Some people take the opportunity to move into residency at Dharma Rain for a time. Living on site allows you to experience the daily schedule and some of the monastic forms on a regular basis. You also have increased access to Teachers and other practitioners who live on site. The intention and result is to deepen our practice. For some, at times, this may also be part of a discernment process towards ordination.
Residency may be part-time or full-time. Residents commit to becoming an intimate part of the residential community as well as deepening their relationship to the Dharma Rain sangha. They commit to spending more time and energy doing formal practice within the context of sangha than is usually possible outside of residency.
During their term of residency, they seek out and accept guidance from Teachers, Soto Zen teachings, and the dharma inherent in Dharma Rain’s training matrix and traditions. As work outside the temple and personal commitments allow, residents attend daily zazen, communal meals, Wednesday evening and Sunday morning programs, work practice days, Fusatsu and in-town retreats. They have informal sanzen (interview) with Dharma Rain Teachers at least once a term and participate in the Term Student program if possible. They also hold regular temple jobs and make themselves available for temple work projects.
Requirements for residency are membership and practice with us for at least a year. An interview with a residency committee (consisting of the Abbot, a Board member, and the Head of Residency) explores whether it is likely to be a good fit. We need to know that we can live in harmony in close proximity together.
Ordained and lay members currently in residency at Dharma Rain are Kakumyo & Yoan Lowe-Charde (in the Hojo, or abbot’s quarters), Genko Rainwater, Kakuon Christian, Jyoshin Clay (now living across the street), Zonnyo Riger, Reiju Nelsen, Sage Goodenough, and Emily Vollmer. If you have questions about the Residency Program, contact the Head of Residency, Genko Rainwater.