Monastic Community

With the 3-year retreat participants at Gampo Abbey, September 2016.

With the 3-year retreat participants at Gampo Abbey, September 2016.

We often ask the question, what is monastic life? I would like to change the focus to, what is monastery life? So the focus is away from me, as an individual, although obviously that is significant, but away from the tendency towards personal preferences and wanting it your way, towards community life.
—Pema Chodron

I think it is crucial for today’s students to live in communities under the guidance of teachers. Some teachers have made this determination and commitment to live closely with Western students. If you don’t live in community and have that close training with a a a teacher, you might easily think you’re doing well. You might say, “I have no jealousy, I’m not jealous of anyone at all.” But with no one to check you—unless you are very good and honest with yourself—it’s easy to develop ideas about who you are, and what you can and can’t do.
— Khandro Rinpoche

Since the very beginning of the Buddhist monastic tradition, being part of a monastic community has been vitally important. While many monks would wander alone or in small groups during much of the year, they would always come together for the annual rains retreat for several weeks. And whenever possible, they would also gather in groups every two weeks for the sojong ceremony (bi-monthly confession). Even when the Buddha was in strict retreat, he would emerge to do sojong with the monastic community.

Over time after Buddha’s parinirvana, monasteries were developed, and Buddhism became known for large monastic complexes such as Nalanda in Ancient India. In all the Buddhist countries in Asia, monasteries were an important part of the preservation of the tradition, and also became important cultural and educational centres. In Tibet in particular, monasteries were and continue to be vitally important to the culture. In the late 1950s, it was estimated there were approximately 6,000 monasteries in a country of about 1.2 million people. That’s about one monastery for every 200 people!

Unfortunately, one of the biggest challenges Westerners face in becoming Buddhist monastics is finding a monastic community to practice, study, train and/or live with. Buddhist monasteries are few and far between in the West. Language barriers, visa issues, age differences, and cultural differences can also make it difficult for Westerners to train and live in monasteries in Asia.

Spending time in community has countless benefits. On a personal level, it is essential for learning practical aspects of how to live as a monastic, and for deepening your personal practice. It can also make it much easier to attain the requisites of lodging, food, etc. On a community level, being part of a community allows you to offer a lot to the broader community than you might be able to do alone. As one example, monastics in community can maintain a place for other Buddhists of present and future to practice, learn and train.

There are a few successful monasteries and communities you may consider living at or going for a period of time to train, and we have put together a list of places you may consider going. If a monastery in your tradition isn’t an option, you may consider spending time in a monastery that is a different Buddhist tradition than yours, as many aspects of monastic life and training transcend different traditions and lineages. Personally, I found my years at Zen Mountain Monastery to be invaluable training for being a Tibetan Buddhist monastic, even though many of the forms were different.

Monasteries in the West are unlikely to ever look exactly like the Tibetan monasteries, where young monks and nuns start as young as six-years-old, and where the vast majority of the population was Buddhist. It has become clear we need to be creative in thinking about monastic communities that work in the West. A few examples of different types of monastic communities that have appeared include:

  • single-sex or co-ed monasteries/nunneries that allow lay practitioners to visit and come for short retreats, for example Birken Forest Monastery or Sravasti Abbey

  • mixed monastic / lay communities that also act as retreat centres such as Zen Mountain Monastery and Gampo Abbey

  • monastic communities where each monastic lives in their own (either all in the same area or the same town) and is responsible for their own expenses, such as Karme Ling Retreat Centre, and Pema Choling

  • monastics who live/ travel/ train / teach together without a physical place where they always stay, such as Comunidad Dharmadata

  • communities that allow people of all Buddhist traditions to live and train together, such as Heartwood Refuge

In the West, we also have other models of community, including the Catholic monastic tradition, and the intentional community movement that the Buddhist monastic tradition can learn and draw from.

One of the issues I have heard raised many times is the idea that as Westerners we are too individualistic to be able to live successfully in community. However, there is ample evidence now it is possible to build successful monastic communities in the West with the right leadership, conflict resolution policies, shared intention, and more. With many different types of communities, different people and personalities have a greater chance of finding a good fit as well.

List of Communities

Questions to consider

  • What are my plans for living or training in community? If I am not already part of a community, where might I consider going to learn and train?

  • What are the benefits to my own personal practice of living in community?

  • What do I envision being able to offer as part of a monastic community to others?

  • What are my concerns or fears about living in community? Are there things I can do to lessen the risk of those concerns becoming reality? If not, how might I work with those issues as they come up?

READ

The Long Read

  • Building Community: Living and Learning with the Sangha by Bhikshuni Master Wu Yin. Master Wu Yin created a thriving nunnery in Taiwan, despite many difficulties similar to those in Western culture. She was the main teacher for the Living Vinaya in the West course that happened at Sravasti Abbey and knowledgable of the situation for Western Tibetan Buddhist monastics. It is a valuable read for living and developing Buddhist communities.

Watch

  • 10 Year Anniversary video for Sravasti Abbey:

  • Heartwood Refuge and Retreat Centre (you can just watch the first 5-10 minutes to get the idea of what they are doing there, it is a different idea of inviting people from different Buddhist traditions to live and practice together.)

The Long watch

  • Walk with Me, about Plum Village. You’ll have to figure out how to obtain a copy as it is not freely available online. The trailer is linked below: