Are Buddhist Monasteries in the West Relevant in the 21st Century?

Are Buddhist Monasteries
in the West Relevant
in the 21st Century?
Sister Chân Trì Nghiêm
explains how Plum Village
practice centers provide
much-needed refuge
and hope in today’s
troubled times.
T H Í C H N H ẤT H ẠN H FO U N DAT I O N
At a time when the world seems to be racing at
breakneck speed toward planetary destruction,
when we know what to do to protect conditions
for life on Earth but fail to do it, when sources of
reliable information are increasingly difficult to
find, when governments favor the wealthy and
powerful over the poor and disenfranchised, what
role can Buddhist monasteries—specifically in the
West—possibly play?
In an age of increasing generative artificial
intelligence (AI) and disinformation, when the
boundaries between real and fabricated are
increasingly blurred—a post-truth era—Western
Buddhist monasticism may appear anachronistic,
a romanticized relic of a more optimistic and
spiritually inclined age.
But against this backdrop, practicing in a
meditation and mindfulness practice center may
be the most sane and meaningful thing to do.
Practicing mindfulness with others can counter
the growing anxiety, helplessness, and despair we
feel within us as we look at a world literally and
figuratively on fire. For an increasing number of
young people looking to the future and dissatisfied
with the prospects on offer, turning inward to find
solutions to our global problems has become a
matter of urgency.
Growing
interest
among
young,
welleducated, and talented people in practicing in one
of our community’s many practice centers as well
as in ordaining as monks and nuns is perhaps both
a symptom of the times and a hopeful sign for the
future.
For those who have lost faith in modern political, economic, and social systems, practicing
mindfulness is a revolutionary act. Dedicating
one’s life to the cause of mindful healing requires
determination and a warrior spirit.
Life in a monastery, whether for a retreat or
for a lifetime, provides an alternative to the pull
of instant gratification, relief from the quest for a
stream of never-ending dopamine hits, an invitation to choose a life with awareness and presence
over one of virtual reality, and an opportunity to
heal our addiction to digital devices and social
media. In the still, contemplative environment of

a Zen community, lay and monastic practitioners
learn to see their sources of suffering with clear
eyes and develop the capacity to transform discrimination, injustice, and inequity, in themselves
and in the world.
If you ask people who come to practice in one
of our meditation and mindfulness practice centers around the world why they come and what
they appreciate most about it, their answers are
surprisingly similar.
They mention finding a place of refuge here,
a peaceful oasis where they can resource themselves and recharge their batteries. They come to
have a break from the stress of their daily lives,
from their families or high-powered jobs and
draining responsibilities. They come to immerse
themselves in an environment where everyone
is practicing the same thing, where everyone is
trying to strengthen their mindfulness and touch
more peace and happiness within themselves.
Being surrounded by like-minded practitioners
is supportive for practice. Activists, business leaders, therapists, health professionals, and teachers
come to heal their burnout, to regain strength,
hope, and the energy to keep doing what they do.
They come looking for support on their own
path of healing and transformation. They say it’s
important to know there is a place where they can
take refuge, where they can experience community, kindness, and care, where they can experience the joy of being together, the joy of stopping,
and the healing and liberation that comes from
being rather than constantly doing.
One young man, a recent retreatant at
Magnolia Grove Monastery in Mississippi, US, said
this about his experience at the practice center:
“My resting heart rate dropped ten bpm on the
day I arrived. Just being in this environment is
beneficial. It’s hard to put it into words; we have to
experience it in the body to know what it feels like
to be in such a place.”
Some visitors find it difficult to express how
their experience has affected them, though
they’ll say it has something to do with a sense of
community, with connection, and with a feeling
of belonging. They say they not only discover
Sister Trì Nghiêm at Power of Silence Retreat
2024, Magnolia Grove Monastery

T H Í C H N H ẤT H ẠN H FO U N DAT I O N
more about themselves, but find a spiritual family
and forge deep connections—not only human
connections, but connections with trees, birds,
woods, sun, and moon.
By going inward, they touch the earth, their
animal, vegetal, and mineral ancestors, their blood
and adopted human ancestors, and their cultural
and spiritual ancestors. A residential monastery
provides a framework and refuge where lay practitioners can experience essential connections that
give their lives meaning. Getting in touch with their
spiritual and cultural roots enables deep healing
and transformation to take place.
The monastics who live and practice twentyfour hours a day, every day of the week, year after
year, decade after decade, are the glue that holds
it all together and makes it all possible. Monastics
safeguard the transmission of the teachings and
practices in an unbroken stream from teacher to
disciple going back more than two millennia to the
time of the Buddha and before. In the tradition of
context- and kinship-rich societies, transmission of
wisdom in Buddhist monasticism is both oral and
nonverbal. We listen to Dharma talks and classes
about the precepts and Mindfulness Trainings
given by senior monastics. We share about the
teachings and our practice in sharing circles. We
chant the sutras. But we also learn by observing
the way others walk, talk, eat, drink, stand up and
sit down, come in and go out.
Our teacher taught by walking the talk. To
watch Thầy walk, open a door, or drink tea was
to witness a Dharma talk. This is how we learn:
by observing and doing our best to emulate and
embody the teachings.
Transmission of Buddhist wisdom is not an
intellectual or literary pursuit. It has always been
an embodied practice, modeled and handed down
to the next generation. The mindfulness and concentration generated in this practice is what leads
to insight, to liberation from our wrong views and
ways of thinking, which are the cause of so much
of our suffering. It is in the monastery that we learn
how to apply the teachings in all aspects of our
daily life and in our manifold relationships.
The most important thing about our practice
To watch Thầy walk,
open a door,
or drink tea
was to witness
a Dharma talk.
The collective energy of
mindfulness generated in
a community that lives
in harmony and
awareness is palpable,
and this is what
nourishes and sustains
those who come.

T H Í C H N H ẤT H ẠN H FO U N DAT I O N
centers, practitioners say, is Sangha. Community.
The collective energy of mindfulness generated in
a community that lives in harmony and awareness
is palpable, and this is what nourishes and sustains
those who come.
The embracing support of the community
helps practitioners maintain and deepen their
practice. Over the years—or even in a one-week
retreat—they experience healing, transformation,
and an increasing capacity for joy, peace, and
happiness. Visitors lean on the monastics to do
this—nuns and monks are the custodians of both
the practice and the tradition.
Monastic practitioners learn the art of living
simply and happily in community with few possessions and desires. They observe the Mindfulness
Trainings and hundreds of precepts and fine manners. They practice stopping and looking deeply to
understand their own mind. They practice impulse
control and mindful consumption. They illustrate
that joy and happiness in the here and now are
possible. They demonstrate the art of cultivating
joy and letting go of unhelpful states of mind, the
art of releasing attachment to ideas and things.
They learn to bring the wandering mind home to
the body and to dwell happily in the present moment. They learn to take care of strong emotions
and to recognize their wrong perceptions. They
learn to heal themselves and their inner child. In
short, they model the teachings to the best of their
ability, and this is what practitioners who visit find
so helpful.
The individual consciousness of each practitioner contributes to the collective consciousness
of the whole community. And this is perhaps the
biggest reason why our monasteries are not just
an interesting alternative lifestyle but an imperative in today’s world.
If we are to have a future, let alone a hopeful
future, our young people must not succumb to despair. We desperately need islands of peace where
we all can take refuge in something good and true
and beautiful.
To bring about change in the world, we must
first change our way of thinking and being in the
world. We must transform our consciousness. We
We desperately need
islands of peace where
we can all take refuge in
something good and true
and beautiful.
To bring about change
in the world, we must
first change our way of
thinking and being
in the world.

T H Í C H N H ẤT H ẠN H FO U N DAT I O N
must go within and do the hard work of healing
and transformation.
This work takes the courage and fearlessness
of a warrior, and we need an army of spiritual
warriors all around the world to generate a collective awakening capable of effecting the only truly
hopeful change that might support continued life
on our planet.
When we awaken to the holiness of all life,
when we transcend notions of good and bad, of
friend and foe, when we truly grasp the reality of
interbeing and stop our violent and exploitative
ways and recognize the oneness of all creation,
then we have hope for the future.
We hope our practice centers, with your generous and continuing support, can contribute to this
global spiritual awakening for decades to come.
30 September 2024
The Thích Nhất Hạnh Foundation is grateful to Sister
Chân Trì Nghiêm for writing this beautiful article. To learn
more about the foundation, and to support our precious
monasteries, please visit thichnhathanhfoundation.org/
ways-to-give.
Sister Chân Trì Nghiêm/True Holding (pronouns she/
her) is a Plum Village Dharma teacher who has been
living and practicing in Magnolia Grove Monastery,
Mississippi, US, since 2019. Ordained by Thầy in Plum
Village, France in 2009, she received Lamp Transmission
in 2018. Born and raised in Australia, she lived almost
thirty years in Switzerland before moving to Plum Village
to ordain with Thích Nhất Hạnh and his Community of
Engaged Buddhism. Sister Trì Nghiêm has been editing
Thầy’s books with Parallax Press since 2011.