Dharma in the Farmlands
BRINGING BUDDHISM TO RURAL IDAHO
By Nicholas Collias
Originally published in Boise Weekly, Aug 20, 2003
Western Idaho is about to get a little more Eastern. Venerable Thubten Chodron, a Tibetan Buddhist nun, prodigious author and student of the Dalai Lama, has been inhabiting Boise for several months in the hopes of utilizing our fair state as the site of the nation's only Tibetan Buddhist monastery. The project, labeled Sravasti Abbey by the Lama himselfafter one of the Buddha's hallowed teaching siteshas had several other candidate locations, among them Washington and Missouri. However, after the latter of these plans fell through, according to Ven. Chodron, “One of my students from [local Buddhist organization] Treasure Valley Dharma Friends wrote to me, saying ‘Come here, because it is beautiful land, and our group will help you.'”
Encouraged by this show of support, and by her “love for the Rockies,” Ven. Chodron arrived in Boise last fall, and has been a constant presence since April. She and the Dharma Friends have pursued several properties, outside of Cascade and Cambridge, at which to fulfill her vision of “a training monastery for people in this country who want to train in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.” Note her specificity: this country. Sravasti, like Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia (North America's only other Tibetan Buddhist monastery), will be a Buddhist sanctuary built by and for North American devotees. Ven. Chodron reports, “Some of my peers and teachers are Tibetan, and I'll invite them to the abbey to teach, but it's not going to be a community of Tibetans transplanted here. They have their own monasteries, in India and Tibetwe need something for Westerners.”
While the core activities of Sravasti Abbeychanting, meditation, study, and attending or teaching classeswill differ very little from those of Asian Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, Ven. Chodron's vision also takes into account the non-Asian cultural backgrounds of her potential members. She reports, “ I feel no necessity at all to build a temple in the Tibetan architectural design, because we're Americans. When we build, I want something that corresponds to the environment that we are in.” Likewise, in a more radical move of personalization, Sravasti Abbey will feature both monks and nuns, living and working together in an unsegregated environment. “For Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, this is very unique,” Ven. Chodron laughs. “In Asia, the Tibetans would never do this. But I am very, very dedicated and firm about everybody being able to train equallywhich doesn't happen in any religion.” Although distinctive, Ven. Chodron's alterations on the Tibetan mold do not represent any spiritual distancing of Sravasti from the Asian tradition. On the contrary, her moves come with the highest approval. “His Holiness [the Dalai Lama] is very supportive of gender equality,” she reports. “He is also very clear that people don't need to be Tibetan in order to be Buddhist. He knows that for Buddhism to spread here in the West, we need homegrown American teachers who can teach according to our cultural heritage.”
Ven. Chodron, who was born in Los Angeles and has also lived extensively in Seattle, definitely qualifies as "homegrown." But, as locations like Cascade and Cambridge (a remote town about which most Boiseans would only ask “ain't that in Masser-chusits?”) show, she places special value on the rural heritage that Idaho offers. “I really like that feeling in rural settings,” she explains, “of people having time to talk to one another and help each other out.” Not surprisingly, the physical landscape and spaciousness of Idaho's countryside are also a major draw, as Ven. Chodron states, “I want a place with natural beauty, so when people come for a weekend or a week-long visit from their hectic lives in the city, just the beauty and space calms their mind. If they do become involved in spiritual practice and meditation, however, the connection becomes much deeper.”
That dual focus, on both devout monastics and their more casual lay counterparts, gives a social element to Ven. Chodron's vision that is unique among many religious hermitages. She promises that once established, not only will Sravasti Abbey be accessible to visitors of all faiths, but also that the “social service projects, prison work, and classes on meditation and stress reduction” for which she is already well-known will continue. What will not be present, however, is any explicit attempt to proselytize non-Buddhist Idahoans. As a longtime participant in interfaith dialogues, Ven. Chodron is an expert at presenting the personally beneficial aspects of Buddhist method in a non-theological framework. She explains, "It's very strong in Buddhism that you do not teach unless invited to. We are not trying to make people into Buddhists-- what we do is just give an opportunity to learn good values, ethical discipline, and kindness and compassion for others." That said, Ven. Chodron also reports that she has been surprised at how "hungry" community members have been to hear her teachings. She states, "I think that this method of training the mind, and how it can cultivate good human attitudes and emotions is something that Idahoans can really resonate with."
Although both of the targeted properties in Cascade and Cambridge have recently proven financially unfeasible for Sravasti Abbey, Ven. Chodron is not yet ready to give up on the Gem State. Aside from teaching numerous classes locally, she is also currently scouting land near Couer d'Alene, and remains quite willing to consider sites in southern Idaho (either for purchase, or donation) for this important point on the world religion map.
For information about Venerable Thubten Chodron, or to donate to the Sravista Abbey project, go to www.thubtenchodron.org, www.sravastiabbey.org or www.dharmafriends.org.
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