The community that I consider to be a religious group that promotes traditional Buddhist ideals in the United States would be the Bhavana Society, which is located in Hampshire County, West Virginia. The discovery and establishment of this society took many years in the hope of building a new Buddhist retreat in America where many people could come to receive knowledge about the religion of Buddhism. Firstly, the founder of the Bhavana Society is an Indian man named, Bhante Gunaratana along with his friend and previous student Matthew Flickstein. Bhante Gunaratana is from Sri Lanka in 1975 he traveled to the Buddhist Vihara in Washington where he would continue to practice meditation rituals. The Vihara retreat likely had a profound influence on Bhante which eventually motivated him to start his own American Buddhist monastery. Also, his occupation of giving numerous talks on the Buddha dharma at universities, high schools, and organizations only proved his dedication to the religion. Although satisfied with public speaking, Bhante began to question if simply discussing the order and law of the cosmic world would be enough for his pupils to learn from. He soon convinced himself that personal experience would be the correct way to fully understand the workings of Buddhist meditation. A personal experience could demonstrate how to gain insight into the Buddhist world and provide healing to any person willing to accept a calamity.

Officially, the Bhavana Society was formed on May 13^th, 1982, in West Virginia but funds needed to purchase land and establish a permanent building within West Virginia were not earned until the 1990s. The amount of $18,000 was left in Bhante’s name, which he used to pay for land and to construct a building that could host his new Buddhist community. Donations provided by members of the Washington Buddhist Vihara Society along with those who had recently joined Bhavana helped with Bhante’s project. In the society’s early days, Bhante seemed to heavily rely on other American Buddhist societies to keep construction running and to keep expenses on the West Virginia land. To keep up with payments, Bhante took it upon himself to speak on traditional Buddha teachings in Buddhist societies across the United States, encouraging many to help him in his vision of creating a religious retreat center. He possessed a talent for appealing to a person’s compassion and understanding by using the Buddha dharma as his guide. Bhante managed to convince those that the teachings of universal love, should be enough to garnish support for an additional monastery in the name of Buddhism in America. Fortunately, Bhante lived to see the end of construction on his West Virginia land in 1994, where buildings that featured idolization of Buddhism took root in the heart of a secluded forest. As we would imagine, Bhante was pleased to put an end to his struggle and form a proper monastery that encouraged the education of Buddhism. The opening ceremony which was conducted shortly after the final building was completed, hosted three hundred guests of whom some were long-term Buddhist monks and nuns. 

Bhavana Society tends to focus on the mediation aspect of the Buddhist religion which helps in both mental and physical health that a person may wish to grow stronger in. The specific meditation practice that is most prominent within the society is the Theravada Forest practice, one of the oldest forms of Buddhism that centers around mindful insight. Dated to around 200 BC in Sri Lanka, Theravada incorporates forest retreats into the principles of Buddhist Mindfulness. Unfortunately, Theravada Buddhism has lost popularity in modern Asian regions due to its necessity of spending many hours in complete seclusion and being made to live in nature for an extended period than most people are used to. In the United States, however, an attempt to revive older forms of Buddhism was made possible by those who wished to establish religious monasteries in America. Since most people in the United States are unfamiliar with the Buddhist religion, people who wish to promote their native religion, such as Bhante, have the opportunity to educate and promote aspects of Buddhism that have dwindled in relevancy. Despite its downfall in its traditional homeland, Theravada seeks to encourage its followers to obtain Sila, the body’s self-restraint, samadhi, the ability to develop deep concentration, and Panna, having wisdom into the mind’s true nature. To achieve these three rules of the Buddhist Eightfold Path, Bhavana society offers meditative retreats that allow the person to understand himself and discover his life purpose once again. Since West Virginia is surrounded by dense forests, the society will be able to fully experience the traditional path of Theravada because of its choice of location and non-metropolitan setting. 

As an alternative, the members of its society can decide if they would like to participate in the forest retreat in small groups, but private walks taken in solitude are highly recommended by the society. Forms of group collaboration are discouraged in the Bhavana society since it has the potential of ruining concentration after attempting to only focus on yourself and your mental well-being. The temptation to socialize with fellow members of society during moments where silence is expected, could create problems with the meditative experience and discourage the person from achieving Sila, Samadhi, and Panna. For a layperson who is a part of the organization, it is especially important to live a secluded and monastic lifestyle for a fixed amount of time before being ordained as a Buddhist monk. 

The Bhavana society seems strict in their adherence to the Theravada meditation practice, but it should not be interpreted that other American Buddhist monasteries that follow different religious values are shunned completely. They are open to representatives from American Buddhist communities to speak on ethical values or the promotion of new forms of Buddhism such as the Mahayana practices. Although religiously tolerant, Bhavana will always prove to be a strong participant in Theravada Buddhism. In addition to their traditional beliefs, the society itself takes pride in the issue that Theravada Buddhism is practiced more in the United States rather than in Asia because of the high chance that other nationalities could be exposed to Buddhism.  

The Bhavana Society hopes to educate the American public on the study of Buddhism through daily lectures given by higher representatives of the society and calming rituals that follow tradition. To ensure the productivity and timing of the rituals offered within the community, each member is required to live by the traditional lifestyles of Buddhism that is still active in Asia. For example, Bhante has made it a rule that a person should only eat after noon each day and forbade cell phones from being used while on a meditative retreat or during prayer services. Members are also not permitted to wear shoes inside the Bhavana temple or any other buildings to protect the purity aspect of their religion. To maintain the secluded lifestyle the Bhavana society had chosen for themselves, local donations have been made to keep up with funds that are responsible for land payments and necessary commodities. The donations are usually contributed by Americans who may have heard of the society and the ideals they work to promote. Personally, money is also given to the Buddhist organization by its own members who are determined to see Bhavana financially stable and relieved from social pressures that could interfere with its internal peace. Without receiving the proper money required to keep the society from closing, members fear that its sudden closure could prevent those who live in West Virginia from engaging in Buddhist rituals. 

For the Bhavana society’s demographic, the majority of its members are American Caucasians who chose to learn about Buddhism through a hands-on experience that selected readings could not provide for them. The American members, most likely were never exposed to any forms of Asian religions in their lives and only recently came to recognize Buddhism as a religion to be taken seriously similar to Christianity, despite being of another nationality. Educating Americans about the Buddhist religion seems to be one of the greatest pride that the society is pleased over, but mentioning their Indian or Asian descent members is worth noting as well. As said before, Bhante, the founder of Bhavana, is from India himself and has offered those who are from the Asian region to come to the United States and join his Buddhist society after its establishment in 1982. A number of Asians were already Buddhist monks or lay people eager to contribute to the education of their American counterparts through their years of extensive Buddhist knowledge.  

Overall, the Bhavana Society is a fairly recent Buddhist community in West Virginia that goes against the expected role of trying to relate to newer generations by promoting twentieth-century ideas about the Buddhist Religion. Theravada meditation is at the core of this Buddhist society which all members hope that followers of Buddhism will practice at least once in their lives. The bond Bhavana members form with one another, despite rules of seclusion, contributes greatly to the dharma principle in that a person should revolve around the sense of compassion for other beings.  

Citations

Bhavana Society

Bhavana Society

Author

Amiyah Wright

The theory of two American Buddhism(s) has been somewhat useful to understand the cultural differences of practices in the States, but what it fails to account for are those communities that create space for practitioners from all backgrounds and transcend this dualistic idea. The Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh does just that. With three centers around the United States, the teachings of Plum Village have had an immeasurable effect on how Americans conceive of Buddhism, not only in the localities of these practice centers but across the country. The main American center is located in upstate New York, affectionately referred to as Blue Cliff Monastery. The teachings which come out of these centers reach quite a large audience, both directly and on a wider, cultural scale. Adapting Vietnamese Zen teachings for the modern Western audience, the tradition of Plum Village and Thich Nhat Hanh aims to make Buddhism accessible to all, instead of catering to “one type” of practitioner.

            The tradition of Plum Village started in 1982 outside of Bordeaux, France.[1] This was not Thich Nhat Hanh’s first visit to the West, but it was his first time completely moving to the West. The monastery started as a small, rural farmstead and is said to be where Thay (another name for Thich Nhat Hanh) saw his dream coming to fruition: “creating a healthy, nourishing environment where people can learn the art of living in harmony with one another and with the Earth.”[2] It has now grown into a large community of monks and nuns, with different hamlets around the world. One of the most popular outside of Bordeaux is Blue Cliff Monastery in New York. This center is home to thirty monastic and lay practitioners who work to share the teachings of mindfulness with visitors. Blue Cliff presents itself as “a place to quiet the mind, look deeply, and enjoy the wonders of life within and around us through the practices of sitting meditation, walking meditation, mindful eating, deep relaxation meditation, and sharing togetherness.”[3] This mission is evident across all of Thich Nhat Hanh’s work and comes into physical manifestation at the monastery.

            Thich Nhat Hanh’s life story has played a big role in shaping both the teachings of Plum Village and how they have come to be spread in the world. Born in Vietnam, Thay had an early draw to Buddhism when at the age of nine, an image of the Buddha left him with a deep sense of peace and a strong urge to become like the Buddha, who he described as: “someone who embodied calm, peace, and ease, and who could help others around him to be calm, peaceful, and at ease.”[4] At sixteen, with his parent’s permission, he left to begin novice training under Master Thich Chan That, as part of the Vietnamese Zen tradition in the Linji school. As he was completing his novice training, Thay witnessed the Japanese occupation of Vietnam and the Great Famine of 1945. These events inevitably had an impact on his training and started to sow the seeds of his connection between Buddhism and social action. This would continue through the First Indochina War, when he affirmed his aspiration to be a bodhisattva of action.[5] In 1950, he helped to cofound An Quang Pagoda which housed a reformist Buddhist Institute, his first official foray into his efforts for an action-oriented practice. During this time he published his first book, contributed to and edited Buddhist magazines, and began teaching. In 1961, he was offered a Fulbright Scholarship to study Comparative Religion at Princeton Theological Seminary, which is where he first began to realize his path was to teach in the West.[6] In 1964, Thay returned to Vietnam as a leader in the Buddhist movement for peace and social action. As the Vietnam War broke out, Thay advocated for peace, refusing to take a side, leading to both armies seeing him as a threat to their cause. He wrote to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who later became an outspoken critic of the war and nominated Thay for a Nobel Peace Prize, which played a massive role in elevating his fame in the West. After years of advocacy in Vietnam, Thay left in 1966 to give a lecture series at Cornell, but eventually was blocked from returning home due to his advocacy.

            From this point on, Thay focused his efforts in the West, building up the Plum Village community, traveling around the world to share his teachings, and publishing many books through his company, Parallax Press. His philosophy shifted from: “demonstrations and press conferences to the deeper work of transforming consciousness through mindfulness retreats and community living.”[7] In the 1980s, he founded Plum Village in southern France and began to ordain a lineage of monastic disciples. He also became known as a renowned Buddhist scholar, offering translations of the Heart Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Ānāpānasati Sutta, and the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. As his name became increasingly common knowledge in the U.S., he led many peace talks and retreats for members of the government along with special sessions to respond to the global tragedies that would unfold over the years. During all this time, he always stayed grounded in his philosophies that he practiced during tumultuous times in Vietnam: interbeing, Engaged Buddhism, and compassion.

            It was not until 2005 that he was eventually able to return to Vietnam after 35 years of exile. He was greeted by an eager crowd of monks and laypeople ready to hear his teachings, along with intrigued political leaders. Unfortunately, this growing popularity, especially among young monks and nuns, scared the communist government which forcibly dispersed Thay’s monastery in 2009.[8] For the rest of his life, he continued to teach around the world, reaching a large and diverse audience of students. At the beginning of 2022, Thay passed away, but his legacy has remained strong, flourishing through the Plum Village communities around the world, his books, recorded dharma talks, and so much more. The West owes Thich Nhat Hanh a large debt of gratitude for bringing Buddhist teachings to popular culture. 

Before the end of his life, Thay became a globally recognized teacher, but for a long time his teachings had not been as popular in the East. He defied strict categorization as Zen, Pure Land, or Theravada and preferred to refer to himself as: “taking Mahayana Buddhism to bathe in the waters of early Buddhism.”[9] Though he was purposeful in teaching to a Western audience, there was always a bit of tension between Eastern and Western thought. For example, as mindfulness rose in popularity in the West, some of his students asked him to remove the Buddhist ethical code and Five Precepts from his teachings as they were “inappropriate for modern Buddhism in the West,” but Thay held firm that ethics and mindfulness could to be separated.[10] This would not be the only run-in he would have in this area, but he always insisted that while it was important to be sensitive of the culture to which one was teaching, Buddhism should never be diluted.

Overall, Thich Nhat Hahn is still known as a popular Western teacher, meaning that a place such as Blue Cliff Monastery draws a largely Western audience. However, it is often forgotten that there is a large tradition of Vietnam monastics across Plum Village Centers, with an especially large influx after Thay’s return to Vietnam. Another notable representative of the Plum Village community is Sister Chan Khong, who is the first fully-ordained monastic disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh. She met Thay back in Vietnam and has been a powerful collaborator throughout Plum Village history. Her famous saying is to “view life as the teaching,” and this is present across the offerings at Blue Cliff Monastery.[11] Hosting multiple retreats a year, Blue Cliff offers a space for newcomers and seasoned participants. Retreats typically range from anywhere from a week to three months for specific occasions such as seasons, rain retreats, or a pilgrimage. They are open to both lay practitioners and monastics and are typically run by the local monastic population. Retreats are the only opportunity to stay at the monastery. Before the pandemic, there were Days of Mindfulness which offered a shorter opportunity to visit the monastery, but they have not recovered to the same frequency since. Through this model, one can infer that Blue Cliff is attempting to make itself accessible to all types of practitioners while making sure that there is some level of commitment to the practice for those who choose to spend time in their facilities. Blue Cliff Monastery works to uphold the teachings and practices of Thich Nhat Hanh, through their continued support of Plum Village’s principles and opportunities for seekers to learn about this lineage.

Bibliography

Team, Plum Village. n.d. Plum Village. Accessed November 30, 2023. https://plumvillage.org/#filter=.region-na.

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[1] Plum Village Team, “About Plum Village,”  Plum Village, https://plumvillage.org/about/plum-village.

[2] Team, “About.”

[3] Team, “About.”

[4] Plum Village Team, “Thich Nhat Hanh: Extended Bio,”  Plum Village, https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/biography/thich-nhat-hanh-full-biography.

[5] Team, “Bio.”

[6] Team, “Bio.”

[7] Team, “Bio.”

[8] Team, “Bio.”

[9] Team, “Bio.”

[10] Team, “Bio.”

[11] Andrea Miller, “The Life and Teachings of Sister Chang Kong,” Plum Village, https://plumvillage.org/about/sister-chan-khong

Alice Mun

By: Alexander Farjadi

Introduction

The Kadampa center is a vibrant Buddhist community located in Raleigh, North Carolina and was officially founded in 1991 by Don Brown. The center follows the doctrines of Tibetan Buddhism based in the Gelugpa tradition, teachings from Kelsang Gyatso, founder of the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), and the lineage of Lama Thubten Yeshe, co-founder of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). The FPMT is an international family of city and retreat center, monasteries, publishing houses, hospices, and healing centers which the center pledges membership to. The Kadampa center is one of the 160 FPMT organizations and 1200 NKT centers globally.

The Kadampa center’s mission is to “transform the minds and lives of individuals and societies into the highest ideas of enlightened wisdom, compassion, and skillful action through the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism”. They claim this can be attained through studying the literature and teachings of Kelsang Gyatso, founder of the NKT. The Kadampa center follows the Lamrim textual tradition, the backbone of Kadampa Buddhism which outlines essential spiritual instructions to achieve awakening. The Kadampa center is part of the NKT, a broader religious movement which emphasizes incorporation of Buddhism into daily life and seeks to make Buddhism more accessible to a wider audience. Some Tibetans have labeled the NKT as a controversial movement because of some of their ideology and for being a “breakaway” sect from Buddhism. The Kadampa center however avoids controversy.

Because the center is non-profit, Kadampa relies on the generosity and dana of its members, which currently sits at 101 monthly sustainers. Their website encourages donations for meritorious karma and also to finance the pujas, retreats, and statue Lama Atisha that the center acquired. Alongside member donations, the Kadampa center funds its operations through running a bookstore which is regularly restocked with Buddhist classic canonical texts as well as more contemporary texts on Tibetan Buddhism.

Spiritual Leaders

Lama Thubten Yeshe was born near the Tibetan town of Tolung Dechen in 1935. At the early age of six, he was sent to Sera Monastery where he studied until 1959 when he was forced into exile due to the Chinese invasion. Lama Yeshe continued to study until 1967 when he and his chief disciple, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, relocated in Nepal. Rinpoche would become a trusted partner of Lama Yeshe, and the two would collaborate throughout the rest of Lama Yeshe’s life. It was during this time period where Lama Yeshe founded the Kopan Monastery, seeking to educate Westerners on the Buddhist tradition, much to the reprobation of the Tibetan religious community at the time. Around 1974, Yeshe and Rinpoche began making regular tours to the West gradually building the infrastructure and network which would eventually become the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). After a long and accomplished legacy of spiritual teaching, Lama Yeshe passed away in 1984 and was cremated in the Vajrapani Institute in Boulder Creek, California.

One of Kadampa center’s prominent spiritual leaders and official spiritual director of the FPMT is Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. Born in 1945, Rinpoche was believed to be the reincarnate of Sherpa Nyingma yogi Kunsang Yeshe, the Lawudo Lama. Rinpoche studied and meditated at the Domo Geshe Rinpoche monastery near Pagri in Tibet up until 1959 when the Chinese occupation forced him to flee. In a refugee camp in West Bengal, India, he met Lama Yeshe, who would become a close teacher and partner in spreading Buddhist dogma to the West.

Despite the frictions between some groups within the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) and the Dalai Lama, Raleigh’s Kadampa Center recognizes the authority of the Dalai Lama as Tibet’s spiritual leader and sees him as an “outstanding example of how to live a simple, happy, spiritual life in these complicated, stressful times”.

Geshe Gelek and Geshe Sangpo comprise Kadampa’s resident teachers and lead its spiritual and ritual practice. Gelek was born in Sikkim and practiced Buddhism at Sera Jey monastery, attaining the degree of Geshe Lharmpa in 1997. He continued his studies at the Gyume Tantric College when Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested him to become a resident teacher at the Kadampa center. Geshe Sangpo was born in 1972 in Kham Karze, eastern Tibet. Similar to Gelek he studied at Sera Jey monastery and eventually received his Geshe degree in 2001 after 17 years of studying. Sangpo specializes in Haya Griva ritual practice and moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 2008 to teach ritual practice at the Kadampa Center. In October of 2014 Sangpo was officially approved by FPMT as resident teacher at Kadampa Center.

The Kadampa center additionally employs several registered teachers who lead spiritual practice and teaching programs for various levels of practitioners. Among them are Robbie Watkins, current spiritual program director, and Don Brown, founder, both of whom studied alongside Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Kopan Monastery. Stephanie Smith, Hemant Pandya and Venerable Lhundub Tendron.

Alongside Geshe Gelek and Geshe Sangpo, the Kadampa Center has also ordained several women. Lhundub Tendron, Ngawang Lhamo, Ngawang Choekyi, and Ngawang Khanda make up the center’s female sangha and represent the majority of Kadampa’a monastics, a ratio which speaks to Kadampa’s inclusivity. Despite being limited by demographic factors, the Kadampa center also sports significant Asian membership in addition to several other ethnic groups. Their membership though still seems to be predominately white and is largely convert Buddhists.

Courses, Rituals, Outreach and Other Special Events

The Kadampa Center divides its spiritual programs into three categories:

The Introductory Program:

Intermediate Program:

Students wishing to deepen their spiritual knowledge and seek more rigorous courses can consult the intermediate level programs. The “Basic Program” is an intermediate level course which is conducted over 5 years and covers the nine main texts of the Buddhist tradition. The course is offered Friday nights and covers a wide swath of Buddhist literature and philosophy. The course culminates in a final exam and a three-month retreat. Students seeking extra opportunities may also choose to join in Geshe Gelek’s Lamrim Topics which discusses the Lamrim Chenmo, a core text in the Gelug tradition.

The Kadampa center also holds pujas and prayer gatherings each month where practitioners recite mantras and prayers with each targeting different objectives. The pujas the center holds are the Guru Puja, the Buddha Tara Puja, and the Medicine Buddha Puja. The Tara practice is meant for eliminating the obstacles to fulfillment. Medicine Buddha Puja is designed for those experiencing acute mental or physical illness, in addition to those recently deceased. The Buddha puja is centered around building meritorious karma and positive energy. The center also provides special pujas at request for members with loved ones that have recently passed away. On their website the Kadampa center has provided a prodigious number of resources for illness and dying, listing advice on advance care planning, funerals, and other general resources that prepare caregivers or those in critical conditions for death.

The center organizes weekend and one-day retreats which are offered at the center and other offsite residential settings. The longer retreats such as “The Light of the Path Retreats” offers a series of special two-week retreats with Kadampa’s spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche at a facility in Black Mountain, North Carolina. During the retreat, Lama Zopa Rinpoche mainly relies upon the text, Lamp of the Path by Lama Atisha as the main teaching resource.

The Kadampa Center also holds pujas and other special events on the various Tibetan holy days. The center celebrates Monlam Chenmo (the two-week period during which the Buddha performed various miracles), Saka Dawa (Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinirvana), Lhabab Duchen (Buddha’s descent from Tushita back to Earth), and Lama Tsongkhapa Day (anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s enlightenment). In addition to the holy days they also hold celebrations for Losar, the Tibetan New Year which features music and authentic Tibetan food.

Through Kadampa’s affiliation with Triangle Interfaith Alliance, the Kadampa center participates in several community outreach initiatives to provide opportunities for those struggling and engage in activities of goodwill and compassion for others. They have organized food drives, volunteer services for Habitat for Humanity, Adopt-A-Stream clean-up campaigns, and supported climate change projects within North Carolina.

Citations:

Kadampa Center | Kadampa Center.” Accessed December 5, 2022. https://kadampa-center.org/.

Kadampa Buddhism. “New Kadampa Tradition – International Kadampa Buddhist Union.” Accessed December 5, 2022. https://kadampa.org/.

Overview

Wat Pasantidhamma is a Buddhist Community in southeastern Virginia, located in Carrollton. The Wat Pasantidhamma community practices Theravada Buddhism and provides a wide variety of Buddhist services to the community. Their mission statement is simply defined by “peace”: peace up, or loving Buddha, which is done through practicing the Dhamma; peace in, or serving each other, which in turn serves Buddha; and peace out, which changes the world through peace among all.

Foundation

Wat Pasantidhamma as an idea began in discussions around 1996, when Buddhists in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia expressed frustration with the difficulty in accessing Buddhist services in the region. At the time, the closest place to attend Buddhist services was in Washington, DC. This made the ability to worship in a Buddhist community difficult for some and outright impossible for others. Therefore, many people started reaching out to monks in Washington, DC for advice on how to remedy the issue at hand. Out of these discussions the idea of establishing a Buddhist temple in Hampton Roads was formed. After consultations with monks in both DC and Bangkok, followed by a unanimous vote, work began to form Wat Pasantidhamma. Searches were begun for a location and talks to discuss fundraising were held. As the project expanded, more and more people joined the team of devoted members working tirelessly to form the community. This team officially became an organization titled the “Samukee Dham Association.” The first president of the Samukee Dham Association was Dr. Tawatchai Onsanit, who was a major part in guiding the project through the troublesome beginning. After the first formal community meeting to discuss the project, a newsletter was created by a community member named Mrs. Sompong Bray. She was integral to the creation of Wat Pasantidhamma and worked tirelessly to provide communication about the project to members both inside and outside of the organization. This newsletter still continues to operate today. One of the biggest initial problems in finding the perfect place was the dilemma of either purchasing land, which was more expensive but more flexible, or renting, which was less expensive but much harder to work around. After nearly two years of searching for a location and securing funding, the organization was able to tour the plot of land in Carrolton Virginia. They decided it would be the perfect place, and in December of 1997 the land was finally purchased. Shortly afterwards, monks from Wat Thai in Washington DC visited the land, blessing it and bestowing the name of “Wat Pa Santidhamma” which means “Forest Temple Peace Dhamma”. In April of 1998, Wat Pasantidhamma was officially established.

Constituency

Wat Pasantidhamma has a wide variety of constituents. The temple itself has a community of monks who reside there full-time and also offers members of the community to stay for up to a week at a time regularly. The current abbot of Wat Pasantidhamma is the Venerable Udom Pabhangako. At the time of its founding, Wat Pasantidhamma was mostly supported and attended by local Thai, Laotian, and Cambodian members of the community. This continues today, but Wat Pasantidhamma stresses that the community is open to all regardless of their background or if one has been affiliated with Buddhist practices in the past. Another way Wat Pasantidhamma engages members of its community is through a book club, in which lay people and monks can read books and engage with one another about the texts they read.

Practices

Wat Pasantidhamma as a whole adheres to the Theravada practice of Buddhism, more specifically the Theravada Thai Forest Tradition. Readings include that of the Tripitaka, or three baskets, that serves as the base of Theravada practice. Discussions and lessons are held about the Vinaya Pitaka, the Sutta Pitaka, and the Abhidamma Pitaka. The temple leads daily mediative practices, as well as longer meditation retreats that involve learning about the teachings of the Buddha, and mediation in the forms of sitting, standing, and walking. This is offered throughout the year with the exception of winter. During December, January, February, and March, the monastics at Wat Pasantidhamma observe a silent winter retreat. It is possible to visit during the day in this time, but the temple will not allow overnight guests. Another practice implemented at Wat Pasantidhamma is the use of small groups. These are groups made of eight to twelve people, either couples or individuals, that pray, and discuss together. These small groups have five aspects: life change, cultivating relationships, promoting participation, providing care, and identifying future leaders. Additionally, the temple also offers an Upāsakā program to encourage laypeople to engage with monastics and each other over the Dhamma. The purpose of the program as stated by Wat Pasantidhamma is to encourage individual practice and discipline, strengthen understanding of Dhamma, increase contact with similar people, and to be able to better teach others the teachings of the Buddha. This program entails many guidelines for those participating, including following the Three Refuges and Five Precepts and formally taking them quarterly, gathering regularly with other Upāsakās, daily meditation, going on retreat, attending festival days or community gatherings, having basic knowledge of the Teachings, supporting the sangha, and keeping to the program for at least one year. There are two forms to this program, with Upasaka for men and Upasika for women. Aside from this, the temple also offers a radio program in order to allow people to listen to regular talks about the Buddha’s teachings. These talks are available for download on the Wat Pasantidhamma website as well.

Events

Wat Pasantidhamma offers a wide variety of events throughout the year, celebrating holidays and conducting retreats. Observances are held for full, half, and new moons throughout the year. Meditation services are offered every Wednesday from 5:00pm-9:00pm, whereas regular services are available from 6:00am-8:00pm Monday-Friday and 6:30am-8:00pm Saturday-Sunday. Meditation retreats are offered Friday-Sunday on certain weekends of each month outside of the monastic silent winter retreat period. Services are provided for national holidays, traditional Theravada Buddhist holidays, and Thai holidays as well. Celebrations are held for the anniversary of Wat Pasantidhamma and the Songkran Festival celebrating the Thai New Year. Ceremonies are also held of Vesak, or Visakha Puja each year to celebrate the Buddha. Asalha Puja, or Dharma Day, is also celebrated in July. A Buddhist Lent ceremony is conducted in July as well. A longer retreat, known as the five days Moment to Moment retreat, is conducted in the beginning of August. In September, a Sart Thai day ceremony is held. At the end of the Rain Retreat in October, a ceremony is held as well. This is followed by a Kathina Ceremony. Smaller ceremonies are also held throughout the year for days like Mother’s Day, Memorial Day and others.

Funding

Wat Pasantidhamma is funded entirely by donations of the public. This was the case for its founding and is still the case today. All services, including retreats, are offered entirely free of charge as the community believes that “the Buddha’s teachings are priceless.” The temple encourages donations on its website, particularly if one wishes to attend services, but stresses that these are not mandatory and would only benefit the community if one chooses to do so. Wat Pasantidhamma lists projects on its website which the temple wishes to either continue doing or complete in the future. Each of these projects has links to fundraising, with the goal amounts for each project listed. The largest such project was launched in late 2014. It is a Sala Ruam Jai, or multi-purpose building. This would allow a place for study of Buddha’s teachings, other religious functions, would serve as a cultural center for the community, and would provide classrooms as well. The project launched with a hefty goal of one million dollars to raise and did so successfully. The project was very recently completed, and now serves as a perfect meeting place for the Wat Pasantidhamma community.

Relationships with other Buddhist Communities

Since its founding, Wat Pasantidhamma has enjoyed a close relationship with Wat Thai in Washington DC. This is due to the great assistance of the monks from Wat Thai, particularly abbot Luang Ta Chi, in helping coordinate the founding and development of Wat Pasantidhamma in the early stages of its creation. Additionally, Wat Pasantidhamma retains relationships with Theravada Buddhists all around the area, and keeps an open line of communication with monks in Bangkok, Thailand as well.

Contact

Wat Pasantidhamma has several methods available to contact:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gowatpa/

Phone: (757) 238-3461

Website: https://gowatpa.org/

Austin, Texas

Chaz Litt

History of the Sangha

Palri Pema Od Ling is a Palyul Tibetan Buddhist Temple and Meditation Center located in the greater Austin Area, in Texas. The sangha did not initially begin as a planned community, but began in the 1990’s as a community gathering in a basement of a student of a Palyul teacher. The basement was fully stocked as a meditation area, complete with shrines. In the first years of the 21st century, the land was acquired to build the temple, and it was blessed by the Lama Pema Norbu Rinpoche, the 11th Throneholder of the Palyul Lineage. Effectively the founder of Palri, he was educated beginning at age 4 at the Palyul Monastery in Tibet in the mid 1930’s. Following China’s takeover of Tibet, Pema Norbu Rinpoche relocated to India in 1963. The Dalai Lama gave his endorsement of the Palyul Lineage and the Nyingma School in 1993, only a few years before the foundation of the Palri Pema Od Ling. His Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche founded the Palyul Retreat Center in New York, but before that, he began to build the Namdroling Monastery in Karnataka, India. The monastery is home to over 5,000 monks, 3,000 of which are permanent residents, while the rest frequently travel as teachers. He achieved parinirvana in 2009, and his reincarnation was found recently in the young Yangsi Rinpoche, who was throned in 2014.

 In 2003, the shrine received its Buddha statue, which was constructed in and shipped from Nepal. The community, while small, has relied heavily on traveling teachers and meditation experts. Every few years, the temple receives a new resident teacher, and nearly all have been educated in South Indian Monasteries. The current Resident Lama is Loppon Rapjee Wangchuk. A personal attendant of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, his studies are specialized in mandala construction and Palyul masked ritual dances. He studied with the late Pema Norbu Rinpoche at the New York Retreat center until his appointment to Palri Pema Od Ling this past November, and has studied at the Namdroling Monastery in the past.

The New York Palyul Retreat Center has close ties with Palri Pema Od Ling, as many of the teachers have resided or studied there, and the Namdroling Monastery has educated many of those teachers as well. 

Palyul Lineage

Practices

Palri Pema Od Ling has slowly made its transition back to in-person practices over the past year, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. While many of their services are still available through Zoom, the temple has made a conscious effort to allow in-person meditations and teachings to bring the community closer together. Every Monday is the Guru Yoga and Chod Practice, and every Wednesday there is a Meditation session. Additionally, every morning the temple hosts a Nam Cho Ngondro service, from 7 to 8 AM, for regular practitioners. This Terma is directly from Avalokiteshvra, passed through Guru Rinpoche. It is part of the Great Perfection – Buddha in the Palm of the Hand, and is a Nyingma practice concerning revealing the nature of the mind in order to achieve enlightenment. This involves meditation on the 10 virtues, and the 10 non-virtues, and is part of the first steps to achieving enlightenment in one lifetime. 

Here, the services lined with the Gregorian Calendar largely stop, as the Palri Pema Od Ling temple follows the Tibetan Lunar calendar. The Medicine Buddha Practice only happens on the 8th lunar day of the month. Prayers are offered to Bhaisajya Guru, a Buddha that manifests healing energy. 

Specially scheduled events include the Vajrakilaya, which happens on the 29th day of the lunar month, and is a famous Tibetan practice. It concerns the Heruka Vajrakilaya, a deity who symbolizes both the compassion and wrath of the Buddhas. While a Buddha of wrath may seem like a counterintuitive representation of a being famed for attempting to eliminate emotion, practitioners view the deity as a being that can wipe away mental obstacles that get in the way of enlightenment. The Twenty One Taras is a Tibetan Buddhist practice that involves the devotion to the deity Arya Tara, a Buddhist deity that is worshiped twenty one times during the course of a mantra. 

Recently, the sangha has doen several fish release practices, meant to inspire good action and good karma. Instead of thinking about karama negatively, while taking the life leads to worse endings down the road, helping another being to live longer will generate good consequences. The practice is called fangsheng, and is a traditional Tibetan practice.

The practices are posted online, with Zoom links, and the practices’ requisite papers and informational material are also provided online. Keeping with the tradition in a modern world, the texts are provided in English, Chinese, and other languages. Many of the daily practices, and the monthly holidays, are free to attend and worship.

Teachings

Palri Pema Od Ling is Tibetan, of the Nyingma School, in the Mahayana Tradition of Buddhism. The Nyingma School teaches both kama and terma teachings. The long lineage in the kama teachings are from the Buddha, and are available to many scholars, from all kinds of Mahayana Buddhists, but the termas were passed down to specific masters after being hidden by Guru Rinpoche. Pema Norbu Rinpoche ordained over ten thousand monks and nuns during his tenure on the throne, and he not only received many ancient transmissions, but also transmitted many of the teachings to his disciples, in earnest after his exile from Tibet and into India. He established a now-flourishing monastery with an initial investment of 300 rupees (~$340 in present-day American dollars), and performed much of the physical labor himself. By the early 1990’s, he was traveling abroad and training monks and nuns, transmitting the teachings of the Dharma to as many as possible. By the late 1990’s, he was establishing schools like Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland, the Palyul Retreat Center in upstate New York, and blessing the Palri Pema Od Ling in Texas. He brought rare copies of the Nam Cho cycle to India, a key feature in Buddhism. It translates roughly to Sky Dharma, and according to Loppong Rapjee Wangchuk, it is one of the main teachings at Palri. The temple also is a proponent of Dzogchen meditation, which proposes that awakening stems from fundamentally understanding the building blocks of reality, and their emptiness. Most of the basic teachings for meditations, including mantras, are posted on their website. 

If you’d like to view some of these texts in English, click here: https://www.palri.org/english-texts/

If you’d like to view some of these texts in Chinese, click here:https://www.palri.org/chinese-texts/

The Sangha

While Buddhism was brought to Texas in the mid-nineteenth century, this particular sangha formed in the last decade of the twentieth century, and has remained fairly small over the years, but consistent, even through the recent troubles of the pandemic. Lama Loppon Rapjee Wangchuk estimates that there are anywhere between ten and fifteen practitioners each morning, but special events bring in more people. The sangha is a mix of white and non-white members, which is well maintained by the multi-lingual temple. Many of the teachers, including the founding lama and the Resident Lama, are foreign-born, and are not native English speakers. This lends well to the sangha being multicultural, as they give worldly perspectives for the teachings. The location, Austin, Texas, is a multiracial area, mostly white and Latinx, meaning many people who are interested in the temple’s teachings come from those backgrounds. The temple is funded mostly by donations from visitors, and from practitioners, but they also sell tickets for some of the more advanced practices taught to raise money. 

Further Links

Palri Pema Od Ling’s Website: https://www.palri.org/ (Please consider donating!)

Namdroling Monastery’s Website: https://www.namdroling.net/Portal/Home (Also consider donating!)

Citations

The Zen Center of New York City – Fire Lotus Center is located in Brooklyn, New York and is a center associated with the Mountains and Rivers Order (MRO). This Western Buddhist order was founded by Daido Loori Roshi in 1980. Even though they are an American order, they hold onto historical traditional practices that were part of ancient Chinese and Japanese Zen culture. This creates a backbone based on traditional Buddhism, as the community passes the dharma down, generation by generation. The founder, Daido Loori Roshi, was trained in the Zen Center of Los Angeles, where he was given the goal to spread and share the dharma, obtaining the “Inka (seal of approval)” by other Rinzai teachers. Once given this approval, Daido Roshi established the Mountains and Rivers Order which acquired its name due to Daido’s favorite sutra – “Mountains and River Sutra.”

Diving in deeper to the beginnings of the MRO will help give insight on how the Zen Center of New York City – Fire Lotus Temple came to be. Once Daido Roshi was given the opportunity to spread the dharma, he established the Zen Mountain Monastery (ZMM) in 1980. As claimed in the title, this monastery was located towards the bottom of a mountain and practiced many traditional Buddhist training methods. First founded on the basis of Daido Roshi’s love for art, he named it the Zen Arts Center. Once the order was well established and grew a sense of community, the majority expressed their true interest in the traditional Zen practices, and therefore agreed to change the center name to Zen Mountain Monastery. 

In this establishment, Daido Roshi taught his Eight Gates of Zen which gave followers a set way of life that could be encompassed in these eight gates. He wanted to emphasize the importance that whether living a life outside of the monastery or within, these behavioral practices are crucial to take part in. These 8 gates include: Zazen, study with a teacher, Buddhist study, liturgy, right action, art practice, body practice and work practice. Zazen is a form of seated meditation that focuses on intense concentration and breathing patterns. Through this practice, one can “realize the unity of the self with the ten thousand things, which has the potential to transform our lives and those of others.” The second gate emphasizes the importance of students and teachers being intentional with personal study, as the dharma is transmitted through one’s mind to another. To keep the ancestry of the Zen practice alive, students and teachers are encouraged to have strong relationships. The third gate claims that learning and reading about Buddhadharma, even though it will not fully depict the tradition to its fullest. At least reading the words will provide a basis to further understand the beauty of the religion. The fourth gate recognizes the uniqueness of Buddhist liturgy than other Western religions. Liturgy allows members to understand their nature, as they are hoping to understand their own self and its connections to ten thousand things. The fifth gate is called Right Action and is an educating practice on Buddha’s moral practices and teachings. These ethical ways are all focused around the idea that there is no self and we are striving to achieve that realization. The sixth gate opens up the training to art practices, as it encompasses many different forms to prove that “creativity is an inherent human process.” This can be through painting, drawing, and more. The seventh gate allows followers to feel their physical body movement and use that to our benefit of reaching self-knowledge. From simple movements like brushing your teeth to more intense activities, the connection with our bodies and mind is powerful in self-realization. The eighth and final gate is work practice which encourages followers to perform some type of labor activity to help benefit our world. These tasks can range from small chore-like activities to longer, more thought-provoking activities. The idea of allowing your mind to understand and take on a task will help us understand how to adapt to mental challenges. 

These Eight Gates of Zen aim to educate and reform the way these people understand our world, as it hopes one can come to the realization of self-enlightenment. The MRO has these locations, Zen Mountain Monastery and Zen Center of New York City – Fire Lotus Center, to continue to spread the dharma. The difference between these two areas is that ZMM is a retreat center that allows followers to be separated from the busy world and invested in Buddhist tradition and practices. The Fire Lotus Temple is a center that holds events and services weekly, allowing those who live in the area to be a part of a community. 

In the Fire Lotus Temple community, there are artists, doctors, teachers, students and many other groups of people dispersed throughout New York City. Many different backgrounds of people come together for their one common belief: “To live a life that cultivates generosity, wisdom and morality.” There are a few practitioners that live in the Fire Lotus Center alongside the ordained monastics. When considering how this community practices the dharma, it can be expressed in many different manners. This includes meditation, art lessons, academic study, and liturgy, as well as very close student teacher relationships. Throughout all practices within this community, they all tie back to how the MRO perceives training in the Western Zen Buddhism culture. The Fire Lotus Temple is located in one of the fastest moving cities in the nation. Having a central location for followers to meet weekly can be a way to separate themselves from the distractions. New York City is full of a range of different kinds of people, which the center encourages in their population of followers. No matter the differences among these followers, they all come together in unity for one common goal. 

As stated prior, there are a few practitioners who are residing within the temple. These residents are immersed in a Zen culture living with this spiritual community yet also are able to have other obligations outside of the center. The schedule of a resident consists of daily zazen, liturgy, community work and retreats. This opportunity of immersing oneself in this community allows followers to have a scheduled routine of spiritual practice. The duration of one’s stay is not rigid, as many can decide for themselves how long they desire to live this lifestyle. This great sense of community all with one common goal can allow followers to really spark their own personal growth. The implementation of certain practices within residency adds to one’s own individual experience with their growth within the religion. 

Due to COVID outbreaks, the center had to shut down in person gatherings. Recently this September, the center was reopened for fully vaccinated members. This allowed people to come in for services, still required to wear masks. For those who are not vaccinated, the center tries to make specific accommodations. One very common type of in person gathering is zazen which is seated meditation. These occur during the nights on weekdays and as well as a few sessions in the morning on the weekdays as well. If a member is unable to attend, the sessions are also live streamed for those to watch. In regards to accessibility of this community online, they are on many social media platforms, have their own podcast, hold online zoom meetings for sangha practice groups, and also have many ways to contact teachers at the Temple online. This allows individuals to learn more about the community virtually. While adjusting to this new hybrid way of life, the Lotus Fire Temple emphasizes their efforts towards accommodating personal needs. Whether a member can come in-person or virtually, the center wants to create a welcoming community to all followers. 

For the regular Sunday programs, since September this year they are no longer requiring pre-registration. Current members as well as newcomers are welcome to the programs. For those looking to learn more about the community and are considering becoming a part of the sangha, the center has an orientation session that can give them more knowledge about the Mountains and Rivers Order. The Sunday programs start at 9:30 but the doors open at 9 for those to gather and find seating. The schedule of the program goes as follows: liturgy chanting, zazen, walking meditation (kinhin), and a talk by a teacher or senior student. The program concludes around 12:30 and the center asks that everyone participating in the service stay for its entirety. These weekly programs, as stated prior, can be experienced in person without any pre-registration, or virtually on a livestream. 

This center is a very welcoming Buddhist community that strives to spread the dharma to many followers. Having multiple ways to perform practices, the Zen Center of New York City – Fire Lotus Temple tries to make their traditions accessible. Whether in person or virtually, this Buddhist community is welcoming to all different practitioners and hopes to be a center of traditional Zen practices.

Sources

https://zmm.org/zcnyc/

How To Meditate: Zazen Instructions

“We have no restrictions with regard to the race, caste, language, colour or religion. The truth revealed by Gautama Buddha is open to everyone … May you all be blessed by the Buddha, the noble Dhamma and Sangha, good noble Dhamma friends and all deities!” The words of Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero, founder of the Sri Lankan Mahamevnawa Buddhist Meditation Center, are the aspirations of the Lone Star Buddhist Meditation Center, located in Tomball, Texas.

In 1999, Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero founded the Mahamevnawa Monastery at Waduawava, Polgahawela. At the age of 17, he was ordained under Dambagssare Sumedhankara Thero and Dikwelle Pannananda Thero at Seruwavila in March of 1979. He received a Buddhist education at the University of Sri Jayawardenpura, but his dissatisfaction with academic education led him to drop out and pursue meditation at different centers and hermitages. In this period of his life, he developed a unique Theravada philosophy. In addition to translating the Pali Canon into modern Sinhala, he has published over 90 books on the discourses of the Buddha, with hundreds of recorded discussions. Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero’s words in the Mahamegha Dhamma magazine and Shradda TV also propagate his knowledge to followers worldwide.

Mahamevnawa means “Great Cloud Monastery,” and the name is shared with the first monastery in Sri Lanka, where Arahant Mahinda Thero brought Buddhist teachings to the island. Mahamevnawa’s unique efforts to present the Dhamma in its original form distinguish it from other Buddhist traditions. A main focus is the emphasis on increased accessibility and equity of the Buddhist teachings, as distinctions of race, nationality, or otherwise are strictly forbidden. However, gender distinctions are still enforced through the gender separation of monastics, as is the practice of the Theravada tradition. Views about women and whether or not they can attain enlightenment are a point of debate and contention in the community.

Monks are trained in Polgahawela, and every six months the monastic order gathers and is reassigned to new monasteries. Within the branch, there are over 650 monks and 100 Anagarika nuns, with thousands of lay disciples. Over 70 branches exist in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia and New Zealand. In 2016, the Lone Star Buddhist Meditation Center was established in Houston, joining seven other branches of the Mahamevnawa Monastery in the United States.

The Lone Star Buddhist Meditation Center strives to fulfill the mission of spreading the Buddha’s teachings and cultivating spiritual community. All services are free and open to the public, regardless of religious affiliation. Additionally, the LSBMC is not taxed by the IRS because it is recognized with church status before the government. Among the services provided are biannual blood and food drives, monthly youth programs for children, weekly Dhamma teaching programs, and meditation programs twice a month adaptable for beginner and advanced practitioners of meditation. The youth programs focus on mindfulness through meditation as well as the development of honesty, generosity, compassion, and respect. These programs are separated for older and younger children. Followers may also choose to have funerals and weddings officiated by the LSBMC.

LSBMC is a very casual and approachable experience, as there is no dress code and children are encouraged to attend. On some occasions, attendees are encouraged to wear white ceremonial clothes. Some services are conducted in Sinhala, but many are for English-speakers. In keeping with the Mahamevnawa tradition, the LSBMC encourages those who are not Buddhist to attend just to learn what Theravada Buddhist teaching is truly about. As much as it serves as a spiritual experience, the accessibility of services also functions to educate non-Buddhist Texans. The Center believes that Buddhist teachings benefit people of all backgrounds and comport with other major religions and secular moral values. As the Buddha taught all who expressed sincere interest in hearing him teach, the Center’s doors are similarly open to all people. On popular reviewing sites like Yelp, the Center has sometimes received poor reviews from Euroamerican visitors based on controversial teachings about the spiritual standing of women, however the Center itself makes no statement about gender separate of the Theravada teachings. In general, the community promotes equity, inclusion, and acceptance at every opportunity. Many other reviewers espouse the hospitality, openness, and inclusivity they experienced while visiting the center as a spectator. Visitors also find usefulness in mindful meditation practices, which have applicatons for religious and secular parts of life.

The monks are ordained in the Theravada tradition, but LSBMC pointedly notes that no visitor will be pressured to join the community or convert. The people of Houston provide the monks with robes, food, shelter, and medicine. Additionally, the center makes use of digital mediums for teaching, community networking, newsletters, and more. The Center’s website frequently posts transcribed sermons or discussions for people who did not attend. The monastery and center are located in a private home, so guests must schedule appointments to visit outside of predesignated services. During COVID-19 related lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, the LSBMC continued services according to the health guidelines, encouraging mask usage, social distancing, and outdoor practices to ensure safe worship could resume as soon as possible.

Dhamma programs at the LSBMC typically begin with chanting, in both English and Pali. Readers may read along on the printed version. Flowers, candles, and sweet drinks are then offered in the Buddha’s memory, followed by the recitation of the qualities of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Last, the program concludes with guided meditation. The Saturday Dhamma Program takes place on the first, second, and fourth Saturday of every month, including Buddha Vandana, Meditation, Dhamma sermon, and Dhamma discussion. Programs in Sinhala include the full day Sil program every third Sunday. The Sil program includes observing the eight precepts, dhamma sermons and discussions, meditation, Buddha Vandana and otherwise. Holidays and special ceremonies are also celebrated, including the Sacred Stone Placement Ceremony and the Ground Breaking Ceremony.

Meditation programs begin with a short period of chanting, although practitioners are welcome to stay silent. Those keeping the five precepts are able to take them again, and it appears that most devotees adhere to the precepts. Then, monks lead the visitors in instructed meditation, which can last anywhere from 10 to 35 minutes at a time depending on the program length. A meditation program is held on the first of every month for all regardless of ability. Meditation is a central focus of the LSBMC as a means to cultivate inner peace and mindfulness while balancing and managing your life.

The constituency of the LSBMC is primarily South Asian, and while the website provides English information, social media posts are typically written in Sinhala. The ethnic Sri Lankan community in Houston comprises many of the followers at the Center. The community is small with approximately 200 regular attendees, but the LSBMC actively encourages people to attend their programs even if it is their first experience with Buddhism. Donations are the primary form of funding, and there are ways to donate in person and online for the livelihoods of the monks. In 2018, the LSBMC received $170,000 in donations for administration, redirection to the needy, and the future temple construction. Events or meals are often provided through members decorating and cooking themselves.

A major 2021 fundraiser is the LSBMC’s call for donations to support the construction of a temple, monk’s residence, and meditation hall. The land is already purchased, and at the end of 2021, 34% of the $150,000 cost of construction was reached. The temple will include a stupa and shrine room; a video rendering of what the final construction will look like is available on the website. A statue will serve as the relic in the stupa, and funds are accumulated in increments for each item’s purchase to make fundraising more manageable.

The community members represent Buddhism in a unique, accessible way, because they are located in a populated area and interact with the larger Houston community. The Center recognizes that a major misconception is the idea that Buddhist monasteries must only exist in remote forests or nature areas, but the LSBMC and its monks are embedded in a metropolitan area of Texas, and Houston residents are able to see and interact with monks and Buddhist practitioners in their daily lives. Additionally, where Western conceptions of Buddhism can commonly be conflated with East Asian or Mahayana ideas, the LSBMC represents the often-overlooked Theravada tradition and South Asian forms of Buddhism.

 

Although the LSBMC practices Theravada Buddhism, it still recognizes other forms of Buddhism. Although Theravada monks do not follow other Buddhist leaders like the Dalai Lama, they still respect wise leaders and humanitarian efforts of all religious leaders. The Mahamevnawa sect still holds respect for other Buddhist traditions.

The Lone Star Buddhist Meditation Center is a welcoming, thriving place of spiritual activity and a cornerstone of the Sri Lankan-American community in Houston Texas. At the LSBMC, the devotees strive to bring the ancient teachings of Theravada elders to a modern age where they can benefit attendees of all religious, national, and racial backgrounds.

By Abby Matusek

Below: The link to the video rendering of the vision for the temple after construction.

http://http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbpraxZzAcA

Reporter: Matthew Grayson

Chosen Monastery for Report: Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple

Link to source: https://www.greattreetemple.org/about

Address: 679 Lower Flat Creek Rd, Alexander, NC 28701

Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple is located a short 20 minute drive from Asheville in the Appalachian Mountains. It fosters a community of adherents to the Soto Zen School that offers meditation opportunities in the form of daily practice to month-long retreats. The Temple was founded by Reverend Teijo Munnich who “began to envision the establishment of a residential center for women in 1983.” While the vision centers on offering a safe communal environment for women devoted to following the Soto Zen School, the Temple offers classes to all sexes with the only exclusion being residential stays at the temple being exclusive to women. The explicit purpose of the Temple is “to provide opportunities to enter more deeply into the practice of self-reflection in order to learn to live in peace and harmony with all beings.” The Great Tree is an image that brings to mind a beacon of growth, stability, and life that branches out to nourish all living beings. 

Reverend Teijo Munnich is the disciple and dharma heir of Dainin Katagiri Roshi, a master whom she studied with for 15 years while also receiving formal training in “Hokyoji (Catching the Moon Zen Mountain Center) in Minnesota, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California and Hosshinji in Obama, Japan.” “Dharma heir” refers to the concept of dharma transmission, by which a Zen (or Chan) master brings about the true awakening of a disciple through tutelage designed for that specific student. It is this concept which is traced back through history to determine the legitimacy of the teachings of each master in the chain, with each later master deferring for authority to each prior master. One can see the significance of Rev. Munnich’s vision when one recalls that, historically speaking, Zen masters have been to a significant degree largely male. When tracing the lineage of Zen practice and thought into modernity it makes clear sense that it should spread to be available to both sexes (and, one hopes, all genders), and Rev. Munnich’s vision is a noteworthy step in this direction. (For more detail, see an interview with the Rev. here: https://www.greattreetemple.org/teijo-s-vision.)

Great Tree Zen is associated with other monasteries both in terms of its lineage as well as in regards to its founder, who has had a hand in establishing or teaching at two other centers for Buddhist practice. These communities include one in Asheville, called the Zen Center of Asheville (ZCA), and one in Charlotte called the Charlotte Zen Meditation Society. Dainin Katagiri Roshi, Rev. Munnich’s master, founded a monastery in Minneapolis in 1972 where Rev. Munnich studied and received recognition as a dharma heir. This is a source of historical relation between Rev. Munnich and her former community as well as a basis for tracing the lineage back to Dogen, the founder of the Zen Soto School. Beyond this, the Temple shares relationships with the ZCA as a basis of connection for those interested in pursuing meditation further, in particular the elderly and women.

The Temple identifies “the main focus of [their] spiritual practice” as (seated) meditation, referred to as zazen. Specifically, Shikantaza, or “just sitting,” is a form of meditative practice “without technique or expectation” that draws explicitly from the Zen master Dogen’s thought that to access one’s Buddha nature one must forgo both the body and the mind, allowing them to “drop away” so that one’s buddha nature remains. Within Zen thought, we are all buddhas. As Dogen offered: “only Buddhas become Buddhas,” meaning that the idea of enlightenment as one becoming a Buddha is not quite right. Rather it is the case that the buddha nature within, as that which is already present within us, must be shown. It is the case, however, that our buddha-natures are hindered by our minds and bodies that provide distractions and cover up the radiant expression of the buddha nature. Regarding the Great Tree Temple itself, they explicitly endorse the view of Dogen and preserve their lineage in the school he started but do not offer an immense amount of detail as to the distinct nature of the Dogen’s Zen Soto School (as opposed to other traditions). 

One thing that is strikingly clear, however, is the significance and frequency of meditative practice. Examining a daily schedule for retreats held at Great Tree Temple reveals 5 zazen meditation sessions taking 3 hours as well as 4 kinhin (walking) meditation sessions which take place each day interspersed among Temple maintenance work, meals, chanting the Heart Sutra (a central Mahayana sutra), and dharma talks (meetings in which the master gives insight into dharma). This doesn’t cover the youth and family monthly activities and retreats, the opportunity for practice sessions which last 3 months, summer internships which last 1 to 2 months, the daily open zazen meditation practices, as well as the numerous guest lectures, study groups, discussions, and other miscellaneous activities occurring throughout the many months the Temple is open. In addition to these activities the Temple also celebrates Dogen’s birthday, the (western/Gregorian standard calendar) New Year, and a memorial all-day sitting ceremony for Dogen and Keizan (the “second founder” or “Great Patriarch” of the Soto Zen School). The Temple is a very active space that draws from its founder and other teachers as well as outsiders to the community in an effort to spread its vision of the dharma year-round.

The community’s constituency is a little hard to get a firm grasp of. It would be very surprising to find an intensive study or analysis of any temple, let alone one that publishes a well documented and up-to-date report of its constituents. As this is expected, the best thing we have to go off of is a collection of photos used to increase the aesthetic appeal of the website which do not include large-scale shots of those in the community and are rather designed to show usually one person at a time for specific purposes. Further investigation brings one to their youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh9iFQatg7bFoXN6AW8swjw/videos), which contains more information about the demographics of those operating at the temple. It seems, in short, that the body of people most likely to appear in their published media are older white women. There is diversity amongst the staff at Great Tree Temple, but this is also in part due to the very small number of people running the space (not counting the rotating board of directors). Beyond this there is a presence of children in a handful of photos, indicating the temple to be a welcoming space for all ages and those already dedicated to a life beyond the practice of the teachings of Soto Zen.

This constituency is expected and seemingly the target audience for Great Tree Temple. While it does embed ritual and a sense of formality into its more intensive retreats, it prepares the inexperienced ahead of time with youtube tutorials explaining certain customs (i.e. the use of Oryoki bowls for dining: https://youtu.be/n5avmXnVhIU) as well as papers and materials to be aware of before spending time at the monastery (which can be found here: https://www.greattreetemple.org/ritual-chanting-the-sutra). It focuses on providing resources for those well outside of the practice of the tradition (as well as a more informal one-of-the-community type of feeling) while aiming to maintain a certain level of custom that respects the origin of the practice and tradition within that context.

The community seems to be funded largely by donations, opportunities for which are provided on their website. It does seem, however, that they tend to ask for somewhat reasonable amounts of money for their time and provision of expertise, food, and shelter to those who wish to partake. A message on bringing kids to the annual youth summer retreat says: “we want to make sure that all who want to participate will have the opportunity.” It charges $75 for the first child and $25 for each following. Prices for most activities seem to be reasonable (to my knowledge) and can be found here for more detail: https://www.greattreetemple.org/fee-schedule. The last thing to note is that there are clear plans to more fully develop the land on which the Temple rests, and I (without any reason beyond my intuition) suspect that the standard donations for retreats will not suffice. Perhaps donations are offered specifically for this end, or they are covered by community labor efforts as well as the general intake of donations.

A last item of interest to explore here is the depiction of this particular sangha as a Buddhist community. As discussed before, the constituency of this community and its appeal to an older, inexperienced audience demonstrates a particular leaning towards Buddhist thought being teaching accessible to all who seek it. The dharma, one could say, has no boundaries of accessibility, and so all those willing to come and learn (and, of course, come and sit) are welcome. It portrays Buddhism in a very accessible Americanized format, offering programs to cater to students leading lives beyond the Temple as well as welcoming shifts to zoom and other modern influences. As opposed to Buddhist sanghas that outsiders could see as representing a statistical minority’s religious expression, the Great Tree Temple is oriented not towards the expression of an established sangha’s identity, but rather to the broadening and collection of new community members into a new sangha—one that happens to draw from the statistical majority of its surroundings. This community represents Buddhism as an expression of a great teaching that manifests itself in practice and is fundamentally accessible to all who seek it.

Written by Connor Yu

Background

The Insight Meditation South Bay (IMSB) is a fairly young community, founded in January 2006, and functions in the Silicon Valley and South Bay area of California. As of November 2021, they do not currently have a permanent building that they operate out of. Instead, the community gathers in churches, community buildings, private homes, and conference rooms, though they are currently trying to get a more permanent location. Due to this, they meet in many different local areas throughout the South Bay and have offered a variety of online programs since 2014. 

When looking into IMSB it is almost immediately evident that it is not a ‘traditional’ Buddhist community, with the founder Shaila Catherine putting a more American spin on traditional Theravadan practices. Instead, IMSB focuses on the teachings of mindfulness meditation, or Vipassana, with their goal being to support the development of ethical living (sila), meditation (samadhi), and wisdom (panna). All in all, they take a meditative approach to spiritual awakening, and largely ignore the religious beliefs of Buddhism. 

This uniquely American approach is prevalent in Convert Buddhism. IMSB has adopted the meditation practices of Buddhism to cultivate mindfulness in modern life while largely disregarding its religious practices. [1] That is not to say they completely ignore Buddhist teachings, IMSB has a large amount of material on traditional Buddhist subjects, such as the Three Refuges, the Four Noble Truths, the Five Aggregates, and much more. [2] However, the IMSB has a more western take on these ideas. Instead of viewing them from a perspective of achieving enlightenment over many lifetimes or world cycles, IMSB uses them as topics to meditate on to cultivate mindfulness solely in this lifetime. For example, when discussing the Noble Eightfold Path, IMSB interprets each of the steps as leading to the cessation of suffering. Traditionally, this means Nirvana and the cessation of suffering of all future lives. However, this interpretation is never discussed, and instead of followers reaching Nirvana after the cessation of suffering, it is implied that the cessation of suffering is the final step. IMSB uses the meditative aspect of Buddhism to help modern-day Americans cultivate mindfulness, detaching them from a fast-paced world. Though it does not completely ignore the historical teachings of the Buddha, it has reinterpreted them through a new unique lens. 

Founder

The founder, Shaila Catherine, is the main teacher at IMSB, and teaches the vast majority of lessons, though there are a large number of guest teachers that have taught at IMSB. [3] From her profile, it is almost immediately evident that Catherine is not a Buddhist in the purely traditional sense, as she has not shaved her head as most Theravadan nuns do. She has been practicing for a very long time, though, starting to meditate in 1980. Following this, Catherine would later travel throughout Asia, studying under various teachers including H.W.L Poonja, a Hindu teacher in Northern India, and Buddhist masters Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche in Nepal. Afterward, she studied at a Theravadan monastery in Thailand. Throughout her travels across Asia, Catherine became most interested in insight meditation, later studying and teaching at a few western meditation centers in 1996. She started training under Pa Auk Sayadaw, a Burmese Theravadan master, in 2006 and founded IMSB. She has written two books on mastering meditation and now teaches both in the U.S. and internationally.

 

Practices & Events

The most frequent program of IMSB is a weekly meditation group on Monday and Thursday evenings. [4] This is interesting as it highlights the nature of the community’s demographic. IMSB mainly serves to teach regular workers about meditation, starting their practices after the majority of workers are done with their job. It does not expect them to practice meditation every day of the week and instead accommodates the average American worker’s schedule. This emphasizes the Americanization of Buddhism. IMSB has removed most of the religious dogma from traditional Buddhism and lowered the barrier to entry for the community, making it as accessible as possible for everyone, even hosting a beginner meditation session every month. On top of this, IMSB offers a monthly day of meditation, which involves an entire day of different kinds of meditation and optional consultation with Shaila Catherine. [5] All in all, IMSB is very much Convert Buddhism. It has lowered the barriers to entry and commitment required to practice traditional Buddhism and instead offers a way to cultivate mindfulness in modern life. 

While IMSB has changed many aspects of traditional Buddhism, the community still participates in a few of the traditional events of Buddhism. Traveling across the country and sometimes internationally, Catherine leads retreats with the goal of further deepening concentration and insight. [6] These normally involve sitting and walking meditations as well as dharma talks and meetings with the teachers. They have modified traditional Theravadan practices to fit their American community, providing them with an escape from their daily routines and immersing themselves in their meditative practices. Generally, they occur every two months and last one or two weeks. This does diverge a small amount from the traditional rains retreat of Theravada Buddhism, which occurs once every year and lasts three months. Again, IMSB has modified existing practices to better fit American culture. 

The most interesting modification that Catherine has created is the online format that IMSB provides. [7] Called the Bodhi Courses, Catherine has offered an online classroom format since 2014. This is what has expanded the reach of IMSB to an international level, as Catherine can teach interested practitioners around the world. These lessons involve lectures, sutta readings, discussions, and assignments, meeting once a month. This shows another way that American Buddhism has adapted to the modern era, widening its reach through an online format to better spread its practices. 

IMSB Buddhism

It is evident that Catherine’s teachings, and by extension IMSB as a whole, are contributing and creating a new form of Theravadan Buddhism in America. They disregard some of the religious aspects, such as karma, rebirth, and samsara, and recontextualize the rest as topics to meditate on to cultivate mindfulness, which is becoming more relevant in our modern lives. Not requiring their constituents to fully integrate Buddhism into their modern lives, they instead lower the barriers to entry and accommodate the general American public. This shedding of the spiritual aspects of Buddhism could be due to a number of factors, such as Christianity being prevalent throughout the U.S., or there not being a real spirit religion in place when Buddhism made its way over. These changes have created a type of practice at IMSB that is distinctly American, and different from any other form of Buddhism we have seen in any Asian country so far. 

That is not to say that IMSB is not tied to other traditional Buddhist communities. Pa Auk Sayadaw has taught Catherine since 2006, and IMSB is still close to all of the Buddhist communities and masters that Catherine learned from. However, a lot of IMSB’s relationships are with more western communities that have similar practices to IMSB. Though Catherine is the principal teacher at IMSB, many guest speakers from other Buddhist communities teach there as well, with around 67 guest teachers speaking in total. Just looking at the constituency of the teachers, however, we can see that IMSB is mainly comprised of Convert Buddhists. Of the 67 teachers, only 3 of them seem to be of Asian descent, and only 5 have shaved their heads. As mentioned earlier, Catherine herself has not shaved her head, which is typical of Theravadan nuns. This is indicative of the IMSB community. While only around 4.5% of the guest teachers are Asian, around 15.5% of California is Asian, most likely meaning that more devout Asian Buddhists most likely go to other communities. [8]

Another interesting aspect of IMSB is how it is funded. Currently, they are trying to gather the funds to establish a permanent residence that they can operate out of. Most of the programs are free, though they do collect donations during them. What is interesting is that many of the retreats with Catherine, as well as her talks, can range from $225 to $625. This monetization departs from traditional Buddhist practices in that they usually teach for free. Some of her free talks as well only offer a set amount of free tickets, and the rest of the tickets require the attendee to donate some amount to attend. IMSB also has a donation page on their website, and you can donate to the organization or a particular teacher. Furthermore, they accept payments of airline mileage credits, various professional services, and investment assets. This further shows how IMSB has taken a more open approach to donations than other communities.

Conclusion

IMSB is the prototypical example of American Convert Buddhism. Its constituency is generally comprised of those who are most interested in the meditation and mindfulness aspects of Theravadan Buddhism and are not interested in the religious dogma or the spiritual aspects of the religion. Though it is inspired by traditional practices, it has reinterpreted all of the teachings in a way that seamlessly integrates with modern American life. Only 17 years old, the community will most likely continue to grow and further shape modern American Buddhism as we know it. 

Works Cited

[1] https://www.imsb.org/about-us/imsb-overview/

[2] https://www.imsb.org/teachings/buddhist-lists/

[3] https://www.imsb.org/about-us/teachers-2/

[4] https://www.imsb.org/programs/weekly-sitting-group/

[5] https://www.imsb.org/programs/daylong-and-half-day-programs/

[6] https://www.imsb.org/programs/retreats/

[7] https://www.imsb.org/programs/online-courses/

[8] https://www.imsb.org/programs/online-courses/

The image is taken from the IMSB website. There are not a lot of public images of IMSB.