Experienced lay Buddhist meditators (over 18 years of age) are welcome to apply for a short stay with the community at Santi. We do not offer private retreat opportunities, but all guests join in the community’s daily routine of work and practice as described in the program.
Please first read all the information below, including the separate conditions of stay page, then fill out and submit the Online Application Form via the link at the bottom of this page. Please apply at least three days prior to your desired arrival date, unless previously arranged with the monastery.
Online applications will be processed and phone calls will be answered during office hours – 8am to 10:45am Wednesday to Monday. However, if you don’t hear back from us within five days of applying please email to ensure your application has come through.
Before applying to stay, please consider that Santi Forest Monastery has only basic accommodation facilities and is in a very rugged environment, with summer and winter temperatures that are often extreme. You need to be physically agile and have relatively robust health, both physically and mentally, to stay at Santi. If you’d like more details of facilities and conditions, please contact the monastery directly.
In the traditional spirit of Dana (generosity/free will offering) there is no charge for staying at the monastery. All donations however are greatly appreciated to help keep the monastery open and viable, as Santi is fully dependent on the donations of lay supporters.
Important note: There is no internet access for lay guests at Santi, so please finalise your work commitments and correspondence before coming. Your stay is a wonderful opportunity to ‘unhook’ from the internet!
Staying at Santi
Please know that Santi has a policy of not accepting people to stay who show up unannounced.
If this will be your first stay at Santi or you are unknown to the community here, the maximum period of stay is 4 days.
During the Bush Fire Danger Period from 1 October to 31 March, if you are local, we ask that you drive yourself to the monastery. This so that you are able to leave quickly and safely should the need arise.
Also note that we do not accept short term guests during the Monastic Vassa retreat period, from the full moon of June till the full moon of October.
Before applying to stay at Santi, you need to read our page Conditions of Stay (here) which explains the 8 precepts you need to agree to keep and the other conditions you need to agree to in order to stay here.
Additionally:
- Guests need to have a good grounding and experience in the fundamentals of Buddhist meditation and be maintaining a regular daily practice, as well as a familiarity with the Buddhist principles and practices in order to stay in the monastery. Applicants should have completed at least one Theravada/Insight Buddhist meditation retreat of min. 3 days in length, as you’ll need to be able to meditate independently outside of a formal schedule, and be happy to keep noble silence for periods of time.
- Guests should be in good physical and mental health.
- Guests are expected to follow the daily routine, attend work meetings and participate in work activities.
- Guests must have sufficient funds to support their personal needs, including onward travel (monastic accommodation and basic food, as offered to monastics, is shared with guests).
- To maintain the spirit of a forest monastery and the meditation practice, we encourage all our guests to minimise the use of e-mail, phone, social media and the internet. The monastery site rarely gets a mobile signal anyway, and the monastery’s internal internet is generally not available for guest use.
For overseas visitors:
If you are not an Australian resident, we will also need to see your identification and proof of healthcare cover before we can accept your application to stay.
A colour copy of your passport is required (copy must include your photo).
Proof of valid Comprehensive Travel/Health Insurance that will cover you for the entire duration of your stay at Santi.
Please send us your scanned documents via email to santiguest[at]gmail[dot]com BEFORE you complete and submit this application.
Type in the subject line: “your name – Proof of Health Insurance and ID”.
Eg. “Lucy Lieu – Proof of Health Insurance and ID”.
Or you may post your document copies to:
Santi Forest Monastery
PO Box 132
Bundanoon
NSW, 2578 AUSTRALIA
Please do not send us the Originals of your documents however, copies only, thank you.
All of the information that you provide will be kept confidential and will not be passed on or disclosed to any other person or organisation.
First read the Conditions of Stay (here) and then, fill out and submit our online application form
> Online Application Form
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