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<\/a><\/div>\nHow to describe Woodenfish? <\/b>(Woodenfish is the name for the Humanistic Buddhism<\/a> Monastic Life Program (HBMLP)<\/a>, based at Fo Guang Shan Monastery in southern Taiwan.)<\/p>\n It is something like a process of controlled chaos on the outside and -hopefully- a deepening calm and peace internally. The program itself was broken into roughly four segments:<\/p>\n This year was a bit different from past years in that it is the first time the program has coincided with the new \u201cYouth Summit\u2026\u201d It also included approximately 100 participants, up from the typical 40-60 and ran three weeks, down from the usual four. Given all of that, there was probably a much higher sense of being rushed around and herded than in previous years and much of this was discussed, so likely will be organized slightly differently in future years as well.<\/p>\n Given that, it was a very remarkable program. Classes, which ranged from Abhidharma philosophy to the history of Ch\u2019an Buddhism and Women\u2019s issues in Buddhism, were all very interesting and rewarding. They were given primarily by monastics of Fo Guang Shan, many of whom possessed or were nearing Ph.D.s in their relevant fields. Additionally, students were given the choice of \u201cbasic\u201d or \u201cadvanced\u201d classes depending on their own background knowledge of given topics. \u00a0From the Woodenfish site, here\u2019s an example of a typical day:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n