Craig Hannah Reporting, Connecticut Sangha
On Sunday, June 10, 2018 a group of nine CT people made a day trip to the Chaung Yen Monastery in Carmel, NY. This monastery was started by the Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS) in November 1975. Its buildings are in the architectural style of China’s Tang Dynasty, but the programs offered seem to span the range of all the Buddhist schools.
One of the monastery’s focuses is on the publication and distribution of Buddhist related books, many of which are available for free (a donation is requested) in the Great Buddha Hall. They also support the distribution of literature to prisoners, which is related to the prisoner correspondence course that the DTO is involved with.
Following is a photo of our group taken in a gazebo by the Seven Jewels Lake on the monastery’s grounds.
CT sangha members at the Chuang Yen Monastery
A photosphere picture taken in the Great Buddha Hall taken during our visit is available at this link. Click the image once it is is displayed and Google’s photosphere’s viewer should allow you to zoom, pan and tilt around the room. The 24,000 square foot building is beautiful in itself, but the main attraction is a 55 foot tall (base and statue) statue of the Buddha Vairocana (the primordial buddha) surrounded by an amphitheater filled with 10,000 Bodhisattvas.
In addition to touring the grounds, checking out the books, and meditating in the Kuan Yin hall, we had all registered to attend a talk given by Robert Wright on his newest book, ‘Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment’. We’re planning on using this book as a summer reading and discussion topic.