Jonny and I spent the first two weeks of May living and volunteering at Fo Guang Shan Monastery, which is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan and also runs the Buddha Museum next door (stunning and high tech!) with eight pagodas and the biggest seated bronze Buddha statue in the world - 36 stories tall (see above image). We both agreed these two weeks were the most memorable experience of our three months in Asia.

In this post, I’ll share: 1) some glimpses of the monastery and our daily routine there 2) what surprised me the most about the experience, 3) info on how to volunteer if anyone else is interested, and 4) a list books on Buddhism I read at the monastery that I found the most impactful.

1. Life at the monastery

We were living at the monastery for free (room + board) in exchange for a few hours of volunteering five days a week. We lived in a dorm with other volunteers (one mens room and a few women’s rooms). There was a whole schedule of activities we could participate in, with many of them being optional (aside from the volunteering shifts). These included:

• 5:30am morning chanting (I only made it to this once)

• 6:15am formal breakfast

• 11:15am formal brunch

• Afternoon activities on various days including tai chi, chi gong, calligraphy, and a delightful mindful doodling class called Zentangle.

• 5:45pm formal dinner

• Daily evening chanting and/or meditation

• Weekly evening badminton and basketball (the monk in charge of our volunteer group was the best badminton player of all of us!)

• 10pm lights out

Here are some pictures of the monastery and museum - and below them is a video compilation Jonny made, so you can see more of what it was like there: peaceful, welcoming, with beautiful gardens and elaborate buildings and shrines everywhere.

As you can see above, our volunteer duties including serving food at meals and some maintenance tasks. Other shifts included gardening and cleaning the main shrine and office.

In Jonny’s video below, my favorite clip is at minute 4:30 when the monks are arriving in their daily procession to dinner.

2. The most surprising aspects of living at the monastery

Over half of the monks (or “monastics”) were female!

This was very cool to see - I loved getting a lot of explanations of Buddhist concepts and experiences from the women there. For example, our tour guide for a three hour tour of the Buddha museum flew by because of how amazingly heartfelt and passionate our tour guide was - a female monastic who explained how important equality is to the monastery and their broader believe system. Throughout the tour she connected different aspects of the exhibits back to equality (including based on gender, physical ability, and socioeconomic status).

The rituals became restful and comforting rather than constricting

On our first day during volunteer orientation, we were a bit overwhelmed by all the things to remember, especially the complex rules involved in the ritual of formal dining. Enter in a line and bow and sit down, being careful to not make any noise with your chair. Sit in a certain way, put your chopsticks, rice bowl, soup bowl, and plate in certain places in a certain order. Remember to use specific wordless signals if you wanted to reject a dish or ask for seconds. Eat everything in your bowl unless you returned it before touching it. Get up all together at breakfast and lunch (after chanting), but individually at dinner.

This was a lot! But once we had done it a few times, it started to become easier - and we understood what our volunteer group leader had explained: these processes allowed to be mindful during the experience rather than distracted and chatting, and made the whole dining experience run smoothly for everyone eating (there could be several hundred people in the dining hall) and for the servers. Later when we got to volunteer as formal dining servers we especially appreciated everything, seeing it from that angle.

By the end of the first week I started to feel a sense of peace and unity every time we sat down to eat.

It was surprisingly easy to go mostly vegan for two weeks

The food in the formal dining hall was vegan, although some of the shops on the grounds had things like ice cream, and we could go off the grounds to a convenience store nearby or town with a few restaurants. I really enjoyed the formal dining meals though, so mostly ate them. At retreats I’ve been to in the past where the food is vegan I’ve sometimes found it hard to really feel full or fully energized, but the many extremely creative ways the monastery served tofu and other protein sources was truly impressive. I could have happily gone on much longer eating those meals.

Humanity’s relationship to nature there felt different

The monastery is clearly beautiful from first glance, and a big part of it is the nature. There are multiple gardens, and beautiful landscaping everywhere, both the monastery and Buddha museum. Just walking around felt to me like being embraced by nature. Combining that with the vegan eating, and the books I was reading on Buddhist perspectives on ecology (see the last section of this post), I felt so much more connected to nature than usual. It also helped that there were very few cars on the grounds of the monastery - mainly just golf cart shuttles, which were fun to take, riding alongside the monks!

High tech Buddhism!

The monastery overall was definitely not a tech-free zone. The monks communicated with us via WhatsApp and it wasn’t uncommon to see monks with smart watches. The Buddha museum had multiple very cool immersive tech exhibits including augmented reality art and 360 degrees surround screen simulations. I also spotted this poster calling for submissions for an upcoming conference they are hosting on AI and religious communication. (I wish I spoke Mandarin well enough to attend! It’s in December if anyone who does speak Mandarin wants to go.)

I also read that the broader Buddhist institute that this monastery belongs to recently partnered with an AI company in Austin to create an “AI-driven translation system, enabling real-time, multilingual translation of Buddhist teachings.”

Humanistic Buddhism’s focus on engaging with the word (rather than seclusion)

The tech-forwardness makes sense given that the branch of Buddhist that this monastery is part of - Humanistic Buddhism - is less focused on individual enlightenment and meditation and more focus on engaging with the community and society. We saw this in many aspects of life at the monastery. Meditation was a beautiful experience but not the main focus. A huge focus of the monastery was education - both educating us as volunteers and visitors to the museum, and also by running a school and university. One of the university students told me it’s the only university where monastics and non-monastics are students together.

There were also many local volunteers coming in and out of the monastery all the time - some to do similar volunteer duties as us, and others to offer their specific skills, like teaching qi gong to us and local groups of senior citizens (the monastery also runs a home for the elderly).

I learned that Humanistic Buddhism is a form of “engaged Buddhism”, which also encompasses the Plum Village tradition led by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Amazing sleep and rest

I shared a room with three other women, and we were on thin futon-like mattresses. I found that I slept so well - not because of the sleeping conditions but because the entire day was so full of peaceful experiences and not overstimulating to my nervous system. I was also pretty physically tired by the end of the days because the monastery is on a steep hillside and it’s very hot in May in southern Taiwan, so we were walking up and down the hill in the heat a lot. Overall the two weeks felt incredible restful to me though.

3. How to visit or volunteer

I would love to volunteer again - maybe with a whole group of friends next time. The minimum volunteering time is two weeks (many people stay for a month), or you can just visit for the day. Here are the links to the locations of the monastery and Buddha museum:

Fo Guang Shan Monastery: https://maps.app.goo.gl/2hrEv6BEZ3vTVRr1A

Buddha Museum: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zZQCbp6ghMSxNXev9

You can take the train to Kaohsiung from Taipei, and then a bus, taxi, or Uber to the monastery/museum.

We found out about the volunteering opportunity through Workaway but didn’t reach out to the monastery via Workaway - we just emailed them (fgsworkaway@gmail.com).

They fill up several months in advance for volunteering - also make sure to check the weather for the month you’re considering! I think October through April would likely be the most pleasant (i.e. not too hot).

If you just want to visit the museum and/or monastery for the day you can just show up - there’s lots of places to eat and shuttles between the two, and you can easily spend an entire day there and not see everything. We visited the museum many times over the course of the two weeks to try to see as many exhibits as we could

4. Books about Buddhism

I did a lot of reading at the monastery about Buddhism (there were multiple libraries and reading rooms), and also reflecting on prior books about Buddhism I’ve read or ones people have recommended to me. Here’s my personal list of top recommendations (in order of when I read them):

1. The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World - by the Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist leader) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Christian leader), interviewed by Douglas Abrams (secular writer).

2. The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology - by Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist leader, founder of the Plum Village tradition)

3. Embracing Nature - Ecology from a Buddhist Perspective - by Venerable Master Hsin Yun (founder of the monastery I was at)

4. Living Buddha, Living Christ - by Thich Nhat Hanh

5. Buddha-Darma Pure and Simple - by Venerable Master Hsin Yun (I didn’t finish it and had to return it to the monastery library - but I enjoyed the chapters I read, and it’s available as an audio book on Youtube though with either a male narrator or female narrator)

Next on my list to read is When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön - she’s an American Buddhist nun in the Tibetan tradition, and I’ve gotten multiple recommendations to read her work.

If anyone else has read any of the books on my list I would love to chat about them! I found a lot of the ideas in these books really thought provoking, inspiring, and also often challenging. They’ve definitely stuck with me and I’ll be reflecting on them some more (maybe even back at the monastery at some point!).

From these, I used my intention visualization AI chat bot Aurora GPT to create a series of images inspired by the themes that emerged.

I then asked my custom GPT chatbot to place them in gallery view (i.e. their gallery of intentions) - I’ll share them individually with the adjectives and them below too.

This was a fun way to get to know the students, start bonding as a group, and set the intentions and tone for the next six weeks. I highly recommend signing up for Code in Place as an instructor or student next year when the opportunity rolls around again!

Here’s the individual intention words and themes that emerged with their images:

Theme 1 (painting 1): Growth & Empowerment

• empowering • productive • rewarding • exciting • deliberate • innovative • courageous • inspired

Theme 2 (painting 2): Challenge & Resilience

• challenging • keep learning • frustrating (but overcome)

Theme 3 (painting 3): Creativity & Expression

• creative • insightful • fun • exciting • inspiring

Theme 4 (painting 4): Connection & Collaboration

• connected • collaborative • understand more • full of learning • useful

Theme 5 (painting 5): Presence & Inner Grounding

• calm • grateful • spiritual • faithful • intention • purposeful

Painting 6: Combination of all the themes & intentions

If you want to try Aurora GPT for intention visualization individually or as a group, here she is: tinyurl.com/auroraGPT

(If you get an error, try clicking the pencil icon at the top right to reset)

I’ve had some of my most significant flashes of insight surrounded by people immersed in an embodied experience, rather than during solo meditation or reflection. Sometimes intuition just bubbles up when your busy executive brains feels safe enough to quiet down, surrounded by other people all entering a state of relaxation or energized flow alongside you. It’s reassuring and often inspiring to be in experiences where you aren’t necessarily socializing but you’re not alone.

There are eight categories of events that I’ve found most helpful for finding a deeper sense of direction or making a big decision. Since I’m a data scientist of course we’ll start with a chart to visualize them.

Hopefully this chart helps you pick an event type based on what you’re looking for. For example if you have physical energy to burn but want to give your brain a rest, ecstatic dance might be a great option.

Next I’ll share more about each event category and where I go for them in London. If you’re in town and want to join me at any of these, let me know! If you’re not in London, you can search for these types of events in your area.

Note: If you have a corporate wellness fund, many of these events will be eligible for you get reimbursed that way - that’s part of why I’ve been to so many of these!

1. Guided Sauna Sessions 🔥

Group sauna experiences can be strictly timed hot/cold contrast therapy with breathwork, or more relaxed creative experiences involving storytelling, poetry, sound, and rituals with scents and herbs.

I love both types of experiences for how they bring me into such a calm and clear mind space - they’re really powerful.

London Recommendations:

• Community Sauna Baths in Hackney Wick, Stratford, and other locations has tons of guided sauna events (mostly at Hackney Wick) from sound healing to poetry to women’s sauna experiences. My favorite is Mythic Mondays, which involves storytelling, aufguss, cold plunges, and sitting around a fire. Currently Mythic Mondays are for women, but they’ll be launching co-ed ones soon too.

• Arc Canary Wharf is a new place that just opened up that I haven’t tried yet, but it looks very cool and has a full schedule of sauna / cold plunges (contrast therapy) events.

On my calendar for February/March 2025:

• Monday February 24th: Myth Monday at Hackney Wick Community Sauna Baths (sold out)

• Sunday March 2: Sauna Sound Bath at Stratford Community Sauna

2. Ecstatic Dance 💃

Ecstatic dance is like a cross between a sober rave and a moving mindfulness practice, at ecstatic dance you don’t talk, don’t have to move in any particular way, and can dance alone or with others. Basically you move any way you feel like moving. The music depends on the facilitator/DJ and can be anything from soothing ambient to intense house or electronic beats.

I find ecstatic dance to be an incredible stress reliever, and once I’ve shaken out all the stress I often have major realizations or creative ideas emerge into my mind fully formed. People can sometimes feel intimidated to try ecstatic dance for the first time, but I always tell them you can really do as much or as little dancing as you feel like - even if it’s just sitting or lying down with your eyes closed and listening to the music.

London Recommendations:

London has a huge ecstatic dance scene with multiple different communities, and events practically every day.

• Ecstatic Dance UK has weekly Wednesday and Sunday events in Hackney Wick, and multiple retreats every year. I regularly attend these.

• Ecstatic Dance London has regular events in North London, which I used to attend when I lived in that area. They often feature wireless headphones as an optional addition for extra immersion.

• Ecstatic Dance Culture recently started and has events in Hackney Wick as well, including a monthly women’s dance that I attended once and had an amazing time at.

• Tribal Heart has events including ecstatic dance and other embodied practices.

• Sundari Sisters often includes ecstatic dance in their retreats, and is having their first dedicated all-women ecstatic dance coming up as a Galentines event (I will be there!).

On my calendar for February 2025:

• Sunday February 22: Sundari Sisters Women’s Ecstatic Dance, Cacao & Sound Ceremony

• Might go to some of the Sunday or Wednesday Ecstatic Dance UK sessions in Hackney Wick

3. Sound Baths / Gong Baths 🔔

Sound baths or sound healing experience, often through gongs or other instruments like crystal or metal bowls, bring you into an incredibly relaxed state. You might even fall asleep as you’re usually laying down and wearing an eye mask.

Either during or after sound healing experiences I’ve frequently had thoughts, memories, or convictions appear that felt like they came from very deep in my subconscious. Even if that doesn’t happen, the sense of deep calm often lasts for the entire rest of my day.

London Recommendations:

• Akasa does beautiful gong baths at least once a month in Hackney Wick. I’ve attended one of the women’s full moon ones, which also included a sharing circle, journaling, and other embodied practices, and was a very powerful experience.

• Prism of Sound does really beautiful sound baths as well, sometimes as standalone events and other times as part of an ecstatic dance event or others.

On my calendar for February 2025:

• Wednesday February 12: Akasa women’s full moon gong bath ceremony

4. Vocal Flow / Group Singing or Chanting 🎵

Singing events with no expectation to perform or “sound good” can feel very liberating and unifying. The outward expressiveness often unleashes an inner sense of authentic expression and emotional release for me as well. Different types of events might have different levels of facilitation and creative direction - for example a vocal flow event could have each person in a group improvising their own melody or rhythm loops to build a collaborative creation, or other events might involve repeating certain phrases or melodies together in unison.

You can also look up events involving Kirtan, if that’s something you practice.

London Recommendations:

Singing events can feel a little more intimidating to consider going to if you don’t consider yourself a singer, but all the groups below are extremely welcoming and don’t place any pressure on you to be in the spotlight.

• Vocal Flow Events by Michelle Nova happen every month or two and are an awesome beginning friendly experience of vocal group improv. Michelle is great at giving the group easy building blocks of concepts to try out, which often come together to create something magical.

• Full Joy Jams are playful and exuberant events in Hackney Wick involving singing and some instruments. You’ll quickly figure out how to follow along and participate. These are very social as well.

• Gaia Music Collective is mainly based in the US but has come to the UK before to do one-day choirs and vocal improv circles. Imogen Heap even attended one of their events in London when they brought a group together to sing her music! Sadly I couldn’t get a ticket before they sold out!

On my calendar for February 2025:

• Nothing planned yet, but if any friends want to go to one of the above events and there’s one happening this month I’ll likely join.

5. Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Yoga Nidra 🧘‍♀️

All of these are the types of yoga that are not a workout where you’ll break a sweat but are more of a mindfulness practice. I’ve found all of these to be really powerful for connecting to my intuition. I go to a lot of these classes.

Yin yoga involves holding poses for several minutes at a time, restorative yoga involves being propped up by lots of blankets and blocks so that the poses are even more relaxing, and yoga nidra is the most relaxing of all - like a guided meditation where you often fall asleep.

London Recommendations:

Many yoga studios have these types of classes, so I’d say look for somewhere close to you. Ideally try to plan to not have to be on a crowded tube in rush hour right after one of these calming classes.

• Frame Kings Cross is my favorite location (near my former Kings Cross office).

• Frame also has other locations around London. But again, many yoga studios have this type of classes, so look for something convenient for you.

On my calendar for February 2025:

• I frequently go to the Tuesday, Friday, or Sunday yin or restorative yoga classes at Frame Kings Cross, sometimes both back to back. I’ll likely go to a bunch of these this month.

6. Immersive Theatre 🎭

This one almost didn’t make the list because it’s a bit of a wild card - but it’s too fun to not include! Immersive theatre is my favorite type of theatre - where rather than the performers being on a stage and the audience sitting and watching them, the performance happens all around the audience, and the audience often participates, moves around to different spaces, and generally are completely immersed in the story/experience.

Being either an audience member or a performer in an immersive theatre experience brings you to another world and you often take on a new persona. Because it’s immersive it feels less like acting and more like a transformation.

This connects me to my intuition because it’s like a reset - when you’re co-creating an entire universe and story with a group of people, you forget about your own identify and ego for a while. This often gives me insights on my own life from a new perspective, and helps me shake off limiting beliefs or self perceptions that were blocking me from authentically living life based on own inner compass.

It’s also often both hilarious and moving, and an absolute blast.

London Recommendations:

• You Me Bum Bum Train is a ridiculously wonderful and extravagant experience that has been described both as a cross between a therapy session and a fever dream or a combination of Alice in Wonderland and Everything Everywhere All at Once. Tickets are near impossible to get as there is only one audience member at a time, with hundreds of performers, but anyone can volunteer to be a performer or backstage hand, for one night or many, with no experience required. It’s an incredible experience that has unironically helped restore my faith in humanity.

On my calendar for February 2025:

• I plan to volunteer for You Me Bum Bum Train at least once a week this month - let me know if you want to join me and I can share how to sign up!

7. Guided Wild Swimming 🌊

Wild swimming (including winter swimming!) is one of my favorite solo hobbies, but I also have had amazing experiences in a group. For anyone unfamiliar with “wild” swimming, it just means swimming out in nature rather than in a pool - and often year round.

Going as a group with a guide who knows the area (and often is a trained lifeguard) allows you to be bolder and often swim further and longer. It’s an amazing bonding experience, and the mental clarity and connection to nature you’ll experience makes it an amazing way to reconnect with your intuition.

My guided wild swimming recommendations are for the UK more broadly rather than London (although I do love wild swimming solo or with friends in London at the Hampstead Heath ponds), and there’s nothing on my calendar this month. I look forward to some group experiences this summer though.

UK Recommendations:

• Swim Sistas retreats in Cornwall (women only) are an incredible was to experience multiple wild swim spots in one weekend, while staying in glamping style accommodations with breathtaking cliffside views.

• Zest Life wild swimming and yoga retreats (not gender specific) are a beautiful way to experience guided wild swimming in wales. I would recommend bringing extra snacks on if you go on one of these because I’ll admit I found the food portions less generous than I’d like!

On my calendar for 2025:

I will very likely go on the Swim Sistas August 29 - September 1 retreat in Cornwall, and would be delighted to have people join me.

8. Sharing Circles 💬

The key feature of a sharing circle is usually that there’s a facilitator who gives each person their time to share, and during that time the sharing speaks about whatever they want to - with the expectation of no feedback or follow up questions from the others, just listening. Often a sharing circle is part of a longer event - like a retreat, or a full moon or solstice event.

London Recommendations:

• True Nature runs different events and series that include sharing circle elements, like the Women’s Fire series (online) and multiple retreats (in person).

• After the Ecstatic Dance UK Sunday dances events, there will sometimes be a sharing circle, and all their retreats involve small group sharing circles.

• Sundari Sisters has lots events for women, some of which involve sharing circles.

• Akasa’s monthly women’s full moon events can involve sharing time in addition to sound baths.

• Plight Club runs a number of “emotionally expressive events” including sharing circles and “Emoshpit” which I haven’t been to but hear it’s very cathartic.

• The Psychedelic Society runs a lot of events including some sharing circle or support circle events, like this upcoming Grief Support Circle.

On my calendar for February 2025:

• I’m part of a weekly online group going through The Artist’s Way right now, and it always ends with a sharing circle. If you want to follow the facilitator for future iterations of the course, you can find here here: Boe Huntress.

These eight types of events have all been hugely impactful in my life over the past two years as I’ve navigated health challenges and various complicated life situations, as have needed to listen deeply to my intuition to make tough decisions. I welcome recommendations in the comments for other categories or specific events that people have found powerful for realigning with your intuition.

On a deeper note, I want to dedicate this post to my friend Josh Lee, who was the type of person who would have loved every single one of these events I’ve described. Josh passed away in 2023, but any time I’m at one of these events I feel connected to him, as I connect to my inner compass, and feel like he’s cheering me on.

Part of my journey in exploring all of these types of events was seeking ways to process the grief from Josh’s death. At these events, I often felt like it was okay to not be okay, and I was able to feel less alone because I knew that many of the people around me were likely there seeking a sense of inner peace and purpose as well.

I’m grateful for everything exploring these experience has brought me, and I hope that anyone reading this list is encouraged to take the time to seek out experiences that give themselves the space and encouragement that they need.

🤗= students + fellow alums welcome to come find me at these events to say hi!

Friday Oct 18

• 11am: Arrive via Amtrak drop off bag at hotel

• 12:30-1:15pm: Lead workshop at the business school: “How to Actually Enjoy Networking”

• 🤗 1:30-2pm: Stop by CS Department Reception (McGlothlin - Street Hall 020)

• 🤗 2:30-3pm: Stop by Entrepreneurship Hub gathering (Tribe Square)

• 🤗 3:15-4pm: Attend “Celebrate & Connect” gathering at Cohen Career Center

• 4-6pm: Class of 2014 parade watch party

• 6-7pm: Sunset Ceremony

• 7pm onwards: Dinner + post-dinner plans w/friends

Saturday Oct 19

• 9-9:45am: “Fond Farewell to Randolph Complex” event 😭

• 🤗10:30-11am: CS Department Brunch Reception (McGlothlin-Street CS Office)

• 🤗12-1pm: Attend Business School Tailgate (B School Courtyard)

• 1:30pm: Monroe Hall Dedication

• 1:45-2pm: Class of 2014 Reunion Photo

• 🤗 3:15-4pm: Attend Cohen Career Center Alumni Engagement Kickoff Event

• 4pm onwards : Plans w/ friends + dinner + Stompfest at Matoaka amphitheater

Sunday Oct 20

• 10am-12pm: Brunch w/  friends?

• 1-3pm: Matoaka trails walk?

• 4pm ish: leave campus and head to Richmond Airport

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