Wisdom #2 – 1984

Chateau Rouzegas, an old and elegant three-story, 30-room farmhouse in the French countryside, an hour’s drive from Toulouse, has been transformed by the presence of 16 Western Buddhist monks, their Tibetan abbot and Sherpa translator.

Now in its third year here, Nalanda Monastery, the first FPMT monastery for monks, is slowly becoming a strong center for meditation and learning. It is crucial to the successful transmission of the Dharma to the West that there are Sangha communities such as this, and its sister monastery not far away, Dorje Pamo.

Geshe Jampa Tegchok arrived from India last year to take up residence as abbot. Some of the monks had studied with him before when he was director of Geshe Studies at Manjushri Institute, and they were honored when he accepted Lama Yeshe’s invitation to become their abbot at Nalanda.

A lharampa geshe from Sera Je Monastery and acharya scholar from the Sanskrit University in Sarnath, India, his presence at the monastery has given the place a heart. He teaches several classes a day in the intensive Geshe Studies Program, as well as other texts, and has helped give the monks a structure to their monastic lives. Although Geshe-la has not enforced mandatory puja attendance, for example, nor appointed a gegö (disciplinarian) in the usual Tibetan tradition, there is a good feeling of community and cooperation among the monks: they like living together and are striving to build a strong monastery, both for themselves and future monks.

They have worked hard to make their home pleasant, and director, Australian doctor Adrian Feldmann, is happy with the progress. They have 20 acres of grounds, a river frontage, many old lovely trees, and an abundance of flowers and vegetables. They have repaired the house and restored the roof, and have enough space for 20 monks to each have their own room. They each take turn at cooking meals, which they eat together, and all participate in the cleaning and upkeep of the monastery.

The common language among the international community of monks is English, and classes are translated from Tibetan into English by Thubten Sherab, the young Sherpa monk brought up by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Mount Everest Center in Nepal.

Finances are a problem, although they manage to survive from month to month. Some of the monks have benefactors, and only one of the monks, having French nationality, is able to work: Joseph Fontaine’s salary as a psychiatric nurse all goes to the monastery. And a monthly donation of $500 from the White Crow cleaning business in Sydney, run by Roger Mier [Ven. Roger Kunsang] and other monks and nuns, keeps the place alive.

Chateau Rouzegas, an old and elegant three-story, 30-room farmhouse in the French countryside, an hour’s drive from Toulouse, has been transformed by the presence of 16 Western Buddhist monks, their Tibetan abbot and Sherpa translator.

Now in its third year here, Nalanda Monastery, the first FPMT monastery for monks, is slowly becoming a strong center for meditation and learning. It is crucial to the successful transmission of the Dharma to the West that there are Sangha communities such as this, and its sister monastery not far away, Dorje Pamo.

Geshe Jampa Tegchok arrived from India last year to take up residence as abbot. Some of the monks had studied with him before when he was director of Geshe Studies at Manjushri Institute, and they were honored when he accepted Lama Yeshe’s invitation to become their abbot at Nalanda.

A lharampa geshe from Sera Je Monastery and acharya scholar from the Sanskrit University in Sarnath, India, his presence at the monastery has given the place a heart. He teaches several classes a day in the intensive Geshe Studies Program, as well as other texts, and has helped give the monks a structure to their monastic lives. Although Geshe-la has not enforced mandatory puja attendance, for example, nor appointed a gegö (disciplinarian) in the usual Tibetan tradition, there is a good feeling of community and cooperation among the monks: they like living together and are striving to build a strong monastery, both for themselves and future monks.

They have worked hard to make their home pleasant, and director, Australian doctor Adrian Feldmann, is happy with the progress. They have 20 acres of grounds, a river frontage, many old lovely trees, and an abundance of flowers and vegetables. They have repaired the house and restored the roof, and have enough space for 20 monks to each have their own room. They each take turn at cooking meals, which they eat together, and all participate in the cleaning and upkeep of the monastery.

The common language among the international community of monks is English, and classes are translated from Tibetan into English by Thubten Sherab, the young Sherpa monk brought up by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Mount Everest Center in Nepal.

Finances are a problem, although they manage to survive from month to month. Some of the monks have benefactors, and only one of the monks, having French nationality, is able to work: Joseph Fontaine’s salary as a psychiatric nurse all goes to the monastery. And a monthly donation of $500 from the White Crow cleaning business in Sydney, run by Roger Mier [Ven. Roger Kunsang] and other monks and nuns, keeps the place alive.