Name: Temple Forest Monastery
Item: Temple Forest Monastery
Author: Send an Enquiry

The Buddhist ‘forest monasteries’ of Southeast Asia tend to be simple dwelling places for the monastic community (the ‘Sangha’), located in peaceful natural settings – usually forests. Their main purpose is to facilitate the practice of meditation and the living of the Buddhist monastic way of life.

In Thailand, the forest monasteries have played a role in helping to protect threatened forests and the many forms of life they host, and to provide sanctuaries where people can come to join the monastic community for shorter or longer periods, practicing meditation while living in nature in a similarly simple manner.

Since the monastic communities of Theravada Buddhism depend entirely upon the lay community for their material support – as they have for over 2,500 years since the time of the Buddha – the existence of a monastery depends upon the interest and generosity of people who find it to be of value.

The primary purpose of Temple Forest Monastery is to serve as a place where Buddhist forest monks are able to live, and where those interested can become monks and receive a traditional training. In addition the monastery acts as a religious center, or ‘church’, for local and regional Buddhists, and also as a resource for those of any faith or none interested in learning from traditional Buddhist monastic life, teachings, and practice, where one can receive guidance and find opportunities for meditation and quiet reflection. The monastery aims to provide an accessible contemplative sanctuary for anyone interested in this way of life.

It is therefore a place where cultures mix, and on any given day there may be local American as well as Thai or other Asian visitors, and occasionally guests from other countries. The monastery is part of an international monastic community based in Thailand, with branches in various Western countries. The monks at Temple are mainly Westerners who have taken ordination in Thailand or Western branch monasteries.
Who’s involved?

Since the early 1990s interested people in New England have been inviting the monastic community of Ajahn Sumedho to start a branch monastery in the region. In recent years Ajahn Jayanto, who is from Boston and was living at Amaravati Monastery in England, expressed a willingness to explore this possibility and now serves as abbot of Temple Forest Monastery.

A non-profit organization – Jeta Grove – was formed in order to act as a ‘steward’ for the monastic community, since the monks’ rules prevent them from directly receiving or having legal control over money. Jeta Grove receives donations and handles the financial affairs of the monastery on behalf of those wishing to support the monks, working closely with Ajahn Jayanto and the monastic community in providing for the Sangha’s needs.

There is a worldwide monastic community associated with Ajahn Chah. Temple Forest Monastery is most closely related to the communities in Europe and North America, while being part of the international community based in Thailand.
The monastic community members resident or soon to arrive at Temple Forest Monastery are:

Ajahn Jayanto – abbot

Born in Boston in 1967, Ajahn Jayanto grew up in Newton and attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, during which time a period of world travel kindled a great interest in the spiritual life. A meditation class at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center led him to live for a while at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he made plans to join the monastic community of Ajahn Sumedho as a postulant at Amaravati Monastery in England in 1989. Taking bhikkhu (monk) ordination at the related Cittaviveka Monastery in 1991, he trained there and at Aruna Ratanagiri Monastery until 1997, at which point he embarked on a period of practice in Thailand and other Asian Buddhist countries. He returned to the UK in 2006, where he lived at Amaravati until moving to Temple in 2014. Since 2009 Ajahn Jayanto has helped to lead the efforts to establish a branch monastery in New England, and he now serves as abbot of Temple Forest Monastery.

Ajahn Anando

Ajahn Anando was born in Blackheath, south-east London in 1966. He served as a soldier in the British army for three years, mostly in West Germany. After leaving the military he studied health and fitness at East London University, then established a small fitness company which he ran successfully for several years. His interest in meditation began in 1992 and increased to the stage where ordination as an anagarika became an obvious step. After several years in training he took higher ordination as a bhikkhu in 1997, with Ajahn Sumedho as preceptor. He spent his first two years as a monk at Amaravati Monastery, then moved to Thailand, living for a year at Wat Pah Nanachat and then a year at Tan Ajahn Anan’s Monastery near Rayong. This was followed by four years helping to establish a new forest monastery near Melbourne, Australia. For the past ten years he has been helping at Amaravati while also caring for his aging parents. Though this commitment keeps him in the U.K. most of the time, Ajahn Anando helps to guide Temple Forest Monastery and it is hoped he will be able to fully join Ajahn Jayanto in a role of shared responsibility for the monastery sometime in the future.

Ajahn Caganando

Ajahn Caganando (pronounced Cha-ga-nan-do) was born in New York in 1954. After receiving a degree in physics he worked in solar and wind energy research. His interest in sustainable communities, solar architecture, and meditation resulted in practical hands-on building work. A period of world travel led to practice in several Buddhist monasteries in India and Thailand, after which he worked at the Insight Meditation Society for five years. There he met Western monks from the Ajahn Chah lineage, and he went to Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand in 2002, taking bhikkhu ordination in 2004 with Ajahn Liem as his preceptor. Meeting Ajahn Pasanno in Thailand and benefiting from his guidance, he came to Abhayagiri Monastery in 2007. In recent years Ajahn Caganando has been living at the Pacific Hermitage, a branch of Abhayagiri in the Pacific Northwest. After spending the vassa of 2013 with Ajahn Jayanto in Boston, he returned to live at Temple Forest Monastery in June 2015.

Temple Forest Monastery

Welcome back

Sign up for Review My Retreat