Householders and renunciates in modern times

Venerable Aggacitta Bhikkhu is a Malalysian monk trained in the Mahasi style.  He speaks excellent English and gives very informative and often amusing talks.  In a lighter moment in one such talk, he compared the lives of the monk and the householder in modern times with their lives as depicted in the scriptures.  He said the monk of modern times had many expectations placed upon him.  The monk was expected to do alms rounds, to visit devotees and perform rituals, to counsel devotees who were troubled or having problems in their relationships, to perform various administrative tasks in the monastery and to give dhamma talks regularly.  This left little time for study and meditation.  He observed, in contrast, that householders in modern times seemed to have lots of time to come to meditation centers and practice meditation.

Some of his talks can be downloaded at the following site:  http://sasanarakkha.org/dhamma/