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The Program > Precepts/Ordination

The Precepts

The practice of the Precepts (jp. “Kai”) enfolds over several successive steps, beginning with the precepts of personal liberation (pratimoksa lay-vows), and moving on to the precepts of compassionate action (bodhisattva vows) and transformation (samaya vows).

Rather than intellectual platitudes, or moral imperatives, the precepts are engaged, internalized… “worked with” rather than passively “observed.” The activity of the Precepts is the enlightened activity of the Buddha.

If students have not yet received the refuge vows and householder precepts (either with Five Mountain, or another Buddhist lineage), they are required to do so within the first year after acceptance into the Seminary. Refuge and Householder Precepts will be made available at all retreats.

Ordination

All persons eighteen years old or older, regardless of race, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation, are eligible to join the Five Mountain Order if they have shown the capacity of learning and practicing the Order’s Teachings and have passed through the traditional Order barrier gates.

The three barrier gates are:

Novice Ordination requires the completion of a series of Introductory courses on basic Buddhism, Buddhist Practice, and the Order while Priest Ordination requires graduation from the Five Mountain Buddhist Seminary (5MBS).

Participation in at least one Five Mountain Order retreat, and receiving refuge (San-Ki-E - becoming a buddhist) and the Five Lay Precepts (Jukai).

Meeting with at least one Order Teacher, to articulate one's reasons for practicing Buddhism and wanting to become a formal member of the Order.

It is not necessary for Order members to be in residence at a Monastery or live near-by an Order Temple, Dharma Center, or group. Most members practice at home, maintaining a relationship with the teachers and Order through visits, retreats, and distributed learning training sessions.

Members of the Five Mountain Order are either novices or Priests, there are no “lay” members of the Five Mountain Order.

Novice and Priest/Practitioner

The Novice begins to experience the various teachings and practices in the Order’s primary areas of concentration. After one or two years training and practicing as a Novice, and upon graduation from the Five Mountain Seminary program, they choose a major and minor area of study and practice on which to focus, and receive Priest ordination.

Their general progress in the Order is an individual path and process that the Priest undertakes with their Teachers and Masters, and is determined by their progress in these core areas:

Dharma/Academic Study

Meditation practice