August 27, 2025 • 24 mins
Buddhist nun Jin Zheng Shi talks about goals and monastery life
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a longer one part of
the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
take their days from great to awesome in any advice
(00:23):
they have for the rest of us. So today I'm
delighted to welcome Jane Juncture to the show. She is
an ordained Buddhist nun who is also a graduate student.
So Jan Junkshure, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Thank you, Laura, I'm excited to be excited to have
you here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, well, why don't you tell our listeners a little
bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Okay, I am a big shoony, I'm ordained in the
Mahayana Buddhist tradition, and currently I'm going into my second
year of graduate school.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Very exciting. Yeah, and you had a different life before
in ring a monastery. Correct.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yes, for over a decade I sold tea whole sale
tees and yeah, I did sales and marketing and PR.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Sales and marketing, yes, yeah, And so what led to
this pretty big career change.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I think that you know, from the time I was
a teenager. I was always deeply interested in Buddhism, and
for a long time I attended the monastery and winter
retreats and was you know, very kind of like active
in the monastery. But then there was a point where
I realized that I wanted to be more serious and
(01:43):
I realized that I actually had the potential to pursue
them inn astic life, and I saw the way kind
of open up in front of me, and I decided
to go for it.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
That's wonderful, Yeah, I mean it's it was a big
process though, right. It took multiple years.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes, and you've been with me for many of them.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I've enjoyed hearing about your process for sure, because I
think people don't understand like what you had to learn
a lot. You had to learn a lot of new knowledge,
and so it was a fairly intense training. So can
you can you talk a little bit about what was
involved in the ordination process?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Certainly? So. I actually began my training in twenty seventeen
and I started living in the monastery then. And when
I lived in the monastery, I also kind of worked
a full monastery schedule and attended about six hours of
ceremonies and other events in the Buddha Hall and was
(02:42):
just more involved in the community. And then I became
a novice in twenty nineteen, and then my schedule got
even more hectic, and I was like, Oh, my goodness,
how do I do this? And that's when I came
across your book one hundred and surs. And I was like, oh,
(03:02):
this is actually really helpful because I had no idea
how I was going to get it all done, and
nothing would fit into twenty four hours. And then when
I started looking at things through the space of a week,
I was able to start fitting everything in well.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Because I mean the daily schedule you mentioned, like six
hours of ceremonies. Can you maybe talk about what a
daily schedule looks like at the monastery so people understand
sort of how much you were talking about is trying
to be in twenty four hours?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Okay, So in our monastery, we're maybe more strict than
other Buddhist monasteries, and we have a very traditional, very
rigorous schedule. Monastics and permanent residents who live in the
monastery usually wake up around three thirty am, and then
we go to ceremony from four to five am, and
(03:53):
then there's another ceremony after that universal bowing, which lasts
from five to six, and then many people participate in
suture recitation from seven to eight and then we have
our work period from about eight to ten thirty am,
which people have many different jobs around the monasteries, and
(04:14):
then we have another small ceremony before lunch ten thirty
to eleven am, and then in our tradition, monks and
nuns only eat one meal a day, so we have
our main meal of the day between about eleven am
and twelve pm, and then there's another ceremony, a great
Compassion Repentance from one pm to about two fifteen pm,
(04:36):
and then there's another work period from two to fifteen
pm till about five pm, and then we have free
time from five pm till about six fifteen pm, and
then we get ready to go to evening ceremony. The
monastics will usually line up in what we call a
taiban and then we will walk to the Buddha Hall
(04:56):
and be there by six thirty pm, and then we
have evening ceremony from six thirty pm to seven thirty pm,
and then Evening Lecture from seven thirty pm to nine pm.
Another small ceremony from nine pm to nine thirty pm
and then we have, you know, our own time until
we wake up at three thirty am.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
As I say, do you ever get used to waking
up at three thirty am? I mean, even if one
is a morning person, that's pretty early.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It is pretty early. And how how used to you know?
Some days it feels fine and I'm very happy to
wake up. And if you have a lot on your plate,
I find particularly is like a graduate student, it's much
more talented because your brain is more full of things.
So there are monks and nuns in our tradition whose
(05:48):
sole focus is on attending the ceremonies and being present
in the Voodha hall, and for them, I think it's
rather enjoyable, like they really enjoy that. But when you
add on like responsibilities as being a student or teaching
or other administrative plifics, you could feel more talenting.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, yeah, because I mean if the last ceremony is
at nine, there's not a whole lot of sleeping time
in there.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, there's less than six hours. I think there's exactly
six hours between nine thirty pm and three thirty am,
and I need a little like downtime to like unpack
and get ready for the next day. So usually I
run on like five four and a half five hours
of sleep.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, But then do you sometimes nap at other points
to try to catch up a little bit?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I'm going to have to confess, but occasionally I do. Yeah, Yeah,
usually for like thirty minutes. Probably not every day, but
on more rigorous days, especially in about five to six
pm period, that's a good time to catch a quick
nap before going into the next cycle.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, but it certainly sounds I mean, given that so
much of the day is spoken for, and then you
also have classes for instance, I think you kind of
have to make your piece of looking at the whole
week and saying, well, I can't be at absolutely every
single ceremony, I can aim to be at a certain
number of them. Is that how you manage this?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
That's where I am as a graduate student, because I'm
going into my second year of graduate school and I'm
taking a couple of extra classes because I'm learning Chinese,
I'm taking extra languages this year, and I'm also very
interested in writing a book for young adults and children,
(07:41):
and I also need time for that. So basically I
told my Dharma sisters you know, I can make this
many ceremonies during the week while I'm doing this semester,
and you know, these are my classes, so people know
where I am and what I'm up to. But it's
still very false.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, it sounds like it sounds like a very skull schedule.
All right, Well, we're going to take a quick ad
break and then I'll be back with more from gene Juncture. Well,
I am back talking with gene Juncture, who is an
ordained Buddhist nun. She's also a graduate student. We've been
(08:21):
hearing about the intense schedule of life in the monastery,
which we then need to layer your classes on top of,
layer your studying on top of I mean, when do
you actually wind up doing your studying.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So, because I'm a graduate student right now, my work
schedule has been adjusted and I have basically committed to
trying to do most of the morning ceremony of the
evening ceremonies, but the afterdoon ceremony, the Great Compassion Repentance
I do far less frequently. I'm more like once a week,
(08:55):
once every other week, because that those periods the day
are my class study time. So basically I try to
sell all of my classes and study time in the
morning and the afternoon period.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Okay, now I have you backing up a little bit.
So when you were going through the ordination process, one
of the things we began going back and forth by
email about a couple of years ago is that you
had to do a lot of memorization as part of
your training. Can you talk a little bit about what
that was?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Oh, my goodness, yes. So that was a big part
of the full or debate process. Is that in our tradition,
we memorize three sets of precepts and we're supposed to
recite them from memory before we fully ordain. And so
these are basically three books, and they take a long
(09:52):
time to memorize. And before I had started this process,
I don't think I had ever memorized anything longer than
a poem, you know, something very short for like high
school or something like that. So it was difficult, and
(10:13):
I had no idea how to go about doing this,
and I had to schedule it. I had to very
kind of like meticulously go line by lying, and then
to to do it, I had to break up the
(10:34):
text and the pieces and then basically I would you know,
if you sit still you can memorize maybe a sentence
of text, right, and then if you repeat it to
yourself throughout the day, you might be able to remember
it later during the day. But because the books were
(10:56):
so long, I had to figure out a way to
do this without kind of losing it in the process.
And so I started reading all of these books on
like different memorization techniques, and you know, some people know
about memory palaces. So I started trying to figure out
like different methods to kind of like hold these things
(11:18):
in my mind. And what it required was a lot
of time, and time was something that I felt very
short on, and so I had to really map out
in the schedule. And then my mind during that time
period was basically only focused on memorization. I was doing
(11:42):
my activities, but the only thing that was happening in
my mind was the memorization.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, and I and you just realized it was just
going to take time, right, I mean, that's the thing.
You have to get your head around, the idea that
you can only memorize a certain amount of time, a
certain amount of the precepts in any given day or
any given weeks, and so it's just going to be
years until you can get them all into your head. Correct.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It took me a long time to wrap my mind
around that, because how often do we sit down and think, oh,
I'm going to spend a year memorizing this book or
two or three years, you know, as the case may be.
And this is something that we don't really have, like
in our Western culture. You know, the only people who
I think memorized lines are like actors, you know, It's
(12:28):
not very common for ordinary people. And what it took
me a long time to realize is that it was
really a factor of dedication and not intelligence. And I thought, oh,
I'm a very smart person. I'll be able to do
this very fast. And then I realized, no, this is
more like exercise than it is, you know about intelligence.
(12:53):
It's about having enough stamina to get through it.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
And you just kept going for several years then, right,
but clearly did it as you are now officially ordained.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yes, yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So how did that feel when you finally did your
formal recitation as part of it?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
It felt great and for me, you know, it was
like a dream realized after you know, from the start
of the training was twenty seventeen to the platform was
twenty twenty three, so that was like six years of
actual training. But I started this past in probably twenty thirteen,
(13:36):
kind of moving in this direction, so it was like
the work of a decade.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
But you did it, which is very exciting. And then
you mentioned that all of your mental energy had been
devoted to memorization, and then you did it. And I
know that the nuns recite these precepts frequently as part
of your ceremonies, but still you weren't actively memorizing anymore. Yes,
so what did you do with that brain space?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Then? Okay, So once I wasn't actively memorizing anymore, I
got my first assignment in the monastery as a fully
ordained men, and they asked me to teach classes, and
so I began teaching. And I had volunteered taught before,
but I had not been volunteered teaching in several years.
(14:23):
And they gave me six classes to teach. So that
was my first year as a fully ordained men, was
teaching elementary and high school students for over six hours
a day. And then after that I applied to go
to graduate school and was accepted and began this journey.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, so now you're filling your brain with learning Chinese
and hermeneutics. Right, that was on your class schedule.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I believe exactly. I'm getting a master's in Buddhist classics
from Dharma around Buddhist University. And as you said earlier,
this here, my whole year has basically been Heidigger, Chinese
and dragons.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
What a combination. I love it because The Dragons is
your novel, right, you're writing about for young adults, a
Buddhist theme novels.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
There may be dragons in it, because you know, I
really enjoy dragons, but I think that there are a
lot of exciting themes in Buddhist texts. And what I've
found is that we have booked for very young children,
and then we have booked for adults, but we have
nothing for kind of the middle of years. And as
I taught students in twenty twenty three twenty twenty four,
(15:38):
I really saw this gap and I saw certain students
that I really wanted to reach out to and get
them enthusiastic about some of these texts. But I felt
like if there was no bridge, there would be no
way for them to enter them as adults.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
So you're going to write the book that's going to
bring them in.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I hope that I'm going to write the book. It's
going to be the bridge. And I'm actually signed out
for a six week writing course with a woman who
has been publishing young adult books, who is also a
professor at a local college in our area. So I'm
very excited about that.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
We've got a plan to make it happen. All right, Well,
we're going to take one more quick ad break and
then I'll be back with more from Gene Juncture. Well,
I am back talking with Gene Juncture, who is an
ordained Buddhist nun a graduate student. We've been talking about
her various ways of managing the schedule and all that
(16:37):
she has had to do as part of the ordination
process and then later teaching and being a student. So
you've just been working on your schedule for the fall semester.
I understand when we are we're having this conversation, maybe
you can talk about your process of how you create
a schedule for yourself, knowing what you know about you
know how you work and your responsibilities and all that
(16:58):
you're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Hey, well, I actually use the spreadsheet that you send
out in the time tracking challenge every year, and I
do it in fifteen minute increments. And so I start
by putting the morning and the evening ceremonies in because
those kind of book in the day for me, and
it's also a good way to connect with the other
monastics in the monastery. And then I put in all
(17:22):
the classes because the ceremonies and the classes are fixed
and you know, very important, and I'm taking extra classes
this semester so I can continue to improve my Chinese.
And I added in one fun class, which was quilting.
There's a NOD for credit quilting class, and my grandmothers
(17:43):
were wonderful quilters, but I never learned, so I'm taking
that as a side thing. So I put the classes
in and then I figure that I need roughly two
to three hours of study time writing time for every
hour that I'm in class, and so I try to
(18:05):
map out my study time so that I had at
least two or three study time to each class, one
directly before the class, one after the class, and one
in the middle. And so it took me like two
days to like, you know, kind of map this all out.
But then I feel really good because I have a
plan for the semester and then if special things come up.
(18:27):
It's just about moving things around a little bit. But
it's not a blank space. Now I know where I'm
going for the next few months.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, and building in time to study, like knowing that
that has to happen. And you're not just trusting that
it will happen. You're like, I, if it's important to me,
it needs a space on the calendar. Correct.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Yes, And I think as an undergraduate, when I had
endless optimism, you know, from eighteen to twenty two years old,
there were a lot of things that I tried to
like fit in at the last minute. I thought, oh,
this will only take two hours, but it ended up
taking six hours, and that's throwing the next day off.
And I think, you know, as an adult, I'm forty
(19:05):
five now, you know, I'm very aware that things take
more time than you think they will. And if you
leave more space, then you won't be panicked, You'll you know,
you'll feel much more confident.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah. And it sounds like you've been doing quite well
in school. I hear you have the very high GPA.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Not too bad. My first year was three point eight. Yeah,
I'm very exot.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Well, it's so hard to go back to school as
an adult, Like you said, I mean, this is you know,
I guess the upside is you have the benefit of
wisdom and experience. But you know, it's been a long
time since you did this the first time around, right.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yes, you know, I'm forty five now and I went
to you know, I did my underred when I was
eighteen to twenty two. So coming back to school and
writing papers, you know, formal academic papers after twenty three years,
was a real challenge because I had and little bits
of writing, you know, like press releases or marketing copy
(20:04):
or little things like that, but it had been a
really long time since I had written a fifteen twenty
plus page paper, and you know, finding good sources for
that and being able to you know, write it skillfully
is a talent that I'm still working on. But I
love writing and you know, will hopefully continue to improve.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I love it well, like with anything, I mean, it's
more dedication than it is talent. I think that's one
of the things we realize as grown ups.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I think that I completely agree with that, and that's
something I have really realized as an adult that I
did not know. When I was younger, I thought it
was all about you know, how smart you were, But
so much of what happens in life is about dedication
and you know, wisely spending your time.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Absolutely well, I agree with that for sure. So TJJ
I always ask people, what is something you have done
recently to take a day from great to awesome? So
something that has made a normal day better?
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Okay. I made a resolution at the beginning of this
year that I told you about that I'm very pleased with.
And because I have so much kind of work and
classes and also ceremonies, I felt like I wasn't having
that much human connection with people. So one of my
goals with the schedule fifty walks a week, fifty walks
(21:34):
a year, and so I've been taking walks with people
and instead of having a meeting with them or you know,
doing zoom, I just if they're in the local area,
I just schedule, you know, a fifteen to thirty minute
walk and sometimes those walks go you know, for an hour.
(21:54):
But I've had some great conversations on my walks, and
then I also get outside and we live in a
very beautiful valley surrounded by mountains, so I feel like
I'm getting nature, exercise and human connection. So I love
scheduling walks with people.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I love it. That's a lot of awesomeness for one activity.
And what are you looking forward to right now?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I'm so excited to work on the book, the book
for children young adults, and I'm very excited for the
writing workshop which I'll be doing August in October. And
I'm also, you know, looking forward to what comes next
and after graduate school, it feels like possibilities will open
(22:39):
up again, you know. Will I focus on writing, Will
I focus on I'm working on some compilations of Dharma talks,
I do a lot of editing for our magazine and
other publications. And will I teach agen. So I'm sitting
with all of these possibilities.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And seeing what comes of it. I love it. Yeah, absolutely, well,
g Juck here, Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you to everyone for listening. If you have feedback
about this or any other episode, you can always reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
(23:22):
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
(23:46):
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
The
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a longer one part of
the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
take their days from great to awesome in any advice
(00:23):
they have for the rest of us. So today I'm
delighted to welcome Jane Juncture to the show. She is
an ordained Buddhist nun who is also a graduate student.
So Jan Junkshure, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Thank you, Laura, I'm excited to be excited to have
you here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, well, why don't you tell our listeners a little
bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Okay, I am a big shoony, I'm ordained in the
Mahayana Buddhist tradition, and currently I'm going into my second
year of graduate school.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Very exciting. Yeah, and you had a different life before
in ring a monastery. Correct.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yes, for over a decade I sold tea whole sale
tees and yeah, I did sales and marketing and PR.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Sales and marketing, yes, yeah, And so what led to
this pretty big career change.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I think that you know, from the time I was
a teenager. I was always deeply interested in Buddhism, and
for a long time I attended the monastery and winter
retreats and was you know, very kind of like active
in the monastery. But then there was a point where
I realized that I wanted to be more serious and
(01:43):
I realized that I actually had the potential to pursue
them inn astic life, and I saw the way kind
of open up in front of me, and I decided
to go for it.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
That's wonderful, Yeah, I mean it's it was a big
process though, right. It took multiple years.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes, and you've been with me for many of them.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I've enjoyed hearing about your process for sure, because I
think people don't understand like what you had to learn
a lot. You had to learn a lot of new knowledge,
and so it was a fairly intense training. So can
you can you talk a little bit about what was
involved in the ordination process?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Certainly? So. I actually began my training in twenty seventeen
and I started living in the monastery then. And when
I lived in the monastery, I also kind of worked
a full monastery schedule and attended about six hours of
ceremonies and other events in the Buddha Hall and was
(02:42):
just more involved in the community. And then I became
a novice in twenty nineteen, and then my schedule got
even more hectic, and I was like, Oh, my goodness,
how do I do this? And that's when I came
across your book one hundred and surs. And I was like, oh,
(03:02):
this is actually really helpful because I had no idea
how I was going to get it all done, and
nothing would fit into twenty four hours. And then when
I started looking at things through the space of a week,
I was able to start fitting everything in well.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Because I mean the daily schedule you mentioned, like six
hours of ceremonies. Can you maybe talk about what a
daily schedule looks like at the monastery so people understand
sort of how much you were talking about is trying
to be in twenty four hours?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Okay, So in our monastery, we're maybe more strict than
other Buddhist monasteries, and we have a very traditional, very
rigorous schedule. Monastics and permanent residents who live in the
monastery usually wake up around three thirty am, and then
we go to ceremony from four to five am, and
(03:53):
then there's another ceremony after that universal bowing, which lasts
from five to six, and then many people participate in
suture recitation from seven to eight and then we have
our work period from about eight to ten thirty am,
which people have many different jobs around the monasteries, and
(04:14):
then we have another small ceremony before lunch ten thirty
to eleven am, and then in our tradition, monks and
nuns only eat one meal a day, so we have
our main meal of the day between about eleven am
and twelve pm, and then there's another ceremony, a great
Compassion Repentance from one pm to about two fifteen pm,
(04:36):
and then there's another work period from two to fifteen
pm till about five pm, and then we have free
time from five pm till about six fifteen pm, and
then we get ready to go to evening ceremony. The
monastics will usually line up in what we call a
taiban and then we will walk to the Buddha Hall
(04:56):
and be there by six thirty pm, and then we
have evening ceremony from six thirty pm to seven thirty pm,
and then Evening Lecture from seven thirty pm to nine pm.
Another small ceremony from nine pm to nine thirty pm
and then we have, you know, our own time until
we wake up at three thirty am.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
As I say, do you ever get used to waking
up at three thirty am? I mean, even if one
is a morning person, that's pretty early.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It is pretty early. And how how used to you know?
Some days it feels fine and I'm very happy to
wake up. And if you have a lot on your plate,
I find particularly is like a graduate student, it's much
more talented because your brain is more full of things.
So there are monks and nuns in our tradition whose
(05:48):
sole focus is on attending the ceremonies and being present
in the Voodha hall, and for them, I think it's
rather enjoyable, like they really enjoy that. But when you
add on like responsibilities as being a student or teaching
or other administrative plifics, you could feel more talenting.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, yeah, because I mean if the last ceremony is
at nine, there's not a whole lot of sleeping time
in there.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, there's less than six hours. I think there's exactly
six hours between nine thirty pm and three thirty am,
and I need a little like downtime to like unpack
and get ready for the next day. So usually I
run on like five four and a half five hours
of sleep.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, But then do you sometimes nap at other points
to try to catch up a little bit?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I'm going to have to confess, but occasionally I do. Yeah, Yeah,
usually for like thirty minutes. Probably not every day, but
on more rigorous days, especially in about five to six
pm period, that's a good time to catch a quick
nap before going into the next cycle.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, but it certainly sounds I mean, given that so
much of the day is spoken for, and then you
also have classes for instance, I think you kind of
have to make your piece of looking at the whole
week and saying, well, I can't be at absolutely every
single ceremony, I can aim to be at a certain
number of them. Is that how you manage this?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
That's where I am as a graduate student, because I'm
going into my second year of graduate school and I'm
taking a couple of extra classes because I'm learning Chinese,
I'm taking extra languages this year, and I'm also very
interested in writing a book for young adults and children,
(07:41):
and I also need time for that. So basically I
told my Dharma sisters you know, I can make this
many ceremonies during the week while I'm doing this semester,
and you know, these are my classes, so people know
where I am and what I'm up to. But it's
still very false.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, it sounds like it sounds like a very skull schedule.
All right, Well, we're going to take a quick ad
break and then I'll be back with more from gene Juncture. Well,
I am back talking with gene Juncture, who is an
ordained Buddhist nun. She's also a graduate student. We've been
(08:21):
hearing about the intense schedule of life in the monastery,
which we then need to layer your classes on top of,
layer your studying on top of I mean, when do
you actually wind up doing your studying.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So, because I'm a graduate student right now, my work
schedule has been adjusted and I have basically committed to
trying to do most of the morning ceremony of the
evening ceremonies, but the afterdoon ceremony, the Great Compassion Repentance
I do far less frequently. I'm more like once a week,
(08:55):
once every other week, because that those periods the day
are my class study time. So basically I try to
sell all of my classes and study time in the
morning and the afternoon period.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Okay, now I have you backing up a little bit.
So when you were going through the ordination process, one
of the things we began going back and forth by
email about a couple of years ago is that you
had to do a lot of memorization as part of
your training. Can you talk a little bit about what
that was?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Oh, my goodness, yes. So that was a big part
of the full or debate process. Is that in our tradition,
we memorize three sets of precepts and we're supposed to
recite them from memory before we fully ordain. And so
these are basically three books, and they take a long
(09:52):
time to memorize. And before I had started this process,
I don't think I had ever memorized anything longer than
a poem, you know, something very short for like high
school or something like that. So it was difficult, and
(10:13):
I had no idea how to go about doing this,
and I had to schedule it. I had to very
kind of like meticulously go line by lying, and then
to to do it, I had to break up the
(10:34):
text and the pieces and then basically I would you know,
if you sit still you can memorize maybe a sentence
of text, right, and then if you repeat it to
yourself throughout the day, you might be able to remember
it later during the day. But because the books were
(10:56):
so long, I had to figure out a way to
do this without kind of losing it in the process.
And so I started reading all of these books on
like different memorization techniques, and you know, some people know
about memory palaces. So I started trying to figure out
like different methods to kind of like hold these things
(11:18):
in my mind. And what it required was a lot
of time, and time was something that I felt very
short on, and so I had to really map out
in the schedule. And then my mind during that time
period was basically only focused on memorization. I was doing
(11:42):
my activities, but the only thing that was happening in
my mind was the memorization.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, and I and you just realized it was just
going to take time, right, I mean, that's the thing.
You have to get your head around, the idea that
you can only memorize a certain amount of time, a
certain amount of the precepts in any given day or
any given weeks, and so it's just going to be
years until you can get them all into your head. Correct.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It took me a long time to wrap my mind
around that, because how often do we sit down and think, oh,
I'm going to spend a year memorizing this book or
two or three years, you know, as the case may be.
And this is something that we don't really have, like
in our Western culture. You know, the only people who
I think memorized lines are like actors, you know, It's
(12:28):
not very common for ordinary people. And what it took
me a long time to realize is that it was
really a factor of dedication and not intelligence. And I thought, oh,
I'm a very smart person. I'll be able to do
this very fast. And then I realized, no, this is
more like exercise than it is, you know about intelligence.
(12:53):
It's about having enough stamina to get through it.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
And you just kept going for several years then, right,
but clearly did it as you are now officially ordained.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yes, yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So how did that feel when you finally did your
formal recitation as part of it?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
It felt great and for me, you know, it was
like a dream realized after you know, from the start
of the training was twenty seventeen to the platform was
twenty twenty three, so that was like six years of
actual training. But I started this past in probably twenty thirteen,
(13:36):
kind of moving in this direction, so it was like
the work of a decade.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
But you did it, which is very exciting. And then
you mentioned that all of your mental energy had been
devoted to memorization, and then you did it. And I
know that the nuns recite these precepts frequently as part
of your ceremonies, but still you weren't actively memorizing anymore. Yes,
so what did you do with that brain space?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Then? Okay, So once I wasn't actively memorizing anymore, I
got my first assignment in the monastery as a fully
ordained men, and they asked me to teach classes, and
so I began teaching. And I had volunteered taught before,
but I had not been volunteered teaching in several years.
(14:23):
And they gave me six classes to teach. So that
was my first year as a fully ordained men, was
teaching elementary and high school students for over six hours
a day. And then after that I applied to go
to graduate school and was accepted and began this journey.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, so now you're filling your brain with learning Chinese
and hermeneutics. Right, that was on your class schedule.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I believe exactly. I'm getting a master's in Buddhist classics
from Dharma around Buddhist University. And as you said earlier,
this here, my whole year has basically been Heidigger, Chinese
and dragons.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
What a combination. I love it because The Dragons is
your novel, right, you're writing about for young adults, a
Buddhist theme novels.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
There may be dragons in it, because you know, I
really enjoy dragons, but I think that there are a
lot of exciting themes in Buddhist texts. And what I've
found is that we have booked for very young children,
and then we have booked for adults, but we have
nothing for kind of the middle of years. And as
I taught students in twenty twenty three twenty twenty four,
(15:38):
I really saw this gap and I saw certain students
that I really wanted to reach out to and get
them enthusiastic about some of these texts. But I felt
like if there was no bridge, there would be no
way for them to enter them as adults.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
So you're going to write the book that's going to
bring them in.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I hope that I'm going to write the book. It's
going to be the bridge. And I'm actually signed out
for a six week writing course with a woman who
has been publishing young adult books, who is also a
professor at a local college in our area. So I'm
very excited about that.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
We've got a plan to make it happen. All right, Well,
we're going to take one more quick ad break and
then I'll be back with more from Gene Juncture. Well,
I am back talking with Gene Juncture, who is an
ordained Buddhist nun a graduate student. We've been talking about
her various ways of managing the schedule and all that
(16:37):
she has had to do as part of the ordination
process and then later teaching and being a student. So
you've just been working on your schedule for the fall semester.
I understand when we are we're having this conversation, maybe
you can talk about your process of how you create
a schedule for yourself, knowing what you know about you
know how you work and your responsibilities and all that
(16:58):
you're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Hey, well, I actually use the spreadsheet that you send
out in the time tracking challenge every year, and I
do it in fifteen minute increments. And so I start
by putting the morning and the evening ceremonies in because
those kind of book in the day for me, and
it's also a good way to connect with the other
monastics in the monastery. And then I put in all
(17:22):
the classes because the ceremonies and the classes are fixed
and you know, very important, and I'm taking extra classes
this semester so I can continue to improve my Chinese.
And I added in one fun class, which was quilting.
There's a NOD for credit quilting class, and my grandmothers
(17:43):
were wonderful quilters, but I never learned, so I'm taking
that as a side thing. So I put the classes
in and then I figure that I need roughly two
to three hours of study time writing time for every
hour that I'm in class, and so I try to
(18:05):
map out my study time so that I had at
least two or three study time to each class, one
directly before the class, one after the class, and one
in the middle. And so it took me like two
days to like, you know, kind of map this all out.
But then I feel really good because I have a
plan for the semester and then if special things come up.
(18:27):
It's just about moving things around a little bit. But
it's not a blank space. Now I know where I'm
going for the next few months.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, and building in time to study, like knowing that
that has to happen. And you're not just trusting that
it will happen. You're like, I, if it's important to me,
it needs a space on the calendar. Correct.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Yes, And I think as an undergraduate, when I had
endless optimism, you know, from eighteen to twenty two years old,
there were a lot of things that I tried to
like fit in at the last minute. I thought, oh,
this will only take two hours, but it ended up
taking six hours, and that's throwing the next day off.
And I think, you know, as an adult, I'm forty
(19:05):
five now, you know, I'm very aware that things take
more time than you think they will. And if you
leave more space, then you won't be panicked, You'll you know,
you'll feel much more confident.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah. And it sounds like you've been doing quite well
in school. I hear you have the very high GPA.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Not too bad. My first year was three point eight. Yeah,
I'm very exot.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Well, it's so hard to go back to school as
an adult, Like you said, I mean, this is you know,
I guess the upside is you have the benefit of
wisdom and experience. But you know, it's been a long
time since you did this the first time around, right.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yes, you know, I'm forty five now and I went
to you know, I did my underred when I was
eighteen to twenty two. So coming back to school and
writing papers, you know, formal academic papers after twenty three years,
was a real challenge because I had and little bits
of writing, you know, like press releases or marketing copy
(20:04):
or little things like that, but it had been a
really long time since I had written a fifteen twenty
plus page paper, and you know, finding good sources for
that and being able to you know, write it skillfully
is a talent that I'm still working on. But I
love writing and you know, will hopefully continue to improve.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I love it well, like with anything, I mean, it's
more dedication than it is talent. I think that's one
of the things we realize as grown ups.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I think that I completely agree with that, and that's
something I have really realized as an adult that I
did not know. When I was younger, I thought it
was all about you know, how smart you were, But
so much of what happens in life is about dedication
and you know, wisely spending your time.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Absolutely well, I agree with that for sure. So TJJ
I always ask people, what is something you have done
recently to take a day from great to awesome? So
something that has made a normal day better?
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Okay. I made a resolution at the beginning of this
year that I told you about that I'm very pleased with.
And because I have so much kind of work and
classes and also ceremonies, I felt like I wasn't having
that much human connection with people. So one of my
goals with the schedule fifty walks a week, fifty walks
(21:34):
a year, and so I've been taking walks with people
and instead of having a meeting with them or you know,
doing zoom, I just if they're in the local area,
I just schedule, you know, a fifteen to thirty minute
walk and sometimes those walks go you know, for an hour.
(21:54):
But I've had some great conversations on my walks, and
then I also get outside and we live in a
very beautiful valley surrounded by mountains, so I feel like
I'm getting nature, exercise and human connection. So I love
scheduling walks with people.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I love it. That's a lot of awesomeness for one activity.
And what are you looking forward to right now?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I'm so excited to work on the book, the book
for children young adults, and I'm very excited for the
writing workshop which I'll be doing August in October. And
I'm also, you know, looking forward to what comes next
and after graduate school, it feels like possibilities will open
(22:39):
up again, you know. Will I focus on writing, Will
I focus on I'm working on some compilations of Dharma talks,
I do a lot of editing for our magazine and
other publications. And will I teach agen. So I'm sitting
with all of these possibilities.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And seeing what comes of it. I love it. Yeah, absolutely, well,
g Juck here, Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you to everyone for listening. If you have feedback
about this or any other episode, you can always reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
(23:22):
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
(23:46):
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
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