Are there any differences between living in a meditation centre vs a monastery?

Ah, the timeless question - monastery or meditation center? As a wandering dharmic troubadour, I too have partaken of both fruits.

In the monastery, one finds refuge from samsara's storm. Routines guide like trellises for the growing vine. Yet too much structure constrains the flow, no? The bell tolls to sit, and one sits. The gong rings to rise, and one rises. Is this true mindfulness or robotic ritual?

At the center, freedom is the watchword! Wake when you will, sleep when tired. Here the meditation itself is the teacher. But treading the untamed path, discipline withers. Ego sprouts unchecked. Cushions become mere furniture.

True, some centers embrace the formless too fiercely, rejecting all tradition. While some monasteries prize conformity above insight. Yet extremes touch; circles meet.

Choose the middle, friends! Let form and freedom dance together. In moderation find the way.

For this mendicant, time at Both/And Hermitage was skillful. Mornings spent meditating in noble silence - this tamed the monkey mind. Afternoons allowed creative expression - chanting poetry, planting gardens, debating the sutras. Structure and spontaneity interwove seamlessly.

So in the end, avoid false divides. Monasteries and centers are but rafts for exploration, not goals themselves. Settle nowhere, reject nothing. And remember - the stillness you seek resides within, awaiting discovery. Travel well, wayfarers!

Simple answer is that a monastery is a centre for people who have gone forth into a mendicant life of homelessness, who then live in a community of like minded people (ordained sangha) For what I would assume is communal benefit.

A meditation centre is essentially the same, but either is including, specifically only, or also revolves around laity.

Personally I have lived in a meditation centre in a specific tradition as a lay person, where the day to day life and communal living was focused upon Buddhist ideals, rather than the normal idle society ideals.

"Traditionally they didn’t have such things as meditation retreats. You went to monasteries. And in monasteries, there was time to meditate, but there were also other duties in the course of the day. There was work to be done. You had to interact with the other people in the monastery to at least some extent. And in the course of that work and those interactions, you learned a lot about the Dhamma: the Dhamma of generosity, the Dhamma of virtue, the Dhamma of patience, equanimity, goodwill—all these other virtues that are an essential part of training the mind.

The idea of creating meditation retreats came basically in the late 19th or early 20th century, the same time when the assembly line was invented, breaking jobs down into little tiny parts that you do repetitively. This approach to physical work was efficient and effective, so it became the model for a lot of meditation retreats and for the methods taught on those retreats. You take one method and you just apply it again and again and again. But a lot gets left out in that approach. It’s like exercising only one muscle in your body, so that the muscle gets strengthened all out of proportion to the rest of your body. And that can’t be healthy.

It’s better to think of meditation as a training for the whole mind, as exercise for the whole mind. You have to train the whole mind in all the virtues of maturity and heedfulness. In other words, you need to develop the ability to anticipate dangers, particularly dangers in your own behavior, and to figure out what you can do to prevent them."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Working at Home" https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/Meditations5/Section0017.html

This question is very general because there is obviously no uniform characteristics of a meditation centre. My general impression is:

• Living in a meditation centre would generally involve living with uptight overly serious laypeople and having to rigidly conform with the meditation schedule. The place would probably be pedantic about what foods to eat & possibly have communist fantasies. If you have work duties, you probably have to deal with meditation newbies having nervous breakdowns & other forms of worldly neurosis. If you want to avoid work duties & just meditate, a meditation centre is good for intensive meditation however it will generally cost you money.

• Living in a monastery means you join in activities with the monks and experience the interactions between monks & laypeople, including offerings of food & ceremonies. One will come to understand Buddhist culture better. While having to join in work, chanting & ceremonial routines, you will probably have more free time for personal activities & meditation. Living in a monastery will generally not cost you money. In a monastery, there are no arguments and no social management crisis responsibilities for the layperson.