Monks and Nuns in Western Buddhism:
What Is Their Role?
with Venerable Losang Gendun
The Buddha said, for the Dharma to spread, four types of people are needed: lay men and women, and ordained men and women. Why did he say this? Join us for a fascinating teaching where Ven. Gendun addresses this question and more.
Venerable will share his own experience with Buddhist monasticism (training in the Burmese Forest Tradition and 18 years ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk). Why did he choose to ordain: did he feel that he would advance more quickly on the Buddhist path? Did he meet someone who inspired him to take robes? Does he feel he made the right decision?
Apart from personal experience as a monk, Venerable will share his perspectives about the role of monastics in Western Buddhism. Western and Eastern views of monastics differ, and Venerable can talk to us about this. How can Western Buddhist monasteries help spread the Dharma? What unique contributions can Western monastics offer?
These are questions which any serious Western Buddhist eventually asks, and we are grateful that Ven. Gendun will address them.
About the Teacher
Venerable Losang Gendun has spent nearly four decades in Buddhist practice, and has been living as a fully ordained gelong in the Tibetan tradition for the past twenty years. His training spans ten years of monastic study across France, India, Nepal, and Myanmar, and more than four years in solitary retreat in the Tibetan Mahayana and the Burmese Theravāda traditions.
For the past eighteen years he has taught Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and meditation worldwide within FPMT, serving the vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In 2023, as a gesture of gratitude to his teachers, he founded The Buddha Project (TBP), offering long-term guidance for serious meditators. TBP webpages serve as the online learning platform for its core programs, the FPMT In-Depth Meditation Training and the FPMT Ngondro Lamrim Training.
