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Evolution of the monastic community

Evolution of the monastic community

A talk given during Sravasti Abbey’s annual Exploring Monastic Life program in 2006.

Community of wanderers

  • From a group of wanderers to the great monastic universities
  • How precepts were established
  • Episodes from Buddha’s daily life

Exploring Monastic Life 2006: Session 3, 1-3 (download)

Living in community

  • Different culture and climate: from wandering mendicants to community
  • Relationship between monastics and lay people
  • Evolution of the community
  • Development of Vinaya and Pratimoksha vows

Exploring Monastic Life 2006: Session 3, 2-3 (download)

Questions and answers

  • After Buddha’s parinirvana
  • Issue of bhikshuni status
  • Were all the precepts formed during the Buddha’s time?
  • Eight Garudhamma

Exploring Monastic Life 2006: Session 3, 3-3 (download)

Venerable Thubten Chodron

Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.

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