Correspondence

The Guest Office

A monastery receives guests through its guest office. Email the address below, or write to the temple by post. One letter, one matter; a slow reply is not a slight. The temple is not at present open to visitors, so please do not write to request a visit — the online temple is always open, and the guest office waits here.

Offerings & Receipts

Offerings to the temple have no set amount; give as you are able. Online offerings are collected on Clover's secure payment page — no card number reaches the temple; after a ceremony registration, the guest office replies by email with a secure payment link, and the registration number goes in the payment note. Or mail a check (payable to Waken Temple) to the temple's address with your registration number or name. Please never write a card number in an email or text message. Once received, the temple mails your receipt to you.

Temple Affairs

The Guest-Office Tradition

A monastery appoints a guest prefect to receive and see off all who come — the first gate between students of the ten directions and the resident community. Lodging, questions on the dharma, and letters all pass first through the guest office; the guest prefect receives everyone with courtesy and answers according to the dharma, favoring none. Now that this site opens its channels of correspondence, it carries the same intent: every inquiry received, every answer given with courtesy.

The Courtesy of a Letter

Letters in a monastery have always favored plainness. The usual pattern: begin with the form of address, then state the matter, and close with a greeting — few words, but the meaning complete. Address a monastic by a monastic title rather than by any worldly rank; refer to yourself plainly, neither boasting nor abasing. One letter, one matter; when the matter is finished, stop. Do not press for an answer or count the days — a resident community keeps its own hours, and a slow reply is not a slight. This is the common Han pattern.

How to Ask About the Dharma

A question about the dharma is worth asking when it touches your own case. First examine where the doubt lies: is the wording unclear, is the practice obstructed, or is the mind simply unsettled? Once the doubt is distinct, the question has somewhere to land. Next look into the sutras and treatises yourself, and ask only after reading has left you stuck; one who has read can be answered in a sentence, while one who has not cannot be answered in pages. Ask by stating the facts, not to test the one who answers, and without deciding in advance what answer you want; if the reply does not suit you, set it aside and reflect rather than argue on the spot. Questions of predestined fortune and misfortune, of victory and defeat, of gain and loss, are not what the dharma answers; turn them back toward severing delusion and realizing what is true. This is the common Han pattern.