By Meilan Solly
The Bhavana Society, a Theravada community located in the foothills of rural West Virginia, is dedicated to preserving the world’s oldest surviving school of Buddhism, yet its approach to spiritual outreach––the society has Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Linkedin pages, and its quarterly newsletter features a Q&A entitled “Ask Bhante G”––is decidedly modern.
History of the Bhavana Society
Syncretism is common amongst western Buddhist communities, and the Bhavana Society’s blend of east and west derives largely from the diverse character of its co-founders, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana and Matthew Flickstein. Bhante Gunaratana, a native of Sri Lanka, ordained as a novice monk at age 12 and completed missionary work in India and Malaysia before settling in Washington, D.C. during the late 1960s. There, he continued studying the practice of meditation, even earning a Ph.D in philosophy from American University, and was named the honorary general secretary of the Buddhist Vihara Society.
In 1976, Flickstein, a former psychotherapist, visited the Vihara Society in hopes of learning more about meditation. Bhante Gunaratana agreed to take Flickstein on as a student, and the pair developed a close friendship. Eventually, Bhante Gunaratana revealed his dream of founding a meditation center far from the chaos of an urban environment, and on May 13, 1982, the Bhavana Society was born. It took several years to raise the funds necessary for construction, but on October 22, 1988, the property’s first building, as well as kutis, or meditation cabins, were officially inaugurated. The following year, the society ordained its first monastics––three monks and one novice nun––in the largest U.S. gathering of monastics from Theravada Buddhist countries to date.
Theravada traditions
Today, the Bhavana community encompasses 48 acres of land in High View, West Virginia. Facilities include a meditation hall, library, and 20 kutis, and the society’s small monastic community––currently made up of Bhante Gunaratana, fellow Sri Lankan monk Bhikkhu Seelananda, and former lay person and Detroit mechanic Bhante Dhammaratana Thera––is closely supported by lay visitors.
As a Theravada forest monastery, the society’s core mission is to provide a space for ordained monastics to cultivate the three trainings of morality, wisdom, and concentration. Additionally, Bhavana works to offer suitable spiritual training to potential monastics, as well as opportunities for monastics to teach Dharma and meditation to the lay community.
Monastics and lay people alike are expected to follow traditional Theravada teachings, including the Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, and contemplation of suffering, as outlined by the Buddha himself. Bhante Gunaratana, who has written several books on the art of mindfulness and is an internationally recognized meditation master, focuses on the cultivation of loving-kindness as the key to right concentration, while the society as a whole draws on Pali scriptures and emphasizes Vipassana meditation, mindfulness, and metta, or loving-kindness.
Meditation retreats and residencies
In many ways, the Bhavana Society represents a middle ground between the dominant models of immigrant and convert Buddhist communities: It embraces the monastic tradition of immigrant monasteries but appeals to lay people through a strong emphasis on meditation. To contextualize the Theravada tradition for a western audience, the society provides meditation services, including retreats and short-term visits, for the general public. All services are free, as the society relies on dana, or charitable giving, to support itself.
Formal two- to nine-day retreats allow lay visitors to meditate on the Buddha’s teachings, typically centered on a specific theme like mindfulness or metta, in a focused environment. During retreats, participants reside in kutis, cabins, or dormitories and follow a semi-ascetic monastic lifestyle. No meals are allowed past noon, and silence is encouraged for the majority of the day. In addition to practicing about six to eight hours of sitting, walking, and standing meditation, participants listen to Dharma talks and complete work assignments such as washing dishes.
Non-retreat visits, limited to seven days, offer a more informal introduction to Buddhism. Visitors must follow the monastery’s daily schedule, beginning with a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call, 5 a.m. meditation, and 6 a.m. chanting session and ending with evening meditation, chanting, and discussion. During free periods, visitors can explore the property, meditate, or peruse the monastery library. Similarly to retreat participants, visitors must refrain from eating after noon and support the monastery by completing work assignments.
Individuals hoping to find a more intensive spiritual experience can participate in personal retreats or longer-term residencies. Both allow interested lay people to fully immerse themselves in monastic life and develop a stronger commitment to spiritual practice. Residencies, which can last anywhere from several weeks to more than a year, are particularly helpful for those interested in ordaining––and, in fact, the first step of the society’s ordination process is living as a resident for at least one year.
“The purpose of Vipassana meditation is nothing less than the radical and permanent transformation of your entire sensory and cognitive experience. It is meant to revolutionize the whole of your life experience.” -Bhavana Society co-founder Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English
Whereas retreats are open to all members of the public, residents must be Buddhists, as the goal of the residency program is to create a community of individuals dedicated to the search for liberation. In addition to following the same daily schedule as retreat participants, visitors, and monastics, residents must give back to the community by performing roughly four hours of daily work.
The lay community
Although the Bhavana Society identifies itself as a Theravada monastery, Bhante Gunaratana tells author Wendy Cadge that “we have dispensed with much cultural trappings, and most of our daily visitors and retreatants are Americans.” He adds, however, that the presence of monastics occasionally draws visitors from Buddhist countries, many of whom come to the monastery to generate merit for the recently deceased. Typically, Asian and American lay people interact most during the monastery’s summer youth retreats.
In terms of doctrinal issues, Bhante Gunaratana adopts both modern and traditional stances. Although the Bhavana Society is unable to fully ordain women––nuns are only allowed the status of novice––Bhante Gunaratana supports the equality of male and female monastics. He believes, however, in retaining many elements of Theravada practice including wearing robes and speaking the Pali language. In an interview with Tricycle magazine, Bhante Gunaratana adds, “If we do not continue these traditions, they will totally disappear.”
Since the society’s services are open to all, there is no fixed constituency. Members of other Buddhist communities, including the Ekoji Buddhist Sangha of Richmond, Virginia, and Bhante Gunaratana’s former monastery, the Buddhist Vihara Society of Washington, D.C., are encouraged to participate in Bhavana retreats, and Bhavana monks occasionally teach at other locations.
Individuals can become members or friends of the Bhavana Society in order to receive its mailings and publications, but there are few material benefits associated with the label. Instead, membership is linked mainly to charitable giving, as members who donate more than $500 receive the title of benefactor, while those who donate more than $1,000 receive the title of patron.
Given the community’s fluid nature, views on Buddhism vary. Lay people, however, are expected to practice correct morality both in the walls of the monastery and in daily life. They are also asked, and in some cases required, to follow the specific principles of Theravada Buddhism––including morality, concentration, and wisdom––as opposed to Mahayana, Zen, or an alternative form.
Members tend to be practicing Buddhists or have a strong interest in spiritualism, as the society’s meditation services are designed to foster contemplation of Buddhist ideas rather than promote general relaxation or mindfulness. As Bhante Gunaratana explains in an article entitled “The Benefits of Long-term Meditation,” the ultimate goal is gaining insight on the nature of suffering and impermanence: “You can very succinctly notice the total phenomenon of your life operating without anything permanent in it, just like an ever-running machine. You realize there is nothing you can do to stop the process of growing, but to accept it cheerfully. This is where you will achieve real relaxation, real joy and real happiness, which can be equated with eternal bliss.”
Bibliography
“About Us.” Bhavana Society, 21 June 2016, bhavanasociety.org/about/. Accessed 25 November 2017.
Cadge, Wendy. Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
“The Experience of Ordination.” Bhavana Society, 28 April 2010. bhavanasociety.org/main/page/the_experience_of_ordination/. Accessed 25 November 2017.
“The Experience of Residency.” Bhavana Society, 21 June 2016. bhavanasociety.org/main/page/the_experience_of_residency/. Accessed 25 November 2017.
“The Experience of Visiting.” Bhavana Society, 5 July 2016. bhavanasociety.org/main/page/experience_visiting/. Accessed 25 November 2017.
Gunaratana, Bhante Henepola. “The Benefits of Long-term Meditation.” Bhavana Society, 2002, bhavanasociety.org/resource/the_benefits_of_long_term_meditation/. Accessed 25 November 2017.
Gunaratana, Bhante Henepola. Mindfulness in Plain English. Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 2011.
“Retreats.” Bhavana Society, 13 Sept. 2006, bhavanasociety.org/main/page/the_experience_of_retreats/. Accessed 25 November 2017.
Schroeder, Robert. “Inn Harmony: 3 Spiritual Retreats.” The Washington Post, 24 May 2006, washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052301463.html. Accessed 25 November 2017
Tworkov, Helen. “Going Upstream: An Interview with Bhante Henepola Gunaratana.” Tricycle, Spring 1995, tricycle.org/magazine/going-upstream/. Accessed 25 November 2017.