For those of you who have chosen to live your lives as ordained people, you should keep in mind that changing your physical appearance is a start, but that the ordination of the mind is the essence of practicing as a monk or nun. Ordination of the mind means cultivating a mind that has no desire, or at least less desire, and cultivating a sense of contentment in the richness of your own spiritual practice. Geshe Sopa Rinpoche has a particular way of describing how an ordained person should appear. Geshe Sopa-la says that ordained people should be like a beautiful jewel ornament for the minds of the fortunate, faithful ones who behold them, and that as an ordained person you should be so rich in the accumulation of merit that you, yourself, become a field of merit for others.
Yangsi Rinpoche, Practicing the Path. Wisdom Publications: 2003
