Monasteries in Florida.

[identification]

Are there any Thai forest tradition monasteries in Florida ordaining anyone or any tradition practicing similarly? Ajahn Maha Buas teaching on the citta resonate with me. Ajahn Thanissaros meditation techniques are interesting. Closest monasteries I've been able to find are in California, but I'm sort of living as a hermit right now. No job, no license, no high school education, so not very easy for me to go back and forth between states.

[paul]

This is a Thai monastery. Reading their information, they have the Thai Forest approach:
http://watflorida.com/Wat_Florida_Dhamm ... lcome.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is a Sri Lankan monastery with a purist orientation toward the suttas to the exclusion of the commentaries, the only reason it is included is because they welcome candidates for ordination:
http://meditationcentertampa.com/a-spiritual-community/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ryanM]

there's a thai wat in okeechobee, Flordia. just do a simple search and it should come right up.

[DNS]

This is a Thai monastery. Reading their information, they have the Thai Forest approach:
Wat Florida Dhammaram

They have beautiful grounds including shrines of the four holy pilgrimage sites, including a Maha Bodhi Temple replica.

Wat Florida Dhammaram

[Dhammanando]

This is a Thai monastery. Reading their information, they have the Thai Forest approach:

Do they? The listed activities aren't suggestive of this.

The wat's parent monastery in Thailand is Wat Somanat, a monastery in the Dusit district of Bangkok, just down the road from where I used to live. Wat Somanat has nothing to do with the forest tradition. It's a city wat where Dhammayutt monks from the south of Thailand will usually go to stay at if they want to study in Bangkok.

[seeker242]

Wat Buddharangsi of Miami

http://thaitemplemiami.com/en/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They are a Thai temple, but not sure if they are "Thai forest" specifically.

[paul]

It's a city wat where Dhammayutt monks from the south of Thailand will usually go to stay at if they want to study in Bangkok.

"The Thammayut Nikaya has produced two particularly highly revered forest monks: Phra Ajahn Sao Kantasilo Mahathera (1861–1941) and Phra Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta (1870– 1949)."

In any case it would be a good stepping stone to Thailand for the OP, who is in straitened circumstances.

[Dhammanando]

"The Thammayut Nikaya has produced two particularly highly revered forest monks: Phra Ajahn Sao Kantasilo Mahathera (1861–1941) and Phra Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta (1870– 1949)."

Sure, but that doesn't mean that Wat Florida has any affiliation with the Thai forest tradition. In the Dhammayuttika Nikaya, as in the Mahanikaya, the huge majority of monks never go anywhere near a forest.

[identification]

"The Thammayut Nikaya has produced two particularly highly revered forest monks: Phra Ajahn Sao Kantasilo Mahathera (1861–1941) and Phra Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta (1870– 1949)."

Sure, but that doesn't mean that Wat Florida has any affiliation with the Thai forest tradition. In the Dhammayuttika Nikaya, as in the Mahanikaya, the huge majority of monks never go anywhere near a forest.

Thanks everyone. Does this tradition have an emphasis on practice? Would you recommend it for someone working toward the Jhanas and hoping to make a large amount of progress in this life? Believe it or not the monastery I think you're at, Amaravati, is one of my top choices if I could go anywhere. Ajahn Amaro seems like an awesome guy.

[paul]

My advice would be to go to Thailand or Sri Lanka and considering your circumstances, the way to do that would be to join one of the monasteries I've mentioned. The western monastery you mentioned is very regimented.

[Dhammanando]

Does this tradition have an emphasis on practice?

Not having been there I can't say for sure, but from the activities given on the web page I would guess that it's probably a rather typical Thai dhammadūta wat. By that I mean that it's primary function would be as a social centre where Thai people can meet and stroke each other. The non-Thais who attend such a wat will typically be quite a mixed bag. For example, during a two-week stay at Wat Buddhapadipa in London, I recall that the native English visitors included meditators, students of Abhidhamma, the English husbands of Thai women, homosexuals in search of Thai boyfriends, gourmets fond of Thai food, secondary school RE teachers, three enormous black fellows looking for a Thai boxing teacher... etc. etc. A wat that has to cater for such a diverse sample of "God's plenty" is unlikely to place an especial emphasis on meditation (assuming that this is what you mean by practice).

Would you recommend it for someone working toward the Jhanas and hoping to make a large amount of progress in this life?

I shouldn't imagine that it's the sort of place that would be free of the eighteen faults in a monastery, which is what you need for effective samatha-bhāvanā.

Believe it or not the monastery I think you're at, Amaravati, is one of my top choices if I could go anywhere.

You must be thinking of a different Dhammanando. As a layman in the early 1980's I would spend the occasional weekend at Chithurst Forest Monastery when Ajahn Sumedho was still the abbot there, but as a monk I've only been on one day trip to Amaravati.