Wondering if you should take the plunge and move in together? Sounds daunting enough as it is. Now try this: you and your beloved are in a spiritual partnership rooted in a commitment to always stay within 15 feet of each other — and your love nest is a 22-foot-wide yurt in the middle of the Arizona desert.

Oh, and you’ve both taken a vow of celibacy.

According to a recent feature in the New York Times, the relationship between acclaimed Buddhist teachers Michael Roach (also a monk) and Christie McNally — which includes eating off the same plate (to allow for a smaller drying rack, I’m guessing) and non-sexual touching (some don’t buy it) — has aroused both praise from their followers and fury from the Tibetan Buddhist community (wherein monks are prohibited from having partners). Their “insistence that they share both purity and intimacy drives traditionalists to distraction,” according to the Times. The Dalai Lama himself: not a fan.

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