Program areas at Dharmadatta Community
Residential religious training of buddhist nuns, consisting of intensive instruction in buddhist meditation, ethics, rituals, and philosophy. Training is based on monastic vows (celibacy, etc.) And includes theological study and an annual 3-month meditation retreat. Training program equips nuns to provide instruction and religious services to our congregation. All training of our monastic residents is conducted by senior nuns who are authorized to instruct as buddhist teachers. Nuns of Dharmadatta Community also lead all volunteer teams and projects for our lay congregation. This activity takes place entirely at our physical base in orange, va. all our services for the lay Community were conducted from there online. Approximately 60% of our time is allocated to these activities. Our residential Community consists of 5 women in residence at any given moment: two permanent residents, with space for three visiting nuns at a time. We have several applicants to become permanent residents, and a waitlist of women wishing to join for shorter stays as visiting nuns. We are actively seeking to build a capital fund to acquire property to support our Community's growth.
Religious instruction homilies are webcast live every sunday on the facebuda youtube channel, with over 160,000 subscribers. Sunday services are typically attended by over 500 of our congregants, with thousands viewing during the week. Although the support of the teachers is a major expense, there are no costs specific to our youtube channel.
The second major focus of our Community is in providing religious services to our lay congregation through a variety of projects. All our religious services are conducted entirely in spanish, with ritual services, group prayer, meditation, and religious instruction through various online platforms, including the instituto budadharma service for theological and meditation instruction, and our online meditation hall at budismoenlinea.ning.com (salas de meditacion Dharmadatta). The congregation we serve here has over 35,000 members. All services are offered free of charge.