaya rule against monks drinking and associating with the alcohol.

If his motivation is not strong, this will end up just being some sort of business venture. Perhaps, he should just return his monk vows and be a layperson because it does seem like he is using the Dharma and his monkhood as a novelty to get people into the Dharma. I hope I am wrong. This is another sign of the degeneration of Buddhism.

[Positive Change]

This is indeed a strange and seriously bizarre concept! I certainly would be wary of monks that were bartenders. Perhaps its wrong views on my part but somehow a person in robes should really not be serving alchohol. I do not doubt that the monks in question are keeping their vows but I think it is more the perception that that give to the public that is in question.

However pure the motivation, lay people may not see past this misconception and thus wrong views may arise... I myself find it hard to come to terms with this concept even though I think it is quite a daring and in your face way to "promote" Buddhism. I deem it as promoting as it gives rise to exposure and that I believe is a good thing, however warped it may seem!

Thus is my two cents worth!

[hope rainbow]

Well,

Imagine yourself entering a bar and then ordering a cocktail from a monk, then the monk stirs it, serves it to you... How would you feel? Can you imagine the state of questioning that is your mind into?
Now, would you talk to the monk/bar-tender with a mind open to receive answers to questions?
If you think you would be, then this monk may very well be a very skillful teacher that has created a mindset for you to receive teachings.
The teachings are always the same, but it is our mindset that makes the teachings touch us or not.

Now, imagine someone that has no experience with Dharma. Maybe imagine yourself before you met Dharma (if you ever were in that position - I do not know you).
Imagine the mindset that is created in that person's mind, a mind of questioning, a mind of seeking for an answer...
A mind ready to receive a teaching.

I had a philosophy teacher that explained to me once that when a child asks a question to an adult, it is the only time that the adult can teach the child something. And so he told me that we should always take the opportunity of the "questioning" child to teach them useful things, teach them respect, teach them consideration, teach them humility, teach them effort, teach them gratitude...
When the child is not in a mind-set to receive an explanation or a teaching, we can teach them all we want, it slips on their closed-up carapace...

Now, I think it is the same for adults.
Perhaps this monk/bar-tender is provoking adult people to build up a questioning mind ready to receive a teaching.

What is the limit of these methods?
Well, i don't know.... But I certainly find it hard to imagine a monk/butcher for example...

[sonamdhargey]

Majoity Buddhist will think that the monk may not be right. Buddhism is not about fanatism, extremism or anything like that. Infact Buddhism is about understanding the causes of suffering and how to be free from suffering. Buddism did not say you cannot drink rather Buddhism tells you that do not be intoxicated as it will deter our dharma practice. Of course as a Monk and holding his Monk vows, he should be free from samsaric activities but i think in this era where samara is strong, laypeople are less likely to walk the dharma path and prefer to remain ignorant and remain in samara. I think in this degenerate time, maybe the monk is using this method to spread Buddhism after all everything is just an illusion and whatever we believed in is all created by our own thoughts. I don't there is right or wrong. If there are people benefitted with dharma with this method, why not?

[Jessie Fong]

The article says that Yoshinobu has been running the Vowz Bar for 13 years.  All this time, if it had not been accepted by his monastery/temple, would he still have continued to run the bar and be a monk as well?  I am sure that his temple abbot must have seen some goodness in it to have let him continue his "business".

As Q rightly said, it was his/her perception how a monk should be, how to act, etc.  As long as we do not label him as a monk serving us drinks in a bar, is he not just another bar-tender?

Anyway, is it stated in any scripture that a monk should not be engaged in this type of livelihood?

[samayakeeper]

I guess drinking some wine daily in Japan is part of the culture rather than a social ill. If this bar has been operating for 13 years without any objection from any Buddhist body in Japan, then maybe it is acceptable as part of the Japanese culture. Hence a non Japanese like me would prefer not to judge it wrong or right. It would be similar to telling a Tibetan to stop doing a certain protector practice he and his ancestors have been practicing for a long time.

[RedLantern]

It all depends on the motivation of the monks.One of the vows in Tibetan Tradition where there is a version of the Bodhsattva Vow that is to commit one of the non-virtues of body,speech if love and compassion demands it.It is not known to me whether that tradition exists modern Japan.
That type of imperative only works correctly if it is not used to rationalize or justify selfish behavior. Keeping in mind clear and pure at all times is most important i Buddhist practice.

[diablo1974]

Personally i dont agree with what this monk is doing. Even if we are talking about motivation, but in this degenerated age there will be a lot of practitioners and non practitioners abusing the meaning of motivation. Basic vinaya vows has to be followed strictly or else if everyone going to do that i think there will be chaos very soon?  It might also impact those who are searching for spirituality and wont be exploring into Buddhism before this monk has got a chance to explain his motivation.

[yontenjamyang]

Well, if one wants to go to a bar to drink alcohol, they will go. So, why not a bar that serves up buddhist scriptures also? At least there is some Dharma. Drinking alcohol is a samsaric way of finding happiness and seeking relief. What better environment to find happiness then being in the company monks. If the needed incentive for these beings to meet the monks is at a bar then I think the monks are very skillful.

On another note, in our refuge commitments we need to treat the monks as real buddhas. Hence, any actions by monks are always with higher motivations and are skillful. If we can't agree to it then it is our lack of merits and our delusions that are at fault.

[bambi]

I believe that it depends on the motivation of the monks.
I think of it this way. Those people are definitely going to drink no matter where but instead of drinking and not getting imprint, why not drink in a place and get imprints anyway. Times have changed, degeneration is everywhere. We have to use skillful ways and adapt to the ever changing time and people. If Buddhism were to be practiced as it was 2500 years ago, it will not work for many in this time and age. I am not saying I agree with the method but I do not disagree as well as I believe in making the best out of everything to benefit others. Maybe it works like that in Japan.