Residencies

 

Photo Credit: Susan Lirakis

Our Short and Long-Term Residency program will not be offered again until 2025. Please check this website for the most up-to-date information about future programs including new ways to participate in the Abbey community.

Gampo Abbey is delighted to announce that we are expanding the ways in which people can apply to be a part of our community. We will now be offering short-term and long-term residencies for people interested in joining our community of dedicated practitioners, exploring an integrated and embodied path of Buddhist wisdom, meditation, and discipline.

Our contemplative and powerful atmosphere is warm-hearted yet rigorous, with four to five hours of meditation each day, resources for study and contemplation, a daily service period where we put meditation into action, and community discussion as a means of waking up together.

Accepted applicants are expected to integrate into the community, make a commitment to practice and study while here, and respectfully follow guidelines and rules while at the monastery.  After settling in for a period of one month or so, expect to have a review meeting with the Director before the rest of the residency is confirmed.

Short-Term Residencies

A short-term residency is a one to three-month commitment with the possibility of requesting to extend your stay after the first month. Short-term residents are expected to remain at the Abbey for the entire duration of their stay and do not have any time away.

We encourage you to view this opportunity as a time of deep retreat and reflection. Simplifying your life, reducing speed, and integrating into our practice environment is a powerful way of nourishing yourself, and offering to others.

Long-Term Residencies

Long-Term residencies are a 11-month commitment. Applicants may request to extend their stay part way through their time here as described in the Resident’s Handbook.  Participants in the long-term residency will have the opportunity for review and feedback after one month to confirm the commitment.

Long-term residents may request temporary ordination and solitary retreat after a period of two months. Prerequisites for requesting ordination include the Buddhist Refuge Vow, which must be undertaken before arriving at the Abbey, and evidence of a training path in basic Buddhist practice and philosophy.

The experience of temporary ordination is a rich and deep path, and unique to a very small number of monastic situations, including Gampo Abbey. You can read more about the training and commitment for this here.


We will not be offering residencies until later in 2025.