The Basics

• When coming to the Center, dress modestly. Casual dress is fine but refrain from wearing clothes that are either too revealing or sloppy.
• Please remember to turn off or mute your cell phone. Smoking is not allowed.
• The Shrine Hall is usually meant for religious activities.
• While in the Shrine Hall, refrain from loud talk, noise, play, reading of newspapers and the like
• Sit with your feet folded to one side or cross-legged. Please do not lie on the floor. If you feel the need to stretch your legs while in the Shrine Hall, it is suggested to do so in such a way that you do not point your feet directly at the Teacher or Shrine.
• When greeting other community members, one may do so in the Buddhist tradition of ‘anjali’ by placing the palms together at the chest. However, in accordance with present times, handshakes and hellos are also perfectly acceptable.
• It is customary and respectful to stand when a monastic enters and leaves the Shrine Hall.

Pujas
The Shrine where the Buddha image is placed represents the Buddha himself and should be respected as such. You may make offerings of lamps, flowers, incense, fruit and water at the shrine. When the assembled community venerates the Three Jewels and performs the Buddha Puja, please sit or bow accordingly and do not engage in other activity (such as qigong or yoga). The traditional way of paying respect to a Shrine or to a monk or nun, who may be present is to bow. This is done kneeling and sitting firmly on the heels. Bow forward, putting the hands six inches apart and the elbows directly in front of the knees. Touch the forehead to the floor between the hands. Bow three times, (to respect with your body, speech and mind to the Three Jewels). In the Center, we pay respect to the Shrine or to the monastic at the beginning and end of the Puja or Dhamma talk.

Relating to Monks and Nuns
Monks and nuns ( they are not ‘priests’) have many rules in their monastic code of discipline that affect the way they relate to people. In particular, it is an offense for an ordained monastic to have sensual physical contact with a person of the opposite sex. The protection against this goes even further, stipulating that there must be another conscientious male present whenever a monk is spending time with a woman. This is to prevent harmful gossip and misunderstanding. Partly for this reason, monks and nuns will greet people with an anjali rather than shaking hands or embracing.

As alms-mendicants, monks and nuns are prohibited from engaging in activities that could provide for their own material livelihood. This includes handling money or storing food. As a result, everything that accrues to the monastic community is the result of an offering from a generous person. Anything a monk or nun consumes, except water, must actually be offered to them directly. They cannot help themselves to food unless it has been offered to them.

In addressing a monk or a nun, it is considered impolite to refer to them directly by name without an appropriate form of address. As we have visiting teachers from several traditions, you may hear many different forms of address. Generally monks are addressed with these prefixes:

Ajahn: Thai for teacher
Sayadaw: Burmese for Teacher
Bhante: Pali for Venerable
*For the sake of simplicity, it is best to simply use the address Bhante or the English equivalent Venerable.