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Four-Year Program in Buddhist Studies
Ordaining from a young age offers a precious opportunity, as the young mind has not yet been sown with many negative seeds. In the peaceful environment of the monastery, children—like baby monks and baby nuns—are nourished with wholesome seeds each day, learning how to calm themselves when angry or sad, and living in brotherhood and sisterhood, something that schools outside do not provide. The education follows the path of training or education by permeation, which means a natural absorption, just as a French baby from one to five years old absorbs language simply by listening to their parents speak.
The four-year monastic training program combines the study of sutras, precepts, and commentaries with practice, with an emphasis on direct experience from the very beginning. In the first year, the novice must:
- Sit in meditation (sitting solidly and in silence)
- Practice walking meditation (walking with ease and stability)
- Practice eating meditation, working meditation (dwelling in the present moment)
- Serve as an attendant (learning deportment and the path of practice from senior teachers)
Plum Village uses resources such as Old Path White Clouds, Cultivating the Lotus of a Thousand Petals, and the tapes “The Practices of Plum Village” to build the curriculum, deepening each year with:
- The Southern Tripitaka, Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only, Fifty Verses
- The Northern Tripitaka, Treatises of the Mahayana, Middle Way Treatise
- Psychology, sociology, and the history of civilization
The spirit of Engaged Buddhism and the Buddha’s arm—the Six Paramitas—emphasizes compassionate and wise action, such as bringing those of low status into the Sangha, protecting women, and sheltering Angulimala. Monastic education is not just knowledge, but a way of life; each practice is a door that opens to peace and happiness in every moment.