B ut this is a function of our mind. We are creating our own arahants, and therefore whatever we create in our own mind can easily become the opposite. In the monastic life we can become incredibly serious about our moral purity, our discipline, our dedication and so on. To a worldly person, it can seem that monks and nuns are making life unnecessarily difficult or complicated for themselves or for others. But one way of looking at religious conventions, such as the Theravadan School, where the emphasis is on the Vinaya discipline, practising meditation, the purity of the tradition, is as concepts that are true but not right, right but not true.
Mindfulness is enough.
Because, ultimately, we don't need rules, just being mindful is the Way. But most of us don't start from the enlightened experience, we more or less have to use expedient means to contemplate and to develop mindfulness. So the meditation techniques, disciplinary rules and so on are tools for reflection and mindfulness. T he religious life is a life of renunciation. We are renouncing, abandoning, letting go of things.