I hope this inquiry is appropriate to Q&A although it is not related to EBTs. I am wondering if there are data (ethnographic, or survey, or even personal observation) regarding the prevalence of actual meditation practice among Western and Asian Theravada monastics, both male and female. I have two impressions I would like to check: first that there is less meditation going on in Theravada monasteries than people assume (this was certainly true in the past), and that, in any event, nuns (especially in the West) are more likely to have regular meditation practices than monks. Thanksā¦
Thatās an interesting question/topic for study. I guess the first place to look for studies would be checking journals, but Iām sure you know that.
By āTheravada monasteriesā do you mean all places where Theravadin monastics reside, or just forest/meditaiton monasteries? The majority of Theravadin places around are not forest monasteries but cultural hubs for ethnic communities. The monastics who live in these temples work really hard servicing the needs of their communities. They often compromise their privacy and solitude to do this.
Monastics in meditation/forest monasteries will have a greater emphasis on meditation but might also do a fair bit of work to maintain the properties they live on. Unless one is staying in a dedicated retreat centre Western monastics are unlikely to spend all day, everyday just meditating for years on end. Monastic life isnāt like being on a Goenka retreat.
Within the monastic communities, which I know, I donāt really think their is a difference in the amount of time different genders spend on meditation. It is more down to the variability in peoplesā disposition. Some people can benefit from doing more service and others are naturally inclined to solitude.
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There was this small survey of Buddhists in Colombo in 1977: PEETERS ONLINE JOURNALS
They found that 6% of the monks felt comfortable saying they had meditated an hour every day for the last year.
A survey of 100 Buddhist monks in Bangalore, India found that 10% meditated more than 1 hour per day, but most (52%) said they meditated between 31 and 60 mins per day on average: https://www.ijhsr.org/IJHSR_Vol.10_Issue.12_Dec2020/4.pdf
Those are the only two studies I was able to findā¦
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