Reflections on “Taking the Vinaya as Our Teacher”

In October and November of 2025, I had the great good fortune to go to Sravasti. Not the one in India, but Sravasti Abbey in Newport, Washington, USA, where I attended a Vinaya (Monastic Discipline) course from October 27 to November 17 led by Master Wu Yin, a very senior bhikshuni (bhikkhuni) from Taiwan. Themed “Taking the Vinaya as Our Teacher,” it aimed to bring together nuns of all Buddhist traditions to learn and exchange about Vinaya practice. (Which it did – I was happy to be the one Theravadin attendee to complete the trifecta of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana).

Sravasti Abbey – home to over twenty monastics, mainly nuns but also a few monks – itself is a unique blend of traditions. Their Dharma (Dhamma) practice is in the Tibetan tradition (with some Chinese elements now incorporated). However, as it was not possible for women to receive bhikshuni ordination in the Tibetan tradition (until very recently in Bhutan – more on that later), the Vinaya lineage Sravasti monastics take their higher ordination in and follow is the Dharmaguptaka, as transmitted in Taiwan.

There has been a longstanding special connection between Venerable Thubten Chodron, founder of Sravasti Abbey, and Master Wu Yin, founder of the Luminary Buddhist Institute. Ever since Venerable Chodron’s invitation to Master Wu Yin to teach Vinaya at the “Life as a Western Buddhist Nun” program at Bodhgaya in 1996, she and her disciples from the Luminary Institute have offered continued whole-hearted and dedicated support to Venerable Chodron and later Sravasti Abbey. The 2025 Vinaya course was the latest installment in this longer thread. The relationship is a beautiful example of how Buddhist monastics support each other across traditions and oceans, which has been part and parcel of Buddhist history throughout the centuries.

It was touching to witness the clearly evident pride and joy Master Wu Yin and her accompanying Taiwanese bhikshuni disciples took in Sravasti’s growth and development. On the day of Master’s arrival, as she went through the receiving line, she gleefully and affectionately stroked the heads of Sravasti nuns she recognized from previous encounters. Throughout the course, she spoke highly of Sravasti and rejoiced in its flourishing.

This Vinaya course itself was the product of a joint effort between the two communities. The program was generously hosted by Sravasti Abbey, while the course content and English translations of Vinaya texts used was developed by a team of Sravasti and Luminary monastics who had worked for over a year leading up to the program. The main teacher at the course was Master Wu Yin, but a supporting team of Luminary faculty also came, and classes on various topics were also offered by Venerable Chodron and other monastics from Sravasti and Luminary. Putting on a big event like this no doubt took a great deal of effort, energy, and work (nay, service!). It was a testament to the open-hearted spirit with which the course was freely offered to any interested monastic.

The vision for the program was of course broader than merely to take Sravasti to the “next stage’”(i.e., passing the Vinaya baton from Master Wu Yin to Venerable Chodron) but to support the firm establishment of Vinaya in the West. Most of the non-Sravasti attendees were from the US and Canada, but there were also a number from Europe and Australia and one from Asia (Vietnam). They included nuns (and one novice monk) already living in a monastic community, and those living on their own. Some of these solo nuns have the aspiration to, or are in the process of, establishing a monastic community of their own (including one in Latin America!), while others for various reasons foresee being self-dubbed “lone rangers.” All, however, shared a keenness to learn the Vinaya and practice according to it as best they can, given their circumstances.

Establishing the Vinaya in the West is one of the major developments in this era of Buddhism. Curiously enough, the magnitude of its historical significance only really hit home for me when hearing it remarked on by a layperson. She had amazingly traveled all the way from Singapore to Sravasti expressly for the purpose of supporting the course, joining a crew of enthusiastic laypeople from near and far in America who came to cook all the meals and do most of the cleaning so that the monastics could focus fully on the course.

When I asked her what inspired her to go to such lengths (literally), she said, “Oh, this is very historic – supporting the Vinaya in the West. It’s like when the Chinese monks went to India to bring the Vinaya texts back to China [and translated them]. I want to be part of it!” Her kitchen crewmate from California (who herself had generously offered funds to establish a Theravadin bhikkhuni hermitage there) heartily seconded her sentiments.

But what does “establishing Vinaya in the West” actually mean? Although monastics living on their own can still follow the Vinaya rules that apply to them (although often with greater difficulty), the full purview of the Vinaya encompasses the life of monastic Sanghas living as a community, which is necessary for the preservation of a very large part of the Vinaya. Buddhist monasteries were first built in Europe and America as early as the turn of the 20th century, but the monastics were from traditional Buddhist countries. Or if there were any Western monks that took up residence for a period of time, it was usually just one or two rather than a full Sangha (minimum of four), and they had all received their ordination and early training in Asia.

It was only from the late 1960s that monasteries in Western countries started to be established either by Westerners or monastics of Asian origin with an eye to providing Westerners a place to ordain and train. “Westerners” here may loosely refer to people either born and raised in the West or perhaps even those who had been educated or lived a long time there. Monasteries specifically or mainly for nuns emerged even later. Today, the two monasteries with the largest nuns’ communities in the West would be Sravasti Abbey (est. 2003) and Dhammasara Monastery in Perth (est. 1998), where I am based. The inception and growth of Western monastic Sanghas of either monks or nuns has gained momentum in recent decades and looks to be on the upswing.

Another crucial piece of bringing Vinaya to the West is making texts and teachings available in English and other Western languages. The Pali Vinaya Pitaka was the first to be translated into English, and the only one in its entirety. Parts of the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (as preserved in Chinese) have been translated, but not all. These early translations were a great service done by Western lay scholars who were well-versed in Asian languages. But they were unavoidably limited and often inaccurate as they who would not be able to understand the rules in the way a monastic living them would.

As far as commentarial material goes, a very small portion of the older Pali commentaries have been translated into English, and even smaller portion of those on the bhikkhuni rules. Later commentarial literature is extremely limited given the long interruption of the Theravadin bhikkhuni lineage. A for the Dharmaguptaka Bhikshuni Vinaya, only a small number of commentaries have been translated from East Asian languages.

One of the significant contributions of this course were the Chinese to English translations of a large number of the Bhikshuni Pratimoksha rules (ones broadly classified as relating to “Sexuality” and “Stealing”) and their explanatory material (Vibhanga.) These translations were drafted by Singaporean-born Sravasti bhikshuni Venerable Thubten Damcho, who is fluent in both Chinese and English. However, it went through a process of review with input given by senior Luminary bhikshunis who have studied and practiced the Vinaya for over twenty years under the guidance of Master Wu Yin. The master herself has been steeped in a living bhikshuni tradition that has been practicing the Vinaya and passing it down for centuries. Venerable Chodron also served as editor, lending her decades of monastic experience to the process. While the translation is still undergoing further editing, it was already well-developed enough to serve as the “textbook” for the course.

This material will be extremely useful not only to those practicing the Dharmagupataka Vinaya. The portions of the Vinaya relating to bhikkhuni rules has not been as well preserved in the Pali tradition, since the Theravadin bhikkhuni lineage died out in Sri Lanka around the 11th century. Being able to refer to the often more complete information contained in the Dharmagupataka Vibhanga is helpful – and sometimes necessary – to shed light on the letter, spirit, or both, of many Patimokkha rules held in common. A translation that reflects the understanding of experienced monastic practitioners sheds a particularly insightful kind of light. This would probably also apply to the case of the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya as well. Only a very small portion of it has been translated into English, and there has never been a bhikshuni lineage established that practiced it (until very recently in Bhutan).

Language issues aside, another important barrier to Vinaya studies for nuns has been the lack of opportunity to receive teachings about it. In the Tibetan tradition, only the fully ordained (thus, monks or bhikshus/bhikkhus) can study Vinaya. Any teachings given to nuns, who at most had the novice (shramanerika) ordination, were limited to their precepts. In the Theravada tradition, although there are no such restrictions as to who can study the Vinaya, a major limitation is the lack of teachers who are knowledgeable in the Bhikkhuni Vinaya. As there were no living bhikkhunis since the 11th century until the recent revival of the lineage in the mid-1990s, bhikkhus did not bother learning the Bhikkhuni Patimokkha rules, even though this is technically a Vinaya requirement for bhikkhus to be released from their initial training period of dependence on a teacher (niśraya/nissaya.)

The few bhikkhus who might have studied some bhikkhuni Vinaya still do not have a real working knowledge of them as they have not actually practiced them or understand what life is really like for a bhikkhuni more generally. At most, the bhikkhus can teach the parts of the Vinaya that the bhikkhus share with bhikkhunis. A number of bhikkhus have compassionately done this, in Asia and the West, but there are also many bhikkhus who, for various reasons, would rather not get involved with teaching nuns.

As the bhikkhuni revival is now in its third decade, there are senior bhikkhunis who have become more learned and experienced in bhikkhuni Vinaya, but this still cannot compare with monastics with much longer years in the robes, whether Theravadin bhikkhus or non-Theravadin bhikshunis. The Vinaya teachings given by such an experienced Vinaya teacher as Bhikshuni Master Wu Yin was thus an extremely valuable contribution to Vinaya education for nuns of any tradition in the West – or the East for that matter. When viewed in this broader perspective, the impact of the course, and the publications that will come out of it, goes beyond rooting Vinaya in the West to also helping establish or strengthen it in the traditions where the bhikshuni lineage has been interrupted (ie. the Theravadin) or never existed (ie. the Tibetan.)

To be more up to date, it is actually more accurate to say “never existed until recently.” It is also a very historic time in terms of bhikshuni ordination in the Tibetan tradition. One of the course participants, German Venerable Karma Phuntsok left half-way through the course to travel to Bhutan to prepare for the mass bhikshuni ordination in November, only the second time it has been held since the ground-breaking first one in 2022. Bhutan follows the Tibetan tradition, but its monastic Sangha is independent, hence feels freer to confer bhikshuni ordination.

While this is still not possible within the rest of the Tibetan tradition, more non-Bhutanese Tibetan lineage nuns from the Himalayas as well as from Western and other countries took part at this second ordination and thus the ripple effect will surely spread to the wider Tibetan tradition. Who knows, maybe bhikshuni ordination in the Tibetan tradition will be in the cards for some of the nuns at this course!

For me personally, it was a “historic first” to be able to learn in person from a very senior nun like Master Wu Yin – ordained since 1957! – who is part of an unbroken centuries-old bhikshuni lineage. (I was extremely grateful for the dexterous simultaneous Chinese-English translations provided by Venerable Thubten Damcho, without which Master’s teachings would have been inaccessible.) On top of that, Sravasti’s resident teachers Venerable Thubten Chodron and Venerable Sangye Khadro are both around 50 years in robes (almost 40 as bhikshunis). This is as yet impossible to experience – whether it is to learn about Vinaya or Dharma or monastic life or all of the above – in the young Theravada Bhikshuni Sangha, and was such a precious opportunity.

The wisdom and compassion that comes from decades of practice and living monastic life emanated from these teachers not only in the spoken word, but their very being. Plus, thankfully, they were terribly funny. It was also instructive to see how they were able to respectfully have different opinions on various issues. I tried my best not to gawk too indecorously but probably wore my admiration on my sleeve pretty openly all the same. Also very valuable were presentations by, or conversations with, nuns who were in their teens, twenties, or thirties (i.e., age in robes) who had a wealth of experience to share – including, encouragingly, plenty of “getting it wrong until you get it right.”

Although they looked nothing like each other, Master Wu Yin and Venerable Chodron shared striking, and hugely inspiring, similarities in character and “career path.” Both are strong, independent-minded women who had the vision and heart to establish monastic centers for the education and cultivation of nuns (and in Venerable Chodron’s case, also monks). They started these completely on their own, from very humble beginnings, through various obstacles and challenges, but have been able to create excellent loci for monastic training as well as lay education.

Master Wu Yin’s Luminary Buddhist Institute and its larger umbrella organization Luminary International Buddhist Society now have branches throughout Taiwan and also overseas. Sravasti Abbey meanwhile has grown into a large monastery with a strong sangha supported by a solid lay community. Its magnificent and hi-tech new Buddha Hall – completed just in time to host the Vinaya program and auspiciously consecrated during it – will enable enlarged study and practice programs for monastics and laypeople in decades to come. As Master Wu Yin has said of Venerable Chodron and Sravasti’s accomplishments (but could well say of herself and LIBS), “Truly, this requires such great strength of aspiration and [brings] so much warmth.”

In terms of the course’s study program, what was emphasized was understanding the spirit of the monastic precepts or training rules (shikshapada/sikkhapada. Literal translation: “training step/path”), analyzed in terms of the ten reasons the Buddha gave in laying them down. In summary, they serve to benefit individual monastics, the Sangha as a whole, the lay community and wider society, and ultimately the Dharma-Vinaya itself. The fundamental essence of the precepts translates across Buddhist traditions, regardless of how the actual practical application of the precepts can vary across different Vinaya schools, practice lineages, monasteries, cultural contexts, and life circumstances.

It was heartwarming to see that so much is actually shared in common. This was symbolically encapsulated in the coming together of all the bhikshunis, regardless of tradition, to do the fortnightly confession of offences and recitation of the Pratimoksha rules on the Posadha (Uposatha) day that fell during the course. Although it was the Dharmaguptaka Pratimoksha that was recited in English (whereas we chant the Patimokkha in Pali at my monastery), I recognized the majority of the rules, which reaffirmed a sense of shared sisterhood across the wider Sangha.

Even simply staying at a non-Theravadin monastery for the first time was also very educational from a Vinaya standpoint, including in unexpected ways. Being able to see and experience how various monastic precepts are interpreted and put into practice in a different tradition gave another avenue, beyond just a conceptual one, for reflecting on what the true spirit of a precept was. Experimenting with the “local style,” seeking to understand its rationale, and observing how it felt in my heart when I applied precepts in a different way from what I’m used to, broadened my perspective. At the same time, it also helped me to contemplate and tease out more clearly the benefits I also see and experience in my own tradition’s way of practice. Learning how to navigate all this (hopefully without causing too much disturbance to the host community while still maintaining a sense of coherence with my own tradition) was a way to develop wisdom, compassion, and flexibility around Vinaya practice.

Indeed, I have long felt uncomfortable with, and even disheartened by, the way those on both “sides” of the Theravada/Mahayana dichotomy sometimes espouse inaccurate and narrow-minded stereotypes and sweeping generalizations about the other’s practice of Dharma-Vinaya, often in a grossly or subtly disparaging way. It oversimplifies a complex matter, fails to acknowledge the range of diversity within each tradition, and tends not to be based on a deeper understanding or direct experience of the other’s world. As the only Theravadin in attendance, I kind of felt duty-bound to try to offer a perspective on (my strain of) Theravadin, but it was interesting to experience being such a minority and to discover how I found this challenging at times.

In contradistinction to sectarianism, harmony in the sangha was a major theme that came through in the course – after all, it is one of the most important purposes of the Vinaya. But it was not just a matter of understanding it in an abstract sense by studying the texts. It was also lived out in the joyous team effort I experienced being part of during the last week of preparations leading up to the course, and during the so-called “swarms” when everyone in the monastery joined in to do a major clean of the spaces pre- and post- big events.

Perhaps the most revealing exercise in arriving at harmony in the sangha were the Discussion Groups. These were a major and novel (to me) part of the course format for studying the Vinaya. We were divided into teams of 5-6 nuns, and would read the texts together, discuss them, formulate questions, and develop presentations (including fun skits!) to be given to the whole assembly. Each group experienced some friction at the start, as many were nuns who had just met, with dissimilar backgrounds and temperaments, but in the span of a week and a half, we learned how to listen to and accommodate each other, and work together well despite our differences. This is a microcosm of the process sanghas the world over go through to (ideally) create harmony.

Harmony of course does not require military-style uniformity (which is impossible anyway.) Among the most enjoyable, invigorating, and mind-broadening parts of the course for me were the plentiful opportunities to exchange and learn from each other, not just in terms of Vinaya but also Dharma practice and monastic experiences, both inside and outside the formal classroom activities. Whether it was over a meal, going for a walk in the gorgeous forest, or serving on dish wash-up crew, stimulating conversations – and much laughter – abounded.

Also built into the schedule were morning and evening group chanting and meditation practice sessions. The course was thus a holistic program of both Dharma and Vinaya. It demonstrated why Dharma-Vinaya is a hyphenated term. We were able to appreciate how entwined and mutually supportive – and indeed necessary – having both wings are to the true practice of Vinaya. The Vinaya emanates from, and is purified by, the Dharma. In turn, ever purified Vinaya practice nourishes ever deeper Dharma practice.

It was fascinating to see how both the Dharma and Vinaya were brought to bear and brought to life in an actual functioning large monastic community. Emblematic of this was another special event during the course: walking the new monastic territory (sima) together and performing the sanghakarman (sanghakamma, i.e., legal act of the sangha) to formally establish it. Arcane and rather boring though that may sound (and it sounds even more boring in the thick treatises written on the subject), it was actually very moving and joyful to take part in. To me, doing this type of practical procedure – just “normal business” in sangha life – announced loud and clear that there is a real, living bhikkhuni sangha in this place now! With a dang big territory to boot.

Sustaining a thriving monastic community is not easy. Monastic community life is multi-faceted (i.e. complicated!) and requires many levels of orchestration. In practice, this involves mechanisms that elaborate on or spin off from the skeletal guidelines given in the Vinaya. They may also include adjunct elements that are beyond those strictly found in the Vinaya, but are used in the same fundamental spirit of nourishing a harmonious community, a key conducive condition for fruitful Dharma practice. The extremely rich learning I gained regarding these matters was another invaluable part of the Vinaya course: community organization and management, admissions process, training and mentoring systems, teamwork development, community building, interpersonal and community-level communication skills, and community harmonizing/conflict resolution. This body of knowledge and experience from fellow monastics can support not only existing medium-large monastic communities like mine, but the growth and development of embryonic-stage or still imagination-stage nuns’ and mixed-gender monasteries.

Another beneficial outcome of the course was the creation of a network among nuns living on their own, enabling them to keep in contact and support each other in practicing the Vinaya. It is great to see how Sravasti Abbey kindly offers on-going support, providing the opportunity for them (or any course “alum”) to participate via Zoom in Abbey Vinaya classes and to come spend some periods living and training in the Abbey community.

Last but not least, I personally found it very enriching – and lots of fun! – to learn more about the teachings, practices and rituals of the Tibetan and Chinese traditions. Even though I was pretty lost trying to follow the details of the Tsog or Tara practices, at the end of the sessions, I felt an incredible joyful energy in the mind. In addition, I found the unfamiliar practices of analytic meditation and prostrations to acknowledge and make amends for ethical transgressions very beneficial. I also really enjoyed chanting “Namo Ben Shi Shi Jia Mo Ni Fo.” At first, I just parroted it, before my basic Chinese knowledge kicked in and it dawned on me that the syllables mapped to “Homage to the Fundamental Teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha.” Indeed, that appreciation of having a Fundamental Teacher in common seemed to animate a spirit of mutual respect, interest, and open-mindedness in the way everyone in the course participated in this medley of practices.

Similarly, sitting in the Buddha Hall every day beneath the watchful gaze and warm smile of Shakyamuni Buddha reminded us of our common Teacher/Dad. Meanwhile, seeing the calm and dignified presence of Venerable Mahaprajapati (Mahapajapati) Gotami, featured next to the Buddha, bore witness to how we all come from the same bhikshuni lineage as our courageous foremother. It was uplifting to see her displayed in such a hallowed position on the main altar – exceedingly rare to find her in such a place! Meanwhile, the friendly mien of Venerable Ananda (also an unusual choice for the altar) called to mind his sympathetic advocacy of the bhikshunis, and the way we are part of the same larger monastic family as our bhikshu brothers.

I am sure they were all very happy and proud to see what their descendants were up to, literally under their noses.

Note on Sanskrit and Pali terms: Unless they are proper nouns, these are italicized on the first usage only. In deference to the host monastery, I have used the Sanskrit spelling of terms as the standard rendering, and put the Pali equivalent in parentheses. If an English translation is more understandable, then both the Sanskrit and Pali terms are put in parentheses, with the Sanskrit first. Only when it is clear from the context of the sentence that a Theravadin nun/monk/monastic code of conduct is being referred to are the Pali terms used non-paranthetically, eg. bhikkhuni/bhikkhu/Patimokkha.