Life at Sera Mey

More than just a center of learning, Sera Mey is a home to monks as young as seven years old and as old as eighty.  A day in the life of a Sera Mey monk includes prayers, studies, cooking, memorization, cleaning, and service to their teachers.  The daily schedule is rigorous and usually does not include much leisure time.

Every Tuesday monks get their single holiday of the week, a much needed break from the usual working days.  Many like to relax with long walks, picnics, and the occasional football game.

When a monk enters the fold of Sera Mey they take an oath to live by a code of ethics to protect the well-being of themselves and their spiritual brothers.  All happiness and hardship is shared between those at the monastery.  The feeling of brotherhood in palpable.

Studies at Sera Mey

Since the inception of the Buddhist monastic system, the primary goal of a monastery has been education.  Today that education is broader than ever and includes not just Buddhist studies but math, science, history, and even English.  Once a monk has completed these non-Buddhist studies he enters in to the five great subjects of Buddhism.  They are:

1. 1.logic and reasoning
   

2. 2.the Perfection of Wisdom
   

3. 3.Buddhist cosmology
   

4. 4.Middleway philosophy
   

5. 5.monastic discipline and ethics
   

These are all the topics one studies to achieve a Geshe degree after over twenty years of study, debate, and examinations.

Study the Great Books

Thanks to ongoing efforts to translate Tibetan Buddhist texts into English, you can now

study some of the holy scriptures that the monks of Sera Mey study.

1. • The Perfection of Wisdom (pdf) ཕར་ཕྱིན་མཐའ་དཔྱོད་
   

2. • Karma, the Treasure House of Higher Knowledge (pdf) ཆོས་མངོན་པའི་མཛོད་
   

3. • The Vows of a Bodhisattva (pdf) ལམ་རིམ་ཆེན་མོ་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་གཞུང་ལམ་
   

4. • The Diamond Cutter Sutra (pdf) རྡོར་གཅོད་
   

5. • Logic (pdf) ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་