What is the use of the dots on the top of the monk s head?

First of all, those who become monks or nuns have to shave their hair, which is called shaving in Buddhism.

In addition to the shaving ceremony, Buddhism also has a "pure heart" ceremony. That is, after entering the monastery, after a period of study, those with excellent grades, the old monk will use incense sticks to light the first ring scar of their monk career, which is called "pure heart". Then in the next year or two, if you behave well, you are eligible for a second ring scar, named "Lefou".

Generally speaking, if it goes well, most of the older monks in the temple can have five or six ring scars; The abbots of important temples such as the Shaolin Temple have eight or nine scars of "senior monks" or "special monks". However, the tenth precept scar is not something that ordinary monks can have, except for the Bodhidharma Patriarch and the Six Patriarchs Zen Master. In China, there are no more than five "chief monks" with ten ring scars.

Ring scars are also known as incense scars. It refers to the scars left on the body by Buddhists who burn incense in order to purify their bodies. Their actions are either based on the idea of sacrificing one's self or on the idea of cutting off self-grasping. The burning of the ring scar at the time of ordination is also known as the 'incense burning scar', and the number of incense burn scars is generally there.

One, two, three, six, nine, twelve. The twelve points indicate the highest "bodhisattva vows" among the vows received. At home, there are many people in the armpit before the day of taking the bodhisattva vows, and the burn ring scars on the wrists; The scars of the monks are mostly burned on the top of the head.

Regarding its origin, according to Tan Xuan's "Chinese Monk Ordination and Incense Scar Research", "according to legend, it began in the twenty-fifth year of Yuan Shizu to Yuan (1288), when Shamen Zhide was the abbot of Jinling Tianxi Temple, he and the seven congregations conferred ordination, burned incense on the top, and referred to it as a lifelong oath." This gradually became a common practice. Later generations of Chinese Buddhists often used this to express their faith, and the burning of ordination scars became a way to identify whether or not they had taken the ordination.

However, this is not a Buddhist system, and it is unique to China, and it is not found in other countries.

In December 1983, the enlarged meeting of the Council of the Buddhist Association of China issued the "Resolution on the Issue of the Ordination and Ordination of Han Buddhist Temples". The resolution stated that the practice of burning a scar on the ordination person's head at the time of ordination "is not an original Buddhist ritual and will be abolished in the future because it is harmful to physical health."

From then on, the newly ordained Han monks will no longer have a scar on the top of their heads.

These dots can help the monk to be more attentive, because the monk wants to stay away from the red dust, and the hair represents the red dust. Of course, remove this hair, and print the red dot, and everything is done.

On the one hand, it is designed to remind oneself not to break the vows, and secondly, it is also to prevent being impersonated by others.

These dots have a very important meaning, which means that entering the Buddha door means that it means that it is necessary to meditate and abandon all kinds of distractions of the world, and the scar on the head also represents the degree of purity of a person's mind. And the more scars on the head that developed later, the higher the status and status of a monk, but the most people are only nine, and it is impossible to have more.

The dots on the head are a symbol of the monk's status of severing the seven emotions and six desires, and the more dots there are, the higher the status in the temple. Historically, there are only two of the 10 dots at most, and those who have just been shaved for a few months can be dotted with a dot.

The dots on the top of the monk's head are called "ring scars", which are burned on the head with lit incense, it represents a kind of honor, during the ordination, if you behave well in the temple, some of the more high-level old monks in the temple will use cigarettes to dot a dot on the head of some young monks, the more dots mean that you are better.

The dot on the top of the monk's head is called the ring scar. He was a monk who took a box and burned it on his head, ostensibly hurting himself, but it reflected his religious beliefs.

The six points on the top of the monk's head are called ring scars. A ring scar is a scar left after being burned by incense. Harmony is the collective name of the Three Realms. Shang means high. The title of "monk" in the Tibetan world can only be called by Shakya.

Origin of scarring:

It is said to have originated in the Yuan Dynasty, when a monk Zhide was revered by the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, and when he passed on the ordination, he required each person to burn incense on the head, and the novice ordination burned three pillars of incense, and the bhikshu ordained burned twelve pillars of incense, as a lifelong vow. Such a small invention was quietly spread and passed down from generation to generation. Of course, this is a bad habit that harms the body, and it is a small local specialty of Han Buddhist culture.

Here we can also see a characteristic of the Han Buddhist cultural circle, simply put, that is, in the later stage of the development of Buddhism, the "popular faith" has much more powerful energy than the "elite culture" composed of a very small number of thinkers (Buddhists). The Yuan monk Zhide, who invented the incense burning scar (commonly known as the "hot incense hole"), is not a Buddhist scholar at all, but his small invention is widely and far-reaching and incomparable to the doctrine of any famous monk after Huineng.

In life we will have our own beliefs, we should be familiar with Buddhism, now people live a better quality of life, when they go out to travel will go to this place to worship, even if it is not superstition is to seek a psychological comfort, then have you noticed the dots on the top of their heads? We are watching modern or ancient TV dramas, as long as there are monks, we will see a few dots on their heads, why do they want these little dots, what are they used for? Let me tell you about it.

First of all, let me tell you that the dots on the top of a monk's head are not innate, and we should not learn for fun, this is very dangerous. This dot is called the ring scar in Buddhism, and it is not to punish the monk, but he is a status symbol, and the number of ring scars on the top of the head of monks of different levels of status is not the same, and it is not easy to get this round dot. For monks who have just entered the courtyard or a low-level monk's job is to clean the courtyard, such monks will not have such dots on their heads, but if they perform well during this time to meet the requirements of the temple, they will be given the first scar, and then it is a matter of time and performance, so the more scars you have, the higher your status and seniority in the monastery.

The most precept scars in the temple are the presiding officer and the abbot, they have nine ring scars, which are all things they yearn for, not as we imagined that they would have immediately after entering the Buddhist gate, this time you understand. The scars left by this method cannot be erased, and it also has a bad impact on people's health, so many monasteries now have eliminated this system, which is why we see many heads when we travel.