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Sophistic Radiance
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I want to join a Buddhist monastery.
#7540886 - 10/20/07 09:41 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Something I've been considering very seriously in the last few months, after focusing more and more of my energy on meditation, is joining a Buddhist monastery for a year or so. Setting aside a huge chunk of time where my only concerns will be manual labor and meditation. I think many others who have experienced psychedelics as I have will agree, the society we live in is degrading, perverted, and spiritually corrosive. If anything, that's the main reason we're so fascinated by psychedelics in the first place (or at least, why I am): the transcendent experience, a fundamental aspect of the human experience and a fundamental part of most cultures, is entirely absent in modern, industrialized life. The values we live by as a culture are, quite simply, wrong. Money is the ultimate need, and the ultimate aphrodisiac. Sex is what keeps you happy. That's about the summation of the goals we are given at the onset of our lives. I don't know when I would do this, but the idea is becoming more and more compelling. I want to give my soul a chance to grow and thrive.
Has anybody else here spent an extended period of their life in silent contemplation? Tried to escape the madness we live by?
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
Edited by Tchan909 (10/20/07 09:46 PM)
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redgreenvines
irregular verb


Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 37,532
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my cousin spent 3 years as a bhikku in asia; he returned with a fine glow upon him. i have only worked in my context as is.
i once thought i wanted to go to thailand and india or maybe sikkim or even japan to do what needed doing. but anything can be used to open your eye; you don't need to go far at all to sit still in the middle of your self as you are.
society will be what it is, money will be what it is, body will be what it is, mind in the middle of it all wants to see what it is and how it connects.
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_ 🧠 _
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Cracka_X
Spiritual Dirt Worshipper




Registered: 01/25/03
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Quote:
Has anybody else here spent an extended period of their life in silent contemplation? Tried to escape the madness we live by?
I'll just go hiking in the woods or camp for a few days. Goto a campground that doesn't have many commodities.
-------------------- The best way to live is to be like water For water benefits all things and goes against none of them It provides for all people and even cleanses those places a man is loath to go In this way it is just like Tao ~Daodejing
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MarkostheGnostic
Elder


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It is not necessary to renounce the world - only the attachment to it. I live in a cool home with a beautiful Lady. Eventually, I will have to let go of them and ultimately, of my own biological life. What is your hurry? Seems to me, you might be copping out. Even life in a monastery is drama. I prefer my own drama, which is very very minimal, on my own terms.
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DimensionX
King of Birds


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Interesting perspective Markos. I guess if you can find peace here you can find it anywhere.
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Icelander
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I the past I would have said you're running away. But now I know you can't. So I say go for it if you think that will help. How else will you know.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Shdwstr
FSRCanada



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The Goal of Meditation is to clear your mind and soul of emotional debris. To find an inner peace, as it where. Talk to some people at a Buddhist Temple. I think they will agree, that it's not necessary to escape to the mountaintop to obtain enlightenment and peace... meditation can bring the mountaintop to you.
Good luck in your quest Shdwstr
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Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly


Registered: 06/13/04
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Quote:
I think many others who have experienced psychedelics as I have will agree, the society we live in is degrading, perverted, and spiritually corrosive.
It could be that you could do work now that would prepare you for spiritual discipline. I would suggest that you fully accept your condition in life and the people with whom you share it. Judging the lives of others and the product of their associations as "degrading, perverted, and spiritually corrosive" is a spiritually corrosive process itself that the monastery WILL NOT heal. Going to the spirit with this attitude is merely elitism, and it will not help you.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#7541988 - 10/21/07 09:28 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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spot on post
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Cherk
Fashionable


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roshi is really convinced he's a cup so throwing bricks through his head is the same everywhere you go
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I have considered such matters. SIKE
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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



Registered: 07/11/06
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Cherk]
#7542510 - 10/21/07 12:11 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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I'm not sure I would do it. And I'm not entirely certain what level of commitment is necessary. I wouldn't want to spend my entire life this way.
I have nothing against the people in this society, nor do I have any delusions of superiority. I'm a part of this culture as much as anyone else. I just have serious problems with the social and power structures we have to deal with. Our society is gravitating towards unabashed worship of money and technology. This isn't a new phenomenon, but it is intensifying. I don't have a problem with people who have succeeded in these terms, but I feel personally uneasy with it.
I suppose it's true, though, that there are much less drastic ways of doing the same thing.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
Edited by Tchan909 (10/21/07 12:17 PM)
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



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I hear you. I would prefer things be much different myself. I don't like living around it at all. But shit follows you around because we are created in the likeness of the culture. We have all this shit in us even if we don't act it out to the extent of the majority. I just try to make the best of the deal and try to be excepting of things the way they are. That doesn't mean I like them because I don't.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,414
Loc: Under the C
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Ananda is only 4 hours east of you. They offer (or did) weekly and monthly retreats. Check it out. Very beautiful setting in the Sierra Nevadas near Nevada City.
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Icelander]
#7542689 - 10/21/07 12:58 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Icelander said: spot on post
This should help get that spot off the post:
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MushroomTrip
Dr. Teasy Thighs



Registered: 12/02/05
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YOU! You cleaned my dalmatian!
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   All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: MushroomTrip]
#7542749 - 10/21/07 01:13 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Sorry.
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Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly


Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,685
Loc: On the Border
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My posts often have spots on them. I just accept them for what they are.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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mushroomplume
Stranger

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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#7544022 - 10/21/07 06:50 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Tchan,
I've been wanting to do exactly this in the last half year or so. I guess my college education and uncertainty is what is holding me back.
Visiting a foreign country and knowing only english is quite an undertaking.
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Kinematics
coyote vision


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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: mushroomplume]
#7544046 - 10/21/07 06:56 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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I say go for it. Some people in here have said you might be looking in the wrong places, but I don't see how a retreat to a monastery like your idea could really be detrimental to one's personal spiritual growth.
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate



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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Kinematics]
#7544177 - 10/21/07 07:23 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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I have considered it a lot as well. The idea of a monastic lifestyle is certainly compelling at times. I think what often appeals to me is the phantom of the experience though. I have an image in my head of myself sitting and not really feeling anything, just a kind of breezy serenity, and all the paradoxical questions of life that I struggle with would be like distant background noise. And maybe they would be if you worked at your practice enough!
A friend of mine when he first got home from a monastery, came to pick me up at my house and as soon as I got in the car I was hit by how powerful his aura was - that glow that redgreenvines mentions. But I am sure it takes a lot of courage and hard work to exist in such a state, and such a state is not what my mind projects it to be.
Anyway, I'm not saying anything that others have not said. Just in a different way. Which is maybe all I can do. I hope that if you choose to reside in a monastery it will be a great help to you on your path.
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



Registered: 07/11/06
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Lion]
#7544399 - 10/21/07 08:07 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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I'm going to meditate and think about it more, as well as do some research, before I make any decision. And I have commitments (school) right now. When I get my driver's license (soon) I'm going to get out of the urbanized Bay Area for a bit, go someplace more natural, and I believe that may help a lot in clearing my head. California is a beautiful state and I'm so tired of the city.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
Edited by Tchan909 (10/21/07 08:08 PM)
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Kinematics
coyote vision


Registered: 10/01/06
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Quote:
Tchan909 said: I'm so tired of the city.
I know how you feel. That's why I got myself a place in the mountains a few months ago. It's very centering, I feel.
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EternalCowabunga
Being of Great Significance



Registered: 04/04/05
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Kinematics]
#7544462 - 10/21/07 08:21 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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I'd like to move out of Toronto and go somewhere with mountains like British Columbia. There's something about mountains that reminds you that life is more than just the rabble of everyday life in the city, you know?
I don't think it's necessary to stay in a city just to prove something, and I don't think we were meant to stay in one place our whole lives. My ego tells me that my city is an ugly smelly grid and I'd be better off outside of it.
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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



Registered: 07/11/06
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Quote:
EternalCowabunga said: My ego tells me that my city is an ugly smelly grid and I'd be better off outside of it.
This is something I tried not to admit to myself until it became impossible. I was born and raised in the bay area, always had sort of an implicit sense that this was where I belonged, ugly or no. But even if this is my home I need to get out of it for a while.
My family has a little piece of land a few hours up north, past Humboldt county. Very rural, mountainous, woody territory. I'm going to have a stay there as soon as I get that license.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
Edited by Tchan909 (10/21/07 08:38 PM)
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



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Quote:
There's something about mountains that reminds you that life is more than just the rabble of everyday life in the city, you know?
There is something about mountains that reminds me of tectonic plates colliding...
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EternalCowabunga
Being of Great Significance



Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 7,152
Loc: Time and Space
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Quote:
OrgoneConclusion said:
Quote:
There's something about mountains that reminds you that life is more than just the rabble of everyday life in the city, you know?
There is something about mountains that reminds me of tectonic plates colliding...
 I hope this post doesn't discourage anyone from considering the soothing effects on the psyche that mountains have.
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MushroomTrip
Dr. Teasy Thighs



Registered: 12/02/05
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 Now that would be a turn off because it means that those people didn't even have the slightest perspective regarding the existence of tectonic plates. I hope this doesn't discourage those who wanna learn geography.
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   All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs
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EternalCowabunga
Being of Great Significance



Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 7,152
Loc: Time and Space
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: MushroomTrip]
#7544693 - 10/21/07 09:21 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Ya I get it, Orgone's post just struck me as being cynical for cynical sake, but I guess that's just Orgone and I have to accept that
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druglord
Stranger
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#7545967 - 10/22/07 07:58 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Huehuecoyotl said: It could be that you could do work now that would prepare you for spiritual discipline. I would suggest that you fully accept your condition in life and the people with whom you share it. Judging the lives of others and the product of their associations as "degrading, perverted, and spiritually corrosive" is a spiritually corrosive process itself that the monastery WILL NOT heal. Going to the spirit with this attitude is merely elitism, and it will not help you.
I think judging certain ideals as being destructive for you yourself at a particular point time is a necessary part of spiritual development. (On the other hand, I wouldn't judge another person for assuming those ideals on their own spiritual path but simply perceive it as being so.)
Even though a durable spirituality would be all-inclusive and applicable in your native culture, changing your environment can always be beneficial. When you withdraw, you're no longer subject to all those familiar cues and expectations that are put on you. You can eliminate a lot of excess baggage and trim down your own perceived identity.
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Truth_Within
Not Knowing



Registered: 07/12/06
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I think it would be great for you to try a Buddhist monastery for a year. It is very inspiring and refreshing to be around monks and to live as they do. I recently spent 6 months in a Hindu monastery as a monk in training. They only allowed a 6 month max stay first, then they send you home to think about the experience. Then decide if you would like to return. I have made the decision to return and take vows as a monk. I will be leaving in a month to go back.
You can't go wrong with just experiencing it for a short time. It can really change your perspective on life. Good luck to you, and I hope you find what your looking for.
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: druglord]
#7546286 - 10/22/07 10:26 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
druglord said:
Quote:
Huehuecoyotl said: It could be that you could do work now that would prepare you for spiritual discipline. I would suggest that you fully accept your condition in life and the people with whom you share it. Judging the lives of others and the product of their associations as "degrading, perverted, and spiritually corrosive" is a spiritually corrosive process itself that the monastery WILL NOT heal. Going to the spirit with this attitude is merely elitism, and it will not help you.
I think judging certain ideals as being destructive for you yourself at a particular point time is a necessary part of spiritual development. (On the other hand, I wouldn't judge another person for assuming those ideals on their own spiritual path but simply perceive it as being so.)
Even though a durable spirituality would be all-inclusive and applicable in your native culture, changing your environment can always be beneficial. When you withdraw, you're no longer subject to all those familiar cues and expectations that are put on you. You can eliminate a lot of excess baggage and trim down your own perceived identity.
Good points from both of you.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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fake estate
didgin it out



Registered: 10/13/07
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: mushroomplume]
#7546377 - 10/22/07 11:06 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
oliveplume said: Tchan,
I've been wanting to do exactly this in the last half year or so. I guess my college education and uncertainty is what is holding me back.
Visiting a foreign country and knowing only english is quite an undertaking.
im in the same boat as you...almost halfway through my sophomore year at a private university, almost wishing i never started..but i didnt know what i know now and i would feel horrible to waste my parents money and kill their life dreams of getting their kids through college...
anyways..while im held up in this mess for the next couple of years i have decided to change my field of study to something i am actually interested in, sociology if you care, hopefully after i graduate i will head off somewhere where i can really find myself in this crazy world...good luck to you too man
-------------------- eat more algae.
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Amber_Glow
Sat Chit Anand


Registered: 09/02/02
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Truth_Within]
#7546400 - 10/22/07 11:13 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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I would love to join a monastery on a trial basis. A six month stay? That sounds perfect!
Where can we find information on how to get ourselves into a situation like this?
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Amber_Glow]
#7546471 - 10/22/07 11:32 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Search online.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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dorkus
don't look back
Registered: 04/12/04
Posts: 1,511
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Re: I want to join a Buddhist monastery. [Re: Amber_Glow]
#7546716 - 10/22/07 12:33 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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First you could look into the different branches of Buddhism and find the one that seems to suit your temperament. Then maybe go into a forum where many have monastic experience and tell what you seek, and ask what would be recommended. E-sangha would be a good choice for a forum.
http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index.php
Anyone living in the states could look into http://dhammatalks.org/Links.html for monastic training in Cali. Click 'about us' on this site http://www.mettaforest.org/ for more information.
Edited by dorkus (10/22/07 12:48 PM)
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