Lydia Francis
Bodhinyana Monastery is a Theravada Buddhist community located near Serpentine, Australia and is home to around twenty monks and Spot the cat. The name Bodhinyana means “wisdom of enlightenment” and is named after Ajahn Chah Bodhinyana, the teacher of the monastery’s current abbot Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera. Bodhinyana was the first Buddhist monastery to be built in the southern hemisphere and it is the largest community of Theravada Buddhists in Australia.
Better known as Ajahn Brahm, the abbot of Bodhinyana was born as Peter Betts in England. He grew up in a poor family but went on to study theoretical physics at Cambridge on a scholarship. He decided to become a monk after reading about Buddhism as a teenager and was further exposed to Buddhist practices after joining the Buddhist Society at Cambridge. After graduating and teaching for one year, he became a Theravada forest monk in Thailand and trained under Ajahn Chah, remaining there for almost a decade. In 1983, Ajahn Chah sent Ajahn Brahm to Perth, Australia at the invitation of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. At that time the monastery didn’t exist so he and the other monks invited built it by hand with their limited resources. He became the abbot of the monastery in 1994 when the former abbot, Ajahn Jagaro, took leave. While not as well known in Australia, Ajahn Brahm, is a celebrity in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka to the extent that cardboard cutouts have been made of him and placed in stores not unlike pop stars or actors. Ajahn Brahm was excommunicated from his order in 2009 when he made the controversial decision to ordain Buddhist nuns, but he continued to be supported by the larger Theravada community and has maintained his celebrity status with lay Buddhists.
Much of Ajahn Brahm’s success internationally is due to the accessibility of his teachings. He has written several books, the most popular titled Opening the Door of Your Heart, which have become best sellers in the countries where he is most well known. His talks are also broadcasted live on Youtube by the Buddhist Society of Western Australia and can be watched anytime afterwards by anyone with an internet connection. As a result of his fame, Ajahn Brahm is frequently away from the monastery, but still prefers the peaceful although strict lifestyle followed by the monks that live there.
A typical day for the monks at Bodhinyana begins at 4am with a meditation session. The monks perform community services and then eat their main meal of the day at 10:30. Before the meal, a traditional rice offering, piṇḍapāta, is given to the monks by anyone from the public who wishes to partake. This practice involves placing a small amount of rice into each monk’s bowl as they walk past. The community provides the main meal everyday and anyone from the public is welcome to join the monks at this time to eat. All basic items, which are referred to as “requisites”, such as hygiene products are also provided by the community and they are offered to the monastery while a blessing is recited in Pali preceding the meal. The monks then spend the rest of their day in solitude studying and meditating. They each have their own hut on the property placed far enough apart to avoid seeing each other to aid in their practice.
Bodhinyana monastery is very open and accessible to the Australian public. With the exception of the monks’ private areas where they spend the afternoons in solitude from one another, visitors are welcome to walk around the monastery and the grounds to enjoy the peaceful space. Monks are available to offer guidance and counseling to the members of the community and there are weekly talks that are open to the public.
At the monastery there are also anagarikas who assist in domestic duties. They are very involved with helping to prepare the monks’ meals and coordinating food donations from the community. Anyone can apply to be an anagarika or more generally take short term or long term residence in the monastery without ordaining as a monk. These residents must follow eight precepts as presented in the monastery’s guidelines for applying for residence: (1) to refrain from intentionally taking the life of any living creature, (2) to refrain from taking what is not given, (3) to refrain from any sexual activity: no physical contact or intimacy with the opposite sex, (4) to refrain from dishonest speech, (5) to refrain from using alcohol or non-medicinal drugs (6) to refrain from eating after noon, (7) to refrain from dancing, singing, playing music, and wearing cosmetics, perfume, and jewellery, and (8) to refrain from using luxurious beds and seats. Anagarikas can be identified by the white clothes they wear similar to how the monks have their signature brown robes. Staying in the monastery followed by becoming an anagarika are the first two steps to ordaining at the Bodhinyana monastery for one who wishes to become a monk.
If an anagarika wishes to continue on the path to ordination, the monastery lays out the process and training required. As an anagarika, vinaya classes, dhamma talks, sutta classes, and Pali classes are offered as training at this stage. Most of these are taught by Ajahn Brahm or another senior monk in his absence. After one year as an anagarika, the person wishing to ordain can become a novice monk, a samanera. At this point the novice monk must follow ten precepts, one of the additional ones being the inability to handle money, so at this stage the monk must give away their assets. The samanera switches out the white clothing of an anagarika for the brown robes of a monk. After a year of being a samanera, the novice monk can become a bhikkhu at the approval of the other monks. At this point the monk is fully ordained and he lives in accordance with the vinaya. Bodhinyana has a surplus of applicants that wish to take residence at the monastery to begin the path to ordination, so it is difficult to secure a spot and there is a long waiting list. The monastery by law is also required to give preference to Australian citizens, so it is even more difficult as foreigner.
Related to the Bodhinyana Monastery is the Jhana Grove Meditation Centre located just a kilometer away and also built by the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. The meditation center’s main purpose is to host meditation retreats. This also includes a three month rains retreat for members of the community who are more closely connected to Ajahn Brahm and the monastery. While at the center, participants must observe the eight precepts as well as observing “noble silence”. This means abandoning all verbal communication from the first evening of the retreat until the final afternoon with the exception of interviews with the meditation teacher. This is intended to facilitate letting go of external distractions for a more successful meditation experience.
Also nearby is the Dhammasara Nuns’ Monastery for women of the Theravada Buddhist tradition. The nuns’ monastery was built in 1998, many years after Bodhinyana Monastery; the current abbess is Ajahn Vayama. Dhammasara does not have the same strong relationship with the lay community that Bodhinyana has, but similarly the nunnery receives their late morning meal from the community and lay women may temporarily reside there to receive teachings or pursue the path to ordination as a Buddhist nun. The ordination to become a nun follows a similar path through the stages of anagarika, samaneri, and finally bhikkhuni.
There are no other communities similar to Bodhinyana monastery in Australia, and few in the west overall. The fame of the abbot Ajahn Brahm and the strong connection the monastery has with the community will likely help the Buddhist community of Australia grow in the future and encourage the appearance of similar communities in other parts of the western world.
Bibliography
“About.” Dhammasara Nuns Monastery. Dhammasara Nuns Monastery, 2016. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
“About.” Jhana Grove. Jhana Grove, 2016. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Bodhinyana Monastery. Buddhist Society of Western Australia Inc., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Egan, Colleen. “Mind Over Matter.” Weekend West Dec. 2013: 8-12. Print.
“Who Is Ajahn Brahm?” Where Is Ajahn Brahm. Buddhist Society of Western Australia Inc., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.