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.
May you be well, happy, and peaceful. Learn how to connect with the radiant, loving energy in your heart. Dissolve your opinions and unwholesome attitudes and deepen a quintessential quality for the Path - forgiveness. It is the key to greater loving-kindness for all beings.
We are on a miraculous voyage in the fragile vessel of a body that ultimately dies. This is the Noble Truth of our suffering. To unravel its mystery and rescue ourselves, we must navigate the inner sea of the heart. We explore how in the world of objects, devices, ideas and experiences – whether exotic or excruciating, we are bound up with joy, fear or any point between. But there is a freedom from this cycle and it comes when we brave the great quiet of that vast interior universe. Blessed is the silence that opens our eyes to the Deathless, the Truth of what we are.
Meditation is a renewable resource. “Why do we have to be human? O not because happiness exists – but because being in this Dharma realm means so much.” Our spiritual work reveals how we must hold the mind – as refuge, safety, and protection from harm. This is the basis for true happiness. We pay attention to what is impermanent and thereby discover deeper treasure, knowing Reality, the truest renewable resource. With the ego disabled from consciousness, we transcend beyond the bonds and blindness of our human existence.
Our suffering may feel too great or the mountain look too high. But we are resilient and we have it in us to do this work, to walk this path – if we can give up thoughts of self-cherishing and feel compassion for ourselves and for all beings. The fruit of this work is a treasure to be gained even in the smallest instant of awareness. With radical patience, just make peace with one moment of painful feeling. Then offer up the pain or misery. From the ashes of suffering, we turn inward to the clarity of the mind. Stay fully present in awareness, listening to that silence. Such a song comes – the pure sound of this awareness. That's what we are. We are that song.
Ottawa Buddhist Society (Sisters of St. Joseph Convent)
By deeply examining the mind as the Buddha taught, we see our stark human predicament, why we suffer and the real source of happiness. For he awakened to suffering’s end and the noble path to freedom. With immense gratitude for his teaching, we learn how we are caught grasping the world, compelled by its impingement and tormented ever after. We realize the ineffable vanquishing of that disease – when we stop giving vent to the wanting mind and live each moment from a pure compassionate and wise awareness. And so, quite apart from the world, we directly know here and now, within our own heart – the truest joy, the supreme peace of Nibbana.
Sometimes it takes an illness or a loss to wake up. The wheel of Dhamma turns us towards the centre point, where all the mind’s movements are stilled so that we can see the truth of suffering. Fear arises but we can observe it ceasing in the light of our inner spiritual work. Gently, patient and aware, with selflessness and noble intent, we persevere.
How can we trick the mind out of its old habits? The Buddha emphasized the power of the four Right Efforts. These royal allies advance the mind to its highest potential, the supreme wisdom possible for a human being. We are here to work for and receive this, our rightful inheritance - awakening to the truth of the Dhamma through our own intuitive realizations.
A dedication to a member of the community who is in the last stages of life. She struggles with breathing but is composed and at peace with the process. We are reminded how important it is to train the mind while we are able to do so. A talk given at Quaker House, Ottawa.
