Is Buddhist clergy the weakest pillar?
What is their purpose in life? To serve lay people, or for their own "salvation", or to preserve and propagate the Dhamma?
Should one judge Buddhism by the public image of the clergy? The common opinion is that the clergy is corrupt. Agree? Most visible non-Buddhist practices, as criticised by laymen, are their involvement in politics, business enterprises, astrology, women in some instances, un-clergy-like behaviour and so on.
Whatever negative is said of them, they had risen to the occasion, inspired the population, to save nations and culture from foreign domination. Classic examples are in Sri Lanka, against South Indian invaders in the distant past and Europeans in the recent past. Many have sacrificed lives in defense of nationhood and liberation. Other examples are in Vietnam and Korea. Any other examples?
Are laymen blameless in these matters? Laymen need the clergy to fulfill their worldly desires. They need them for funeral rites, remembrance ceremonies, house-warming parties, project startups, ... They are rewarded with worldly things for their services. Power-seeking laymen haunt temples and canvas the clergy for their in their worldly agendas. The richer you are, bigger the rewards and gifts!
Who panders to vanity? Isn't it a mutual affair? If only the clergy are left alone...
Isn't Nikayas a class structure? It is also a caste structure. You don't believe it? It is so in Sri Lanka.
Now you wonder what Buddha taught, and what His disciples practice!!
How to become a Bhikku? You usually start when you are young. The cynical say that young relatives of the Chief of the temple would do nicely. In any case, you complete a period of apprenticeship. During this period one learns the Dhamma, Sutras, and the discipline and conduct. I am not an expert on this matter, and I can only say what I have gathered in my life.
There is a hierarchy in the Bhikku society, if I may call the Sangha, which defines a strict pecking order, rising all the way to the top of the Nikaya. This hierarchy, in the present day, does not appear to correspond to any States a monk may achieve by following the Path.
Clergy and the lay world - an essential yet an unholy relationship. Essential for its physical needs, sustenance, protection and the source of continued existence.
Unholy in the sense of potential for corruption, as too evident in our lives.