The temple offers a short-term monastic retreat for adults every other summer, alternating with the Five Precepts and Bodhisattva Precepts Retreat. This retreat allows laypeople to make a commitment to temporarily ordain as novice monks and nuns. This week-long program is one of the most rigorous retreats offered at the temple and shares the strict, regimented lifestyle of a monastic-in-training with the public.

Much of this retreat is conducted in Mandarin Chinese, with simultaneous English interpretation, and a significant portion of the retreat is devoted to the ordination ceremony. 

Because this is a major retreat, it draws participants from all over North America. Many participants have expressed that the retreat was challenging, and that the challenge was what made the retreat life changing. This retreat is often described as overwhelming at first but carries tremendous value to those who are seeking to deepen their practice and get a taste of the life of a monastic.