Choosing a Monastery

Discussion of ordination, the Vinaya and monastic life. How and where to ordain? Bhikkhuni ordination etc.
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convivium
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Choosing a Monastery

Post by convivium »

What should one look for in choosing a monastery, and a preceptor?
Just keep breathing in and out like this. Don't be interested in anything else. It doesn't matter even if someone is standing on their head with their ass in the air. Don't pay it any attention. Just stay with the in-breath and the out-breath. Concentrate your awareness on the breath. Just keep doing it. http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Just_Do_It_1_2.php
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Goofaholix
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by Goofaholix »

convivium wrote:What should one look for in choosing a monastery, and a preceptor?
The same kinds of things you look for when looking for a long term living situation, or job, or house, or partner.

Somewhere where you feel comfortable, somewhere where you fit in, somewhere where the style of practice fits in with what you are looking for, somewhere that is going to challenge you, somewhere that has a teacher you respect, somewhere where you'd like to learn the culture, somewhere that will open up future opportunities for you, somewhere that won't aggravate any health problems you may have...

Depending on your circumstance I'd say somewhere far from home, as being too close to home is likely to have too much of a pull on you.
Pronouns (no self / not self)
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
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Cittasanto
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by Cittasanto »

convivium wrote:What should one look for in choosing a monastery, and a preceptor?
I posted an attachment here which may help
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 343#p49343" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
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BlackBird
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by BlackBird »

- A supportive, encouraging and dilligent community who have their heads screwed on properly.
"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

Path Press - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page - Ajahn Nyanamoli's Dhamma talks
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Cittasanto
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by Cittasanto »

BlackBird wrote:- A supportive, encouraging and dilligent community who have their heads screwed on properly.
:namaste:
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
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convivium
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by convivium »

ajahn thanissaro suggested as the most important thing: a teacher you can trust and strong vinaya.
- A supportive, encouraging and dilligent community who have their heads screwed on properly.
well said. how can we perceive this without staying for some time? is it possible or reasonable to stay as an anagarika and then leave and do the same at different monasteries? there's a story about a guy in korea who really liked being an early initiate and doing all the hard work, so he just kept doing it, being well respected in each monastery, and just moving from monastery to monastery.
"somewhere that will open up future opportunities for you"
future opportunities?
Just keep breathing in and out like this. Don't be interested in anything else. It doesn't matter even if someone is standing on their head with their ass in the air. Don't pay it any attention. Just stay with the in-breath and the out-breath. Concentrate your awareness on the breath. Just keep doing it. http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Just_Do_It_1_2.php
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Goofaholix
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by Goofaholix »

convivium wrote: well said. how can we perceive this without staying for some time? is it possible or reasonable to stay as an anagarika and then leave and do the same at different monasteries?
Of course.
convivium wrote:future opportunities?
Some monasteries have a lot of branch monasteries around the world, some have opportunities for different styles of practice like living in a cave in a remote mountain for example. I think it's important to consider what you want to be doing after 5 years when you have the freedom to move around more, you might be happy to ordain with your favourite teacher in Burma for example but do you want to be stuck there for 5 years? 10 years?
Pronouns (no self / not self)
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
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convivium
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by convivium »

Some monasteries have a lot of branch monasteries around the world, some have opportunities for different styles of practice like living in a cave in a remote mountain for example. I think it's important to consider what you want to be doing after 5 years when you have the freedom to move around more, you might be happy to ordain with your favourite teacher in Burma for example but do you want to be stuck there for 5 years? 10 years?
you give any examples? i know there's the ajahn mun lineage vs. ajahn chah lineage and the monasteries all over thailand... what would be some you'd recommend?
Just keep breathing in and out like this. Don't be interested in anything else. It doesn't matter even if someone is standing on their head with their ass in the air. Don't pay it any attention. Just stay with the in-breath and the out-breath. Concentrate your awareness on the breath. Just keep doing it. http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Just_Do_It_1_2.php
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cooran
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by cooran »

Hello convivium, all,

Worldwide Monasteries of the Thai Forest Sangha
http://www.forestsangha.org/index.php?o ... 0&Itemid=9" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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convivium
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by convivium »

Between Maha Nikaya and Dhammayuttika Nikaya you'd recommend the former for this reason? There's a teacher in Thailand named Ajahn Dick in the Dhammayuttika that i was pointed towards from Wat Metta. All the other students of Ajahn Mun are in Dhammayut. Ajahn Mun told Ajahn Chah not to switch lineages so all those monasteries are Maha Nikaya like most of Thailand...
Just keep breathing in and out like this. Don't be interested in anything else. It doesn't matter even if someone is standing on their head with their ass in the air. Don't pay it any attention. Just stay with the in-breath and the out-breath. Concentrate your awareness on the breath. Just keep doing it. http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Just_Do_It_1_2.php
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by jcsuperstar »

are you saying you want, specifically, a thai forest monastery?
สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
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convivium
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by convivium »

specifically to some extent, but also open to other traditions, especially non-commentarial traditions. i really like milarepa...
Just keep breathing in and out like this. Don't be interested in anything else. It doesn't matter even if someone is standing on their head with their ass in the air. Don't pay it any attention. Just stay with the in-breath and the out-breath. Concentrate your awareness on the breath. Just keep doing it. http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Just_Do_It_1_2.php
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by jcsuperstar »

well milarepa was Tibetan so completely different... maybe it would help to first settle on what exactly you want to study. how long have you been seriously studying Buddhism?
สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by tiltbillings »

convivium wrote:specifically to some extent, but also open to other traditions, especially non-commentarial traditions. i really like milarepa...
Ah, Milarepa, one of the founding dad's of the Kagdyu school. All the schools of Tibetan Buddhism expect some degree of learning specific to their school that goes along with the practice. If you want an orthopraxic rather than an orthodoxic school, maybe Japanese Zen, but even they have their particular type of study that goes along with their practice. The other major orthopraxic school would be the Ajahn Chah "lineage," which uses a careful observance of the Vinaya as a central form of practice, which means there will be some degree of study of those texts. Even if a tradition does not follow the poor maligned traditional commentaries, that does not mean they are free of a point of view as to what is what and there is always some expectation of some degree of adherence to that point of view.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

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convivium
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Re: Choosing a Monastery

Post by convivium »

The other major orthopraxic school would be the Ajahn Chah "lineage," which uses a careful observance of the Vinaya as a central form of practice, which means there will be some degree of study of those texts.
i still feel a connection to abhayagiri, and ajahn chah tradition. also dhammayut and maha boowa, ajahn lee lineages. i had my first foray into the dhamma a few years ago and practiced in the goenka tradition.
Just keep breathing in and out like this. Don't be interested in anything else. It doesn't matter even if someone is standing on their head with their ass in the air. Don't pay it any attention. Just stay with the in-breath and the out-breath. Concentrate your awareness on the breath. Just keep doing it. http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Just_Do_It_1_2.php
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