Mendut Monastery

Banthe Pannyavaro

Yesterday was pretty much a typical day at the office for me at Interfidei, which is pretty amazing. Misato and I have been making a movie about one of Interfidei's programs called the SLI. It's an interfaith school for university students in Indonesia. For the movie, we have been traveling around Jogja and interviewing student participants and facilitators of the program from all different religions. It has been an incredible opportunity to discuss religion with a diverse group of people. Our interview yesterday took us an hour outside of Jogja to the Mendut Buddhist Monastery where we interviewed Interfidei board member, Banthe Pannyavaro. He is not only the head of the Mendut Monastery, but also the leader of Tera Vada Buddhism in Indonesia. 

When we arrived at the monastery, I was immediately struck by how peaceful and beautiful it was. The gardens were filled with flowers and trees and as you walk along the paths, you notice the statues and shrines sprinkled throughout the property. Banthe Pannyavaro greeted us with his toothless smile and gave us a tour of the property. We were allowed to watch as the monks-in-training meditated and chanted in the meditation room. The property was completely open to us to roam around and take as many pictures as we wanted. As Banthe Pannyavaro kept repeating, "There is no copyright, only right to copy." 

The entrance to the monastery

Banthe Pannyavaro then sat with us and explained some aspects of Buddhism. He touched on everything I had learned in the classroom: the Noble Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, etc. However, he went far beyond what I could have gotten from a class. He showed us around their modest library, pointing to Buddha statues and explaining where each had come from. Misato and I were then given the chance to interview him for our movie. After he had finished discussing the SLI in Bahasa Indonesia, he began to ramble on in English. What he said is something I'll never forget. He explained that you can be a good person even if you don't have religion in your life. You are a good person if you have good thoughts, and a bad person if you have bad thoughts. However, being a good or bad person is a temporary state and you can always change from one to the other. It is all about the tone of your thoughts and keeping yourself positive. 

After our discussion with Banthe Pannyavaro, we watched as the monks took alms and begged for their food. This noon-time meal would be the last meal of the day for them. The monks do not eat from noon one day until the following morning at seven. People from the town had gathered and made an impressive spread of food for them. The monks lined up single-file with their bowls beneath their robes. One-by-one they took food from the table and headed  downstairs into the basement of a building. Once they had all served themselves, we followed them downstairs and watch their pre-meal ritual. Banthe Pannyavaro lead them in prayer and then they began to chant. It was so beautiful and even made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. After about ten minutes or pre-meal ritual, the monks began to eat in silence and we were ushered out. We were then also given lunch and it was delicious! The funniest part was that they had little boxed of KFC for the monks. Watching them eat that definitely gave us all a laugh.

At the end of our visit Banthe Pannyavaro gave us each a book about the teachings of Buddhism, which I'm looking forward to reading. This has actually been my first direct encounter with Buddhism in Indonesia and it was such an amazing experience!

The monks walking to their meditation session. 

The female nuns walking to the meditation session.

The AUA volunteers in front of a temple given to the monastery by Japan. 

The entrance to the boarding house for the monks. The pose of the Buddha symbolizes cutting suffering with the middle way. 

Banthe Pannyavaro with his bowl for receiving alms.

The monks lined up to get their food. 

Prayer before a meal. These 7 monks are the only full-time residents of the monastery. The rest are just in training here. 

The yellow sandals of the monks left outside the meditation center. Yellow is significant in Buddhism because it is the color of the monk's robes. 

Banthe Pannyavaro showing us some of the holy writings in Buddhism. The writing is on palm leaves and is done by etching with a needle and filling the etching in with soot. As Banthe Pannyavaro reminded us, this is a very old method and now we can download the texts on the internet. 

The type of tree that the Siddhartha was said to have died under. Once he died he became the Buddha. 

One of the Buddha statues in the garden.