About This Answer
A lay practitioner with a family once vowed to take short-term ordination and even travelled to Burma to do so, but circumstances prevented it. Should the vow be relinquished? Ajahn Dtun says no: an intention to ordain, even temporarily, is good. Training as a monk for three, four or five months builds pāramī, the spiritual perfections, and an inclination for future practice, and the training can be carried back into lay life.
He explains that his earlier remarks reflected his own feelings, since he took ordination very seriously himself. As abbot, he originally refused monks who ordained temporarily, disliking ordination for cultural or short-term reasons.
Later, however, he noticed that lay people who kept the eight precepts at his monastery for up to two weeks gained great benefit, keeping the five precepts at home and seeing their meditation develop. Reflecting on this, he changed his mind: ordaining for two or three months or longer can help some people's practice. If the intention is there, he says, take the opportunity when it arises.