Meditative Codes
for the White Sands Buddhist Center

1.   Having arrived at the Center, you should immediately contact the Center’s staff to receive guidance for your personal needs: practicing meditation, studying Buddhist philosophy, or the offering of public service, donations, charity.

2.   Please do not bring to the Center flammable substances such as explosive materials, alcohol, illegal drugs or other hazardous things. Pets are also not allowed.

3.   To maintain a fresh outlook for both your spiritual as well as your everyday life, you are requested not to noisily argue, struggle, or get angry with others; not to gossip or give a bad report of another. You are requested to practice a life of sympathy, love, and tolerance. You are to live, always and everywhere, mindful and highly alert.

4.   You are invited to contact the Center’s staff directly and inform them of any comments, questions, or concerns, or especially to report any incident that made you unhappy or uncomfortable. We also welcome your recommendations for improvements.

5.   You are requested to respect the tranquility and peace of the Center; not to bother your companions in Dharma; not to harm plant or animal life in any way; and to practice “speaking in the Dharma way and keeping silent in the Dharma way.”

6.   While staying at the Center with the purpose of reinforcing and cultivating true happiness and nurturing the Dharma joy, you are encouraged not to eat meat, not to involve yourself in sexual conduct, not to behave in a rough manner or in one that could endanger yourself or others.

7.   You are invited to fully participate in the Center’s daily schedule, including such matters as bowing to the Buddhas, prayers, recitation of sutras, meditation, charity, and public service.

8.   Whenever you have personal difficulties, please contact the Center’s staff to receive extra assistance; and, in critical cases, please contact the Abbot to receive special counsel.

9.   You are invited to practice various modes of meditation: walking, sitting, listening to Dharma talks, and by living with loving-kindness, an unoccupied mind, and sympathetic joy in order to strengthen your wisdom and compassion.

10.   The meditative code above applies to all visitors, practitioners, and workers of the White Sands Buddhist Center. If a person breaks any point of the Meditative Code while staying at the Center, he or she is encouraged to perform the Ksamayati (confession) ceremony.