Life and Conduct in the Monastery

Travel Day 1076 – Kopan Monastery, NEPAL

Besides the big debate if one should really take refuge or not, the last days of the second course were mainly focused on Emptiness. But the real meaning of emptiness I only came to experience after the class had finished…

Five Buddhist Precepts at the Monastery

Well, actually what I came to experience was the absence of people since once again most of the course participants fled the scene, leaving just a handful of us behind and a seemingly empty monastery. This was actually a very enjoyable time for me and after 10 days of intensive discussions about emptiness, it was more than great to have no fixed schedule and to just being able to spend the time between meals in the garden while having nice conversations with the last remaining people from the class…

And while we were all enjoying our time at Kopan, reading, writing or doing personal practices, I once more had to realize what an amazingly protected environment the monastery provided. Two years ago I had already reflected on the Life and Class at the Monastery, while noticing that it was a great experience not to have to deal with money, not to have to think about what or where to eat and not to have to deal with any hustlers or touts on the streets…

Secretly playing Tabla at the Monastery

In fact, because this was such a closed environment and because everybody knew that we were in a monastery, it seemed that every single person was on their very best behavior. We all walked slowly, we all tried to talk quietly in the dining areas and we all smiled at each other whenever our paths would cross. Our conversations revolved mostly around Buddhism, spirituality or life in general, with everyone being genuinely interested to listen to, or to help each other. It almost felt like a little perfect world…

Actually I had this experience already last time, but it wasn’t really until after I had left the monastery that I started to fully appreciate the sheltered environment and back then, I only had one extra day to spare. This time around, I gave myself 5 extra days and since I knew exactly what to expect, I could appreciate the experience already while I was still there. There was only one new rule at Kopan Monastery and I was bending and stretching a little bit…

No Killing of Insects at the Monastery

Obviously the five Buddhist precepts (no killing, no stealing, no lying, no sexual conduct and no intoxicants) had to be observed while staying at the monastery, but on the introduction sheet there was one addition to the rules: AND No Music! That was at first a little bit of a shock for me since I was hoping to practice some Tabla in-between. But since I could see the young monks playing soccer and kicking each other on the yard, although running around was also forbidden in the monastery, I decided that I too could take some liberty and practice secretly a little bit of Tabla in my room… : )

Besides that, the biggest challenge was actually to obey the first rule of No Killing. Since this rule was applying to any living creature and our washrooms were outside, using the sink and brushing the teeth in the evening became real struggle. Attracted by the light, a lot of moths and other creepy crawlers would constantly fall into the wet sink and needed to be rescued from a certain death by drowning. While this was making such a small thing as brushing the teeth a real act of mindfulness, it was thus becoming a big part of the quite unique experience of life and conduct in the monastery…

Find all Kopan Monastery 2013 Photos here.