Seeking Volunteers for Winter Retreat 2019 – Tisarana Buddhist Monastery

Staffing the Winter Retreat 2019

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Tisarana Buddhist Monastery is looking for sincere, mature Dhamma practitioners to volunteer as staff for part or all of our upcoming Winter Retreat (Jan 01 – Mar 31).

The crew for the retreat usually consists of 5-6 people who run the critical functions of the monastery on a shared rotating basis of daily chores interspersed with regular time off. Crew members should expect to work between 2-4 hours daily, with occasional longer work days as circumstances require.

General tasks

Potential candidates should be willing and able to perform all duties of the retreat. These include –

Cooking: being head cook
Cooking: being assistant cook
Domestic chores: Vacuuming, laundry, dish-washing, cleaning bathrooms, etc.
Winter chores: Shoveling snow

Specialty roles

Office: Responding to urgent messages, paperwork / bills
Maintenance: Responding to plumbing, electrical, structural emergencies and routines. Operating the tractor with snowblower.

Responsibilities will also include attending all morning and evening pujas and upholding the Eight Precepts.

In return the Winter Retreat staffers will receive an opportunity to practise the Dhamma in a quiet, beautiful and inspiring monastic setting and gain the satisfaction and merit of providing support for monastics and fellow crew members undertaking this period of more intense practise.

Preference will be given to those who are able to serve for the entire three months of the retreat. The retreat runs from the beginning of January until the end of March. We are also looking for those already familiar to Tisarana. If you have never stayed as a guest at Tisarana, then a stay of at least a week prior to the winter retreat would be essential.

Interested applicants should send an email to retreats@tisarana.ca, giving some information about themselves, past monastic and meditation experience, availability, and why they would like to serve on the retreat. We will get back to all applicants in due course.