Forest Tradition 1

In the Forest Tradition, monks withdraw from society to live in the forests and practice meditation and ascetic practices, and seek to attain Nirvana, following the example of Sakyamuni Buddha. 

This tradition is still alive and vibrant today, although it is almost invisible to the modern world. Countless thousands of monks and nuns live in solitude in the forests of  Burma, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

The characteristic features of the Forest tradition include strict observance of the monastic vinaya; following instructions of the Teacher; application of the 13 ascetic practices (dhutanga); living in forest or natural environment; pilgrimage or itinerate lifestyle(thudong); and meditation practice.

In the modern world, forest monks have been almost totally overlooked by historians or scholars, and forest monks even escaped the notice of their contemporaries, because they avoid drawing attention to themselves. They have left few written records of their existence.

Often they did not teach or, when they did teach, had few disciples. Many forest monks never had their life stories published, whether for personal reasons or because their supporters were mainly local people who could not afford the publishing costs. Many shunned publicity for fear of being disturbed by urban tourists. And the rustic ways of the forest monks were not generally respected by the elites of their respective societies.

But forest monks have a lot of offer us, as Jasmine Saville says in her essay Forest Matters: “The wandering monks intrinsically valued nature, perceiving the self and environment parts of an invisible whole. All forms of life were fellow karmic beings, each vital for interdependent well being….the thudong way is a pool of wisdom for spiritual identity in an age of mass consumerism, anomie, addiction, and conformity.”

"In recent years the thudong traditions have gained some kudos and material support amongst urbanites. …The few remaining thudong monks remind us of the intrinsic relationship between Buddhism and the biosphere. Their lesson – that nature is a sanctuary for the mind, nurturing inner transformation. Nature is Dhamma, and so provides a fountain of mortality and ethics required for a harmonious world.”

The wandering monks felt that living in the forest was essential to self-knowledge, and that jungles, forests and mountains were the supreme environment of Buddhist education, where they surrendered to nature and the impermanence of the universe to be free from the ocean of suffering of material existence.

Forest monks are practice-oriented, focused on meditation practice, and personal experience, rather than theoretical knowledge, in contrast to scholar monks who are focus their work on study, preservation, and transmission of the scriptures.

Forest monks practice for liberation, Nibbana, fruition. They must have the previous accumulation of merit, spiritual virtues, and mental certitude (parami), to be able to survive and to follow through to the final stage of liberation.

Phra Phonim Visal of Sukato Forest Monastery in Thailand, said that the Forest Tradition points us to an older, alternative way of life:

"Such messages point to the true value of life, indicating the value of inwardness as much more important than wealth and power, that the life of tranquility and material simplicity  is more rewarding and fulfilling…Such messages are especially revolutionary for a society blindly obsessed with impoverished values. To have forest monasteries amid, or elevated above lay society, is to have communities of resistance, that by their nature and very existence, question the validity of popular values.”

The forest monks “can convey, with insistence and innovation ‘messages’ that create ‘new’ values which can bring about cultural change on a fundamental level or encourage a change in the social patterns which inflict suffering and degrade the quality of people’s lives.”