![courtesy of Chris Rainier](https://tricycle.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/monasticism.jpg)
This special section looks at monasticism East and West. Here, Westerners challenge the Asian traditions of granting supremacy to monastics over the laity, and of monks over nuns. Contemporary teachers in Europe and North America, influenced by views that go back to the Age of Enlightenment, bring their own heritage to bear on redefining the roles for seekers on the Buddhist path.
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