In October of 2016 I attended the 22nd annual Western Buddhist Monastic Gathering, a week-long meeting of culturally Western Buddhist monks and nuns from all three branches of the Buddhist tradition. The theme was Sustaining the Sangha which dovetailed nicely with my dissertation topic – a proposal for a five-year program of education for Buddhist monks and nuns in the West. I gave a brief presentation Wednesday morning of the gathering during which I laid out the three spheres of training I feel are necessary for the development of well qualified clergy for the continuing dissemination of Buddhism in the Western world as we move deeper into the 21st century.

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The first of these three spheres is Knowledge. This primarily involves knowledge of the Dharma. Dharma training will focus on the philosophical and psychological elements of the Buddha’s teachings. Education in Buddhist history also falls under this category. This area also includes practical knowledge of temple management as well as a basic understanding of mental health issues and the cultivation of basic counseling skills.

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The second sphere of development is Ethics. It is not enough to simply take vows. Trainees need to engage in careful introspection and reflect on how they will deal with challenges to the expectations to which they hold themselves and to which the communities they serve hold them. Part of this training involves careful consideration of how the trainee will build a network of support as they move into active ministry to avoid becoming isolated in their role as spiritual leaders. An ethical center is developed over time, not simply absorbed when one receives vows. The vows act as lamps on the path to inner knowledge through restraint of the ignorant mind, speech, and body.

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The final sphere is Compassion. While many traditions do have specific training in cultivating a compassionate mind, a great deal of the training in compassion happens through compassionate action in the world. Students will be required to engage in a service project in which they meet the suffering of the world through direct service to people in need. This could take the form of a chaplaincy internship at a hospital (Clinical Pastoral Education) or volunteering at a nursing home, with at-risk youth, or with some other population in need.

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Practice in its various forms, whether silent meditation or chanting and ritual practice, serves to aid the student in developing as knowledgeable, ethical, compassionate beings.  One can, for example, engage in contemplation of some aspect of the Dharma, investigating its truth or utility in reducing dissatisfaction and suffering. Related to one’s ethical training, one can meditate upon the stress caused by unethical behavior and see the peace and clarity of mind that arises from following the Buddha’s ethical teachings. Meditation can also be turned to the cultivation of a compassionate mind strengthening the practitioner’s ability to engage in compassionate action in the world.

 

I am currently developing a five-year program of training during which seminary students will develop in all three spheres of training which I call the Three Lotuses. Just as a lotus is rooted in the mud and grows through ever clearer water finally breaking the surface and blossoming, students in this seminary program will evolve and grow in knowledge, ethics, and compassion, eventually venturing into the world to spread the Dharma for the benefit of many beings. Modules of this training will be made available for Dharma communities in other traditions, expanding the scope of impact throughout the lineages of Dharma available in the West.

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Though five years is only a beginning, graduates of this program will eventually carry the light of the Dharma to new corners of the world through service to communities in need and the establishment of new temples bringing the Three Lotuses model of training to new communities.

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