For those able to wake up at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning, the Metta Forest Monastery offers visitors an immersion in Thai culture and cuisine in a Buddhist setting. Located on an Escondido mountain covered with orchards, the monastery houses seven monks and a small staff of volunteers who support their simplistic and anti-materialistic lifestyle. All are invited to take part in the monks’ daily rounds for alms at 8:30 a.m. or meditation in the evening hours, but the crowds usually come out on Sunday morning, which is half the charm at Metta. While the visiting groups and families are largely Thai or Chinese, it is not unusual to find international visitors hailing from Australia and England who come visit to see the first forest monastery in the country.
At 8:30 a.m., visitors line up on the path from the temple with small bowls of rice, which are spooned into the monks’ bowls as the visitors come for alms, a symbolic act representing the days when monks would have to go and beg for their food from nearby villages, often only getting simple sustenance, such as rice. These days, the monks politely return the rice, preferring the traditional Thai dishes that families bring to share. The monks eat in the temple as visitors meditate and chant prayers. Visitors also bring a wide variety of dishes to share with the monks, creating a communal buffet directly following the chanting. The food ranges from persimmons grown on the premises to look chin, a pork-ball dish covered in barbeque sauce on a stick, and roti, a delicious dessert of sweet flat bread with condensed milk drizzled on top.
Bellies full, visitors head back to the temple where the abbot, Ajaan Geoffrey Thanissaro, an American who has headed the temple since 1993, gives a sermon first in English, then in Thai. Theravada monasticism, the type of Buddhism practiced at Metta, is particularly focused on full-time meditation and living ascetically, but the lessons are always focused on the general Buddhist precepts of not harming others, self enlightenment and honesty. These are the traditional teachings, held over from when monks would be expected to impart wisdom gained from their meditations to those who helped feed and clothe them, thereby supporting the monks’ lifestyle.
For those looking to fully immerse themselves in the Buddhist culture, individuals are welcome to come stay at the temple for up to two weeks. Guests engage themselves in days full of Buddhism, waking up before dawn to meditate with the monks and sitting in on teachings and readings, while all the time following the eight precepts central to the religion. Guests visiting during the growing seasons are also asked to help farm on the orchards that dot the mountain, while spending the rest of their day spent meditating alone. Metta does not charge anyone who comes to stay on the property: It only suggests a donation to help support the monastery.
After the stress that comes from going to UCSD and the superficiality that can come with college, Metta provides a breath of fresh air and a chance to relax and get in touch with a simpler side of life.
P.O. Box 1409
Valley Center, CA 92082
