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1 Begin ReadingTable of ContentsNewslettersCopyright PageIn accordance with the Act of 1976, thescanning, uploading, and electronicsharing of any part of this bookwithout the permission of thepublisher constitute unlawful piracyand theft of the author s intellectualproperty. If you would like to usematerial from the book (other thanfor review purposes), prior writtenpermission must be obtained bycontacting the publisher Thankyou for your support of theauthor s JulieIntroductionThe passion of the Monk Follow your passion isdangerous advice. Thomas had this realization inone of the last places you mightexpect.

2 He was walking a trailthrough the oak forest that outlinesthe southern bowl of TremperMountain. The trail was one ofmany that cross through the 230-acre property of the Zen MountainMonastery, which has called thiscorner of the Catskill Mountains itshome since the early 1980s. Thomaswas halfway through a two-yearstay at the monastery, where he wasa practicing lay monk. His arrival,one year earlier, had been thefulfillment of a dream-job fantasythat he had nurtured for years. Hehad followed his passion for allthings Zen into this secludedCatskills retreat and had expectedhappiness in return.

3 As he stood inthe oak forest that afternoon,however, he began to cry, hisfantasy crumbling around him. I was always asking, What sthe meaning of life? Thomas toldme when I first met him, at a coffeeshop in Cambridge, then, several years had passedsince Thomas s realization in theCatskills, but the path that led himto that point remained clear and hewas eager to talk about it, as if therecounting would help exorcise thedemons of his complicated earning a pair of bachelor sdegrees in philosophy and theology,then a master s degree incomparative religion, Thomasdecided that Zen Buddhist practicewas the key to a meaningful life.

4 There was such a big crossoverbetween the philosophy I wasstudying and Buddhism that Ithought, Let me just go practiceBuddhism directly to answer thesebig questions, he told graduation, however,Thomas needed money, so he tookon a variety of jobs. He spent ayear, for example, teaching Englishin Gumi, an industrial town incentral South Korea. To many, lifein East Asia might sound romantic,but this exoticism soon wore off forThomas. Every Friday night, afterwork, the men would gather atthese street carts, which had tentsextending out from them, Thomastold me.

5 They gathered to drinksoju [a distilled rice liquor] late intothe night. During winter therewould be steam coming from thesetents, from all the men I remember most, however, isthat the next morning the streetswould be covered in dry vomit. Thomas s search also inspiredhim to travel across China and intoTibet, and to spend time in SouthAfrica, among other journeys,before ending up in Londonworking a rather dull job in dataentry. Throughout this period,Thomas nurtured his convictionthat Buddhism held the key to hishappiness. Over time, thisdaydream evolved into the idea ofhim living as a monk.

6 I had builtup such an incredible fantasy aboutZen practice and living in a Zenmonastery, he explained to me. Itcame to represent my dream cometrue. All other work paled incomparison to this fantasy. He wasdedicated to following his was while in London thatThomas first learned about the ZenMountain Monastery, and he wasimmediately attracted to itsseriousness. These people werepracticing really intense and sincereZen, he recalls. His passioninsisted that the Zen MountainMonastery was where he took nine months for Thomasto complete the application he finally arrived at Kennedyairport, having been approved tocome live and practice at themonastery, he boarded a bus to takehim into the Catskill ride took three hours.

7 Afterleaving the city sprawl, the busproceeded through a series ofquaint towns, with the scenerygetting progressively morebeautiful. In a scene of almostcontrived symbolism, the buseventually reached the foot ofTremper Mountain, where itstopped and let Thomas out at acrossroads. He walked from the busstop down the road leading to themonastery entrance, which wasguarded by a pair of wrought-irongates, left open for new on the grounds, Thomasapproached the main building, afour-story converted churchconstructed from local bluestoneand timbered with local oak.

8 It isas if the mountain offered itself as adwelling place for spiritualpractice is how the monks of themonastery describe it in theirofficial literature. Pushing past theoaken double doors, Thomas wasgreeted by a monk who had beentasked with welcoming to describe the emotionsof this experience, Thomas finallymanaged to explain it to me asfollows: It was like being reallyhungry, and you know that you regoing to get this amazing meal that is what this represented forme. Thomas s new life as a monkstarted well enough. He lived in asmall cabin, set back in the woodsfrom the main building.

9 Early in hisvisit he asked a senior monk, whohad been living in a similar cabinfor over fifteen years, if he ever gottired of walking the trail connectingthe residences to the main building. I m only just starting to learn it, the monk replied days at the Zen MountainMonastery started as early as 4 , depending on the time ofyear. Remaining in silence, themonks would greet the morningwith forty to eighty minutes ofmeditation on mats arranged with geometric precision in the mainhall. The view outside the Gothicwindows at the front of the hall wasspectacular, but the mats kept themeditators too low to see out.

10 Apair of hall monitors sat at the backof the room, occasionally pacingamong the mats. Thomas explained: If you found yourself fallingasleep, you could request that theyhit you with a stick they kept forthis purpose. After breakfast, eaten in the samegreat hall, everyone was assignedjobs. Thomas spent time cleaningtoilets and shoveling ditches as partof his housecleaning duties, but hewas also assigned, somewhatanachronistically, to handle thegraphic design for the monastery sprint journal. A typical daycontinued with more meditation,interviews with senior practitioners,and often long, inscrutable Dharmalectures.