Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Every year, the sangha (monastic community of monks and nuns) go on a three month retreat called the “Rains Retreat” from the full moon in July to the full moon in October. During this period, they do not visit our centres not appear online for teachings as it’s a time for deepening their own practice. Whilst it may seem that the lay community can only suffer as a result of not having regular teachings, the truth is the opposite from appearances. Because the lay community supports the sangha of monks and nuns in during this period of focused meditation and retreat from worldly duties, monastics get the opportunity to deepen their sense of tranquility and insight as a consequence. This means that they have something genuine to share with us when they return to their regular teaching duties, and can guide the lay community to deepen their practice also.

Even though there will be few new teachings being posted during the next three months, the volunteers in the Broadcasting Group of the BSWA will still be posting content. The BSWA Podcast ( http://podcast.bswa.org/ ) will be updated with content every day. And it is worth keeping in mind that you can go https://bswa.org/teachings/ to search through around 2400 teachings given in the previous 20 years sorted by teacher, topic and key terms (tags).