The aim of this study is to investigate the impact and influence on the Buddhist Sangha under the morphological changes of modern society and the difficulties faced by them especially in various aspects of ageing, illness, deathbed and aged care. A semi-structured in-depth interview of three organizations with long-term care service for Sangha is used to present the practical problem which is to be analyzed.
Study found that the biggest problem of the modern Buddhist Sangha is an ageing population and there are fewer and fewer young monastics. There is a lot of work in a temple to keep them busy that the sick or old monks and nuns in the temple are not properly taken care of and thus they are forced to seek external care resources. The results of the study also show the experience of three organizations in their long-term care of monastics. The Sangha Health Care Foundation provides a comprehensive care for monastics, including prevention and treatment of sickness, subsidies for health insurance, economic life support, psychological counseling, deathbed and funeral, property exhortations and even setting up nursing homes suitable for caring Sangha. To the Buddhist community and the disadvantaged group of Sangha, it is an important supporting organization with indicative significance. Whereas the Buddhist Sangha Sponsor Association has been for the past two decades, constantly giving care for the monastics in need even with limited support and resources. Without regret, they continue to serve with the mind of loving them as self. Hung Tak Nursing Home is a regional organization which offers service for part of the Sangha community. The first two organizations proposed that care and nursing of Sangha should be independent from the general nursing homes in a community. There is an imminent need for the care of aged-related diseases of monastics.
Before attaining life liberation, a practitioner is still a mundane person. When the physical body undergoes the torture of pain and sickness, the feeling of suffering really exists. Thus we cannot deny the care and recuperation of those who are sick or negate the monastics from the need of this basic ‘welfare’. Also it may be the attachment to the idea of ‘using the apparent form of the body to cultivate for the genuine’ that results in hindering or neglecting the care for aged and sick monastics. The thought and attitude should be that before life is liberated, everyone should have compassion on the ‘physical body’ which is a resource for cultivation, and it should receive proper care and treatment. This is the right attitude towards life.