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Putnam monastery a place of peace and meditation
By Rebecca Rothbaum Wisdom was referring to even the simplest creature comforts, but he might have been talking about the monastery itself. Nestled in heavily-wooded Kent Cliffs, just over the Putnam County line, the Chinese Buddhist monastery is an enlightening destination for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. The monastery is free and open to the public seven days a week and offers a variety of programs, including yoga and tai chi classes. But even just exploring its tranquil 225-acre grounds and complex of buildings in the classical Chinese style makes an enjoyable day trip. The monastery has a mailing list of more than 700 and attracts hundreds of visitors a year, mainly from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, a majority of whom are Chinese Americans or recently-arrived Chinese immigrants. Sundays are perhaps the monastery's busiest days, when many of the English programs are held, including a morning mediation, Buddhist book discussion and talk. On Sundays, the monastery also offers its $5 Chinese vegetarian brunch, where it is common to hear a mix of Chinese and English over plates of bok choi and fried rice. The monastery, the name of which in Chinese means ''Land of Adornment'' (adornment being Buddhist teachings), was established in 1984 by the Buddhist Association of the United States on land donated by C.T. Shen, one of the association's founders. Besides its brunch, the monastery's greatest claim to fame is its massive sculpture of the Buddha Vairocana, the largest indoor Buddha in the Western Hemisphere. Fashioned from crushed marble and fiberglass, the 37-foot-tall Buddha was constructed in three pieces, bottom to top, with the aid of a crane. Its home, the Great Buddha Hall, was built around it. From its perch on a sturdy pedestal decorated with colorfully painted bas reliefs of bodhisattvas (enlightened souls who refuse nirvana to teach others), the unadorned Buddha (the Vairocana is the white Buddha) rises from the center of the ''lotus terrace'' -- what looks like a stadium -- full of 10,000 small Buddha sculptures. The Buddha dominates the hall, not only because of its enormity, but because it is just about the only thing in it. The interior of the hall, which like the others at the monastery was designed by architect I.M. Pei, is otherwise light-filled and airy. Its 84-foot-high ceiling is supported by graceful, cathedral-like unpainted-wooden arches. The exteriors of the buildings are designed in the style of the Tang dynasty, which spanned the years between 600 and 900 A.D. and marks a high point in classical Chinese art and architecture. |
Great works
The monastery also boasts an impressive collection of Buddhist texts. Its Woo Joo library contains the Institute for Studies of World Religions, which was formerly located at the Stonybrook campus of the State University of New York on Long Island. There are more than 70,000 books in the library, the bulk of which are Buddhist reference books, including sutras in Pali, Sanskrit, Mongolian and Chinese. There are also plans in the works for a seminary at the monastery, which is now home to two monks and seven nuns. The seminary will train resident monks and nuns as well as serve lay people and is a response in part to the popularity of Buddhism in the West. Still, the monastery's director of English programs, Richard Baksa, said that many of the English-speakers are not Buddhists at all. Most are drawn by the meditation. ''Many people come just because they heard about the food,'' he added. ''We really don't care if people identify with Buddhism,'' said Wisdom, who was born in Nebraska and raised in New England, acknowledging that most non-Chinese people come to the monastery mainly to learn meditation. ''What we care about is whether people benefit from it -- and that means meditation.'' The monastery offers four of the basic forms of meditation, including ana pana sati, which is used in the Sunday morning meditation service. In ana pana sati, practitioners sit still while focusing on their breathing. The hour-long service is broken up by a 10-minute walking mediation. Kristen Wilson, who lives and works at the nearby Taconic Outdoor Education center, was meditating at the monastery last weekend. ''I never thought I could sit for an hour, but I really enjoy it'' said Wilson over brunch in the monastery's dining hall. Wilson said she meditates there once or twice a month. ''The biggest thing I get from it is insight into how my brain works, an objective awareness and a sense of peacefulness,'' Wilson added. A few tables over, were David and Annie Liu, their 3-year-old daughter Sinead and their friend Jing Chen. The four had come that morning from New York City to pray for health beneath the great Buddha. ''There are many different, smaller places in New York City to pray,'' said Annie Liu, an immigrant from Taiwan, through her friend Chen, who is from mainland China. ''But we like this place because it is bigger and pretty.''
IF YOU GO
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