The Buddha was quoted to say the following in several old Sutta ... such as here, from the Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint ... ... Notice that the Buddha simply says "not easy, while living in a home".
This implies that leaving home is the easier path, while Practice amid the crowds and dust takes some Mahayana Insight to simultaneously encounter the utterly perfect in and amid the crowds, the purity unhindered by dust. He never says it is impossible at all at home ... just not as easy.
“A householder or householder’s son or one born in some other clan hears that Dhamma. On hearing the Dhamma he acquires trust in the Tathāgata. Possessing that trust, he considers thus: ‘Household life is crowded and dusty; life gone forth is wide open. It is not easy, while living in a home, to lead the holy life utterly perfect and pure as a polished shell. Suppose I shave off my hair and beard, put on the yellow robe, and go forth from the home life into homelessness.’ On a later occasion, abandoning a small or a large fortune, abandoning a small or a large circle of relatives, he shaves off his hair and beard, puts on the yellow robe, and goes forth from the home life into homelessness."
http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/middl...padopama-sutta
http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/middl...padopama-sutta
There are folks better suited to Practice inside walls, some outside, some as hermits naked in a cave. Different medicines for different patients, and Buddhism thrives for having all kinds. All good, so long as we drop all thought of "walls". For most of us, I believe that there is a time to Practice in Retreat, sitting long and hard (like Mr. K. at Antaiji these days, sitting Zazen 15 hours a day in Sesshin, working in the fields and bowing to the WC), and there is a time to find our sacred space in each inch of this world. We find that Buddha’s Truths may be practiced any place, without divisions of “inside” walls or “outside”. For some of us, the family kitchen, children’s nursery, office or factory where we work diligently and hard, the hospital bed, volunteer activity or town hall are all our “monastery” and place of training. Some monks act self-lessly, while on the other hand, I have seen monks as concerned about "getting ahead" shining and "publication" inside monasteries as in any Fortune 500 company ... depends on the person.
I have seen folks outside (some working for companies) who are truly self-effacing, other directed and with no place in need of going.
About 150 years ago, Japanese priests began openly marrying, having kids and "the full catastrophe" (to quote Zorba the Greek). I believe it a good thing for some of us.
For thousands of years, it was nearly impossible to engage in dedicated Zen practice except in a monastic setting, to access fellow practitioners, teachers and teachings, to have the time and resources and economic means to pursue serious practice, except by abandoning one’s worldly life. By economic and practical necessity, a division of “Priest” and “Lay” was maintained because someone had to grow the food to place in the monks’ bowls, earn the wealth to build great temples, have children to keep the world going into the next generation. Although Mahayana figures like Vimalakirti stood for the principle that liberation is available to all, the practical situation was that only a householder with Vimalakirti’s wealth, leisure and resources might have a real chance to do so. Now, in modern societies with better distributions of wealth (compared to the past, although we still have a long way to go), ‘leisure’ time, literacy and education, media access and means of travel and communication across distances, many of the economic and practical barriers to practice and training have been removed. This is the age when we may begin to figuratively “knock down monastery walls”, to find that Buddha’s Truths may be practiced any place, without divisions of “inside” walls or “outside”.
In other words, bowing to toilet is not a matter of priest or layman. Everybody, even the Buddha, uses the toilet and can bow.
Anyway, enough of my soap box.
If you are interested, I wrote several essays on these topics found in this thread ...
Gassho, J
SatToday right Thru Inside and Outside
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