Ayyā Medhānandī Bhikkhunī, is the founder and guiding teacher of Sati Sārāņīya Hermitage, a Canadian forest monastery for women in the Theravāda tradition. The daughter of Eastern European refugees who emigrated to Montreal after World War II, she began a spiritual quest in childhood that led her to India, Burma, England, New Zealand, Malaysia, Taiwan, and finally, back to Canada.
In 1988, at the Yangon Mahasi retreat centre in Burma, Ayyā requested ordination as a bhikkhunī from her teacher, the Venerable Sayādaw U Pandita Mahāthera. This was not yet possible for Theravāda Buddhist women. Instead, Sayādaw granted her ordination as a 10 precept nun on condition that she take her vows for life. Thus began her monastic training in the Burmese tradition. When the borders were closed to foreigners by a military coup, in 1990 Sayādaw blessed her to join the Ajahn Chah Thai Forest Saņgha at Amaravati, UK.
After ten years in their siladhāra community, Ayyā felt called to more seclusion and solitude in New Zealand and SE Asia. In 2007, having waited nearly 20 years, she received bhikkhunī ordination at Ling Quan Chan Monastery in Keelung, Taiwan and returned to her native Canada in 2008, on invitation from the Ottawa Buddhist Society and Toronto Theravāda Buddhist Community, to establish Sati Sārāņīya Hermitage.
Guided by the Dhamma, our life path is courageous. See how the world burns from cruel and chaotic forces. So we cultivate a heart of compassionate awareness and peace, knowing that freedom from suffering is within reach. Our spiritual footprints emulate those of the Buddha himself. We persevere and endure, powered by the noble fire of the Dhamma to illuminate our way and to bless us and all generations to come. Small as the flame appears, its light is as vast as this universe.
Giving our full attention inwardly is waking up to the truth of pure presence. In one breath, one moment of pure awareness, we can know a spiritual joy that deeply calms the mind. The shutters of the heart open to a piercing clarity that cuts through the blinding deceptions of the world. Here in the silence at the very core of our being, we listen. The heart fills with joy and light, resplendent – just as the morning sun emerging from the horizon lights up the world. What we have been seeking far and wide is right here within us – seeing and knowing our true nature as it really is, we receive the gift of Unconditional Love
Pure present moment awareness reveals what we are not; and thereby, what we truly are. Investigate and question all thoughts you see circling in the mind – fearful or fanciful, liked or not. Know their clever disguises: impermanence everywhere! Not what we are, but empty, ephemeral in nature, they orbit like space debris – crowding the heart mandala of consciousness. Let go and rejoice when states of wanting, judgement, restlessness, fear, unhappiness and all the many faces of 'self' dissolve in the silence of pure awareness. This is true refuge – here and now. All else withers in the furnace of eternity.
We wake up to Truth in the silence of the mind. Where else could we possibly discover it? To see and understand what we truly are, abandon the distractions of the world and purify consciousness. But are we willing to let go? Can we trust enough to enter the unknown? Humbly and tirelessly, bless each present moment with moral integrity, faith, courage and focused attention. Listen! The Buddha’s voice reveals all, not known by will-power but by wisdom power. Sustain pure awareness – and true happiness, peace, and freedom await us. It is the weapon of nobility – nothing less than unconditional love.
How can we rescue ourselves from the obstacles to our happiness? We must not disregard the power of awareness in the present moment to vanquish suffering. For in this very moment is everything we need to know. All moments, whether tainted or blessed, are conditioned by their predecessor. Without care and discernment, vigilance and integrity, we could easily fall into states of decline. Ill-will begets enmity, while joy begets ease and serenity, and each moment is the mother of the next. So too, stepping into the joys of life as it unfolds, we live by the best qualities we can reap. One bare insight into truth and we know what we truly are. Then we open the gates to the Deathless.
Let faith be our foundation for a mindfulness that never tires of examining how we are within us. We may eat well, dress well, and look good but what is the real state of the mind? Day by day, finding safety in virtue, aware of the right qualities that direct, protect, and teach us to root out unworthy habits, let us harvest the profound joy and goodness of this life. It’s not how much we work or gain but how well we honour the noble Dhamma as servants of selflessness and human kindness.
The Dhamma, the Buddha's teaching, guides us to a moral awakening, a realization of ultimate truth. We have forever searched for eternal peace in the world of fleeting promises where happiness never lasts. And now we turn to pure conscious awareness, stopping as witness in the silence of the heart. Seeing all as empty, fleeting, free from wanting, free from suffering, we rest in knowing the timeless, boundless, transcendent presence that runs through all things. This is the reality of what we are – unconditional love
Listen to the interior silence with audacious selfless attention and see how pure awareness catapults us into a dynamic intuitive presence. We connect to the Dhamma without obstructions. Silence is formless, soundless, complete. We are witness to an emptiness beyond attachment where the burdens of identification have no footing. There is no 'one' to be in that – for when the intellect bows in faith to the heart, we abide in the loving presence of what is here and now. Ahh! but can we sustain it?
We can't think our way to awakening. How then can we ennoble the heart? Practising right resort will purify the mind with present moment awareness. We give truth a voice, a prevailing knowing reinforced by mindfulness and wisdom. Instead of allowing delusion to rob us of our chance to awaken, we burn it away in its many guises of selfishness, hatred, despair and a host of dark states of mind. Patiently, faithfully, and gently, we navigate the way to true peace, unconditional love, and compassion.
We humans share this journey of birth, old age, sickness and death. Sometimes we succumb to fear or sorrow; sometimes we are exhausted or disoriented as if lost on a perilous path. Seeing this universality of suffering and knowing its causes, we ask: "What will set us free?" With the lens of refined moral aptitude, in silent witness, we stop to listen and directly know for ourselves the inner joy and peace of true harmlessness. Patiently, our noble guides of benevolent compassion and wise reflection steer the heart to its liberation – awakening to Unconditional Love.
