Temporary ordination for one Rains Retreat

What is a Rains Retreat? | Learn Buddhism

Observing the Vassa – the Annual "Rains Retreat" – Nalanda Buddhist Society

.

(Nick Keomahavong) Many people are looking for the opportunity to become Buddhist monastics, especially Buddhist monks at Thailand's Wat Phra Dhammakaya.

Temporary ordination

All ordination is temp up to enlightenment

There is a specific program for international practitioners who want to become monastics for a few days or weeks is called IDOP, which is short for the International Dhammadayadas Ordination Program.

This program gives Westerners the opportunity to live and train as Theravada monastics. The program is in English and welcomes males from all over the world, not limiting itself to Buddhists.

Once the temporary 30-45 day ordination program is completed, the temporary monks enter the three months Rains Retreat or Phansa or Vassa at Prachinburi Province.

The Rains Retreat is a time for them to continue their monastic training, living a life of Dhamma and meditation.

Life for them slows down as they experience what it is like to truly live the life of a monk. This video was created to give an exclusive inside look and education into what is the annual three months Rains Retreat is like for all Theravada Buddhist monks.

American nun Ven. Tathtaaloka

Thailand also has maechis, or "Eight or Ten Precept Nuns," for females motivated to become monastics. These options are rarer than the traditional male samaneras and bhikkhus. But recent developments have restored even FULL ordination for women in Theravada Buddhist countries so that they can live out the life the Buddha made possible by establishing the Dhamma (Dharma) for their benefit just as well as that of males.

• FREE Video-Led Meditation Retreats: 🔶 nickkeomahavong.com/retreats
• Nick Keomahavong, What is a Rains Retreat? March 6, 2020; Pat Macpherson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly