Meditation with Monks

Sit with Buddhist monks at a forest temple and learn the basics of mindfulness practice.

What the Meditation with Monks is really like.

Buddhism shapes daily life across much of Sri Lanka, and a quiet morning at a forest monastery offers a gentle way in. With a monk and an interpreter, you learn the fundamentals of seated and walking meditation, the breath-based practice that underpins the tradition. The setting itself, often a calm temple under old trees, does much of the work. It is a respectful, unhurried experience open to people of any faith or none.

At a glance

Best season: Year-round
Typical duration: Half day (morning)
Regions: 2

Moment by moment

How the day unfolds.

Step 01
Arrive at the temple
Enter a quiet forest monastery, leaving shoes and noise at the gate and dressing modestly out of respect.
Step 02
A talk with the monk
A resident monk explains, through an interpreter, the place of meditation in daily Buddhist practice.
Step 03
Seated meditation
Settle into your first guided sit, following the breath as the monk talks you gently through it.
Step 04
Walking meditation
Move into slow walking meditation along a shaded path, learning to anchor attention in each step.
Step 05
Questions and tea
Close with an open question-and-answer over tea, free to ask whatever the morning raised.