I wasn’t implying that there aren’t any monasteries where people spend a lot of time meditating in kutis in the forest. I was just pointing out that even in those kinds of monasteries the residents have responsibilities. Keeping the monastery clean (sweeping, mopping, washing windows, cleaning toilets, cleaning shrines, etc.), keeping insects and other critters out of kutis (which, if you live in a forest, is not a trivial task and requires cutting back trees and bushes to keep them away from the kutis, at a bare minimum) maintaining/repairing kutis, building new kutis, dealing with guests, dealing with the local lay supporters, dealing with aspiring monks, training new monks…off the top of my head, those are a few of the things I saw during my stay at various monasteries that needed doing on a semi-regular to regular basis. Of course, if the monastery isn’t in a forest, isn’t growing (so no new kutis need to be built), or is well established and has a large group of lay supporters, then a lot of that work becomes much lighter. A well run monastery will find the right balance between work and meditation, but “balance” is a rather subjective term.
True. The Buddha never said, “By shaving your head, wearing robes, and living in a monastery/forest/cave, your suffering will end.” Suffering ends through practice, a lot of it. A long time ago something a nun once said to me really stuck with me. It seems relevant to this discussion. She said, “When you’re a layperson living in the world, you have the suffering of a layperson living in the world. When you’re a monastic living in a monastery, you have the suffering of a monastic living in a monastery.”