Anyone wishing to come to the Vihara to stay should first call up (moblie: +6012-4697483), or write in, to ensure availability of accommodation. However, anyone who has not stayed before will be required to speak to the abbot – either personally, by way of letter, or via a phone call. This is to ensure that one’s reasons for coming to stay are compatible with what this Vihara can provide.
Intending residents are advised to bring their own work shoes, pillow-case, bed sheet, sleeping bag, torchlight, alarm clock. While staying in the Vihara, lay residents are normally required to uphold the 8 precepts, unless an exception has been allowed by the abbot.
The 8 precepts are:
- To refrain from intentionally killing any living being.
- To refrain from taking what is not given (e.g. books, meditation cushion, etc.).
- To refrain from sexual conduct.
- To refrain from lying (and carrying tales, coarse speech, idle gossip).
- To refrain from taking liquor, drugs, and similar intoxicants.
- To refrain from eating from 1 p.m. (when the sun is at the highest point in Malaysia) until the next dawn (about 7 a.m.). However, certain medicinal allowances according to the Thai forest tradition are permitted.
- To refrain from dancing, singing, seeing shows, hearing music, using garlands, cosmetics, or perfumes, etc..
- To refrain from using a luxurious bed.
Please find below for rules & regulations in detail:
Residents and visitors should be properly dressed and covered. Smoking, talking loudly and other disruptive behaviour are not permitted. No food is allowed inside a dwelling. Only medicinal allowances are permitted.
Monks (bhikkhus, samaneras) are not allowed to possess money, so laypersons should not offer money to them. Monetary donations should only be made to the Sangha Foundation.
The Vihara employs only minimum number of workers and all residents are expected to shoulder the daily maintenance workload. This is different from certain meditation centres which run regular retreats where retreatants (‘yogis’) are expected to meditate all the time and not do any work.
The food in the Vihara is mostly (1) offered at the Vihara by devotees and (2) very simple food prepared by kitchen helper. Those with specific food needs may face difficulty with what the Vihara can offer.
The Vihara being a forest monastery is remote from major towns and so has limited access to medical facilities. Intending residents who need regular medical treatment may find the Vihara unsuitable.
Those who are on medications are strongly advised to bring along sufficient supply for the duration of their stay in the Vihara.
The use of internet within the Vihara is allowable only for the Vihara’s administrative purposes.
The harmony of the Vihara is very important, and residents should remember the advice given in the Majjhima Nikaya Sutta 31 on how to live “in concord, with mutual appreciation, without disputing, blending like milk and water, viewing each other with kindly eyes.”