If there is no vital Great Sangha ornamented by the three trainings, the monastery is only a tourist site or a business center

What makes a monastery a monastery? The physical representations of a monastery are only symbols. A dynamic administrative system and a positive environment for learning, contemplating, and meditating are the sources and the heart of an authentic monastery, which make the place a real Buddhist monastery.

Our beloved and most kind teacher, Lamasang, built many symbols of the Buddha’s enlightened body, speech, and mind, in the form of temples, stupas, and practice facilities. But, for him, these were not the things that make a monastery a real monastery. It was his teachings and the establishment of an educated, diligent Sangha that studies, contemplates, and meditates on the Dharma, following the established paths of this lineage that are the main factors making this monastery a real monastery. This was the main purpose for Lamasang being reborn here, in this particular place.

If there is no vital Great Sangha ornamented by the three trainings, the monastery is only a tourist site, or perhaps a business center, which no one wishes the monastery to become.

The essence of Lamasang’s wishes and teachings for all his students or Sangha, specifically the monks, nuns and yogis here in this monastery, is for everyone to try their very best to have little attachment and to practice diligently in the monastery, and as much as possible not to be running around with unfocussed body, speech, and mind.

 Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche, “Our Samaya with Lamasang”