About This Answer
Is studying the scriptures (pariyatti) necessary to practise well as a monk? Ajahn Dtun says that for someone ordaining seriously to end suffering and give up the kilesas, it is not needed; the path is sīla, samādhi and paññā, training body and mind. He recounts that he avoided formal study for many years and took only the basic Nak Tham exam because it was required before he could be appointed abbot.
Textbook learning, he explains, is memory and knowledge, not freedom from suffering, much like lecturers teaching what they have not realised in the heart. What matters is having a good teacher, who in a practice monastery teaches everything directly. He prefers to speak of greed and anger plainly rather than through technical terms. For short-term ordinations, some study can help show where the Buddha's teaching points, but those ordaining for life can devote themselves wholly to practice.