Importance of Cleanliness at Dhammakaya Temple : หน้า 52/105

At Dhammakaya Temple, we have a policy of cleanliness that applies right from the front gates to every inch of temple grounds. Every morning, when I leave my kuti, I come across pieces of paper, trash, and even cigarette butts. Even though we have signs all around the temple telling people to refrain from smoking yet people still sneak around a corner and smoke. When I find cigarette butts, I do not know whom to blame. I pick these things up as I go along, and I clean up whatever I can, as I make my way around the temple. When I clean and take care of things around the temple I am happy that the grounds are clean. My mind is clean when my surroundings are clean. There are senior monks whose duty is to inspect temples in the rural provinces. The monks at these temples are often afraid of the inspecting monk because they believe that he knows about everything going on in the temple. In reality, however the monk hardly knows anything about what is going on. However, when he reaches the temple, instead of looking at the main chapel, he will go directly to the toilets. If the toilets are not clean, this will tell that everyone from the abbot, down on to the temple’s followers are not upholding appropriate standards of cleanliness, and not taking care of the temple. Moreover, the fact of cleanliness reflects poorly on the temple’s adherence to the Dhamma. If a temple lacks cohesion and community spirit, you can usually get a sense of this by the graffiti on the walls of the toilets. This is true not only for temples, but for all private work places, schools, and government buildings. When people are unhappy with their work, or their boss, they typically vent their opinions on the walls. The inspecting monk can often gather valuable information about what is going on and can use this