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Buddhist monasticism is one of the earliest surviving forms of organized monasticism and one of the fundamental institutions of Buddhism. Monks and nuns, called bhikkhu ( Pali , Skt. bhikshu ) and bhikkhuni (Skt. bhikshuni ), are responsible for the preservation and dissemination of the Buddha's teaching and the guidance of Buddhist lay people.
Since the mid 60s he has headed a monastic and lay group, the Order of Inter-Being, teaching the Five and Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings and "Engaged Buddhism." The Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism (formerly known as the Unified Buddhist Church) is the legally recognized governing body for Plum Village (Làng Mai) in France.
According to the Buddhist Union of France, France has a million practicing Buddhists, including 700,000 of Asian origin and 300,000 of French origin (some speak of double or even triple). A little more than a quarter of them, in increasing progression, are originating in France and practicing mainly Zen or Tibetan Buddhism.
In the early 2000s, Buddhism in France was estimated to have between 1 million (Ministry of the Interior) adherents and 5 million people somewhat influenced by Buddhist doctrines, numbers which usually do not show up in surveys because of the vague identity of Buddhism as a religion. [52]
Although the prevalent romantic view on Buddhism sees it as an authentic and ancient practice, contemporary Buddhism is deeply influenced by the western culture. With the rise of western colonialism in the 19th century, Asian cultures and religions developed strategies to adapt to the western hegemony, without losing their own traditions.
Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially in the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican traditions as well as in other faiths such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. [1] In other religions, monasticism is generally criticized and not practiced, as in Islam and Zoroastrianism, or plays a marginal role, as in modern ...
The monasteries, being landowners who never died and whose property was therefore never divided among inheritors (as happened to the land of neighboring secular land owners), tended to accumulate and keep considerable lands and properties - which aroused resentment and made them vulnerable to governments confiscating their properties at times of religious or political upheaval, whether to fund ...
All religious houses in France were suppressed during the French Revolution, most of them in 1791. Some communities were revived, and many more new ones established, during the 19th century, but were forced to leave France by anti-clerical legislation during the 1880s (principally the Ferry Laws ), and again in the first decades of the 20th ...