June 26, 2025
From the Trenches: Monk or Priest?
SWET member and Zen priest Jiho Sargent wrote about the difference between monk and priest in her commentary on a series of translations done for our “Over Their Shoulders” feature on the theme of Buddhism, persuasively arguing that we should use “priest” when referring to Buddhist clerics. The background she provides for making the distinction deserves quoting at length here. She strongly advises against the use of “monastic terminology” in the Buddhist context, writing as follows:
Such usage has led to widespread misunderstanding of Buddhism, especially of Japanese Buddhism. The concept of monasticism was instituted by the Greek Christian philosopher Origen (185?–254? C.E) more than 700 years after the founding of Buddhism. The first recorded use of the term monachos (monk) to refer to a specific individual occurred 75 years after Origen’s death. From that time onward, Catholic clerics were divided into those who served the Christian community, ministering to lay believers, and those clerics and laics who withdrew into monasticism. M. Eliade’s Encyclopedia of Religion offers a succinct definition: “What made the village ascetic into the anchorite or solitary monk in the proper sense was the act of separation or withdrawal ... from the world and even from the Christian community. This separation, though variously understood, has remained central to Christian monasticism.” Under Canon law, monastics (monks and nuns in the strict definitions) are required to practice stability (little if any change in location between entry into a monastery and death) and remain cloistered (having no contact with persons outside the monastery). Although some monastics are priests, the monastic does not minister to ordinary people. The first priority of a monastic must be the individual’s own religious observances. In Buddhism, to the contrary, there is no corresponding division of roles. Every person who enters the Buddhist clergy is expected both to strive for continually deeper understanding of Buddhist teachings and to exercise compassion in serving the religious needs of lay people with whom she or he comes in contact. A monk or nun does not officiate at rites for lay people. A Buddhist priest does so as a basic duty.
Despite today’s many changes in Catholic institutions, the mental image evoked in most Westerners by the word “monk” is that of the member of an isolated community, living within the same walled area from young adulthood until death, devoted to his prayers and meditations, and having no contact with the world outside those walls. What could be further from the ideal of the Buddhist priest, living in the world, interacting with people of all stations in life, responding to the religious needs of those people and ... to the physical, mental, and emotional needs of those people as well?
Source: SWET Newsletter, No. 92 (2001), pp. 22-23; posted by Lynne E. Riggs, June 26, 2025.