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Ayya Medhanandi's Dharma Talks

Ayya Medhanandi

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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.

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2017-05-24 The Last Meal Blessing 1:31	Download Listen
Pāli chanting for all the retreat yogis with a brief Dhamma reflection and blessings for the good kamma and happiness of all beings.
Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out

2017-05-24 Standing for the Dhamma 7:56	Download Listen
Standing up in pure presence is one of the four great postures. In this simple act of being present, know one mind-moment at a time, repeatedly. Grateful for one breath, one posture, one point, we gain balance and poise. We allow our suffering to dissolve in the suffering of all the world. This is how we stand for the Dhamma in a practical way – with the body; and in a practice way – with compassion and understanding of the Dhamma.
Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out

2017-05-23 When Truth Speaks Out – Limbless Man On the Bridge 31:21	Download Listen
When delusion, impatience and lack of trust prevail in our spiritual work, we rape our own goodness and execute ourselves over and over again. This suffering, clearly known, helps us to see how we cling and how we let go. When clinging again, let go again – stop the subterfuge of clinging and undermining ourselves. Actually, we are our own liberators. We are powerful beyond our understanding.
Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out

2017-05-23 Rising Up Like A Swan 15:05	Download Listen
Reviewing our effort to practise, recalibrate and make adjustments as needed. Make peace with what arises – neither controlling nor being passive; like a parent – compassionate, mindful, discerning. Whatever hindrance is most predominant, make it skilful, waking up if we’re asleep, or settling down if we’re restless, calming when agitated or patiently balancing. This is nothing short of the way to Nibbana, the supreme goal. Step by step, through all manner of sufferings and joys, we radiate blessings in the ten directions.
Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out

2017-05-23 Funeral of the Ego & Chant on Impermanence 3:45	Download Listen
We come on retreat from our busy lives where we can easily relapse into old unworthy mental habits, hoping that here, at last, we can put them to sleep. They too are impermanent. Reflect on their impermanence using these chants for the funeral of our ego and the death of our ignorance. Once their corpse is seen and placed in a coffin, it’s possible to sustain open compassionate awareness wherever we are.
Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out

2017-05-22 When You Get Close to the Sun 19:40	Download Listen
What can protect us from the repercussions of negative and unwholesome mind states? Begin the journey, the archeology of our own heart. It’s a total cleansing. Like a mountain climber, we ascend the interior slopes and our burden lightens. We clear it out moment by moment. Whatever misfortunes come, letting go, we wean ourselves away from the quicksand of habit. We grow fearless, students of life, learning to bow and bring forth these gifts, like diamonds from coal in the quiet eternity within us. Therein, we hear the timeless hymn of unspoken love.
Sati Saraniya Hermitage

2017-05-22 On the Look Out 33:59	Download Listen
Venerable Punna was one of the great bhikkhus of the Buddha’s time, known especially for his fierce faith, practice skill, and his fearlessness. When the Buddha hears that Punna plans to wander on foot in a remote and dangerous frontier region, he questions Punna how he would respond to the inevitable perils and violent ways of the native people of that place. Their dialogue reveals Venerable Punna’s remarkable courage, wisdom, and selflessness.
Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out

2017-05-22 As Still As the Earth 8:22	Download Listen
Standing as still as we can like the earth, aware, embodying qualities of heart that we treasure, share the goodness with all who are dear to us, and with all beings. Live wisely from that kind of pure inner space. As we chant these essential five recollections, reflect: we are all subject to aging, sickness, and death; we shall all be separated from what is ours, it will fade and be lost; and we are the heirs of our karmic deeds – for good or for ill.
Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out

2017-05-21 Don't Own the Second Arrow 36:33	Download Listen
How do we deal with life when it bites us? Without trusting the Path, there is no way we can fulfill it. Practise seeing what works and what doesn’t, what binds us and what frees us. Seeing pain as our teacher, we can face whatever we are feeling and not lament. Not owning our suffering is letting go the second arrow of mental pain. This will be for our safety, and when wise insight into suffering reveals the truth in us, there arises incalculable joy and peace.
Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out

2017-05-21 The Gift of Walking 10:47	Download Listen
Walking as a meditation posture is dynamic and complementary to breath meditation. With more to distract us from being attentive to our own experience, walking requires sharper effort, mindfulness, focus, and present moment awareness. This provides an invaluable template for practice in the many walking times of our daily lives.
Madison Insight Meditation Group : When Truth Speaks Out

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