From: dra@openguitar.com   
      
   On Sun, 19 Feb 2017 18:34:26 -0800 (PST)   
   islandteak@gmail.com wrote:   
      
   >   
   > Not a topic that is comfortable to discuss. 30 years   
   > ago I used to visit a monk in a remote part of   
   > Northern Thailand who had lived in a cave for 6   
   > years.   
      
   The white robe signifies that this "monk" is not a   
   bikkhu.  He is not practicing all of the rules of   
   the /vinaya/, and he is honest enough not to pretend   
   otherwise.  One might put it that he has one foot in the   
   monastery and the other in the marketplace.  Or   
   perhaps he has chosen not to live in a   
   religious community. Is that a bad thing? I hope not.   
      
   Any religion so ancient as Buddhism has grown a plethora   
   of irrelevant parasitic superstition. That has nothing   
   to do with the teaching of Lord Buddha, to which we are   
   blessed to still have access.  Metta, Rale   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)