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.
Step by step instructions on developing meditation practice by beginning with close attention to the breath. Gradually investigate the impermanent nature of wanting, aversion, sleepiness, restlessness, and doubt as they arise and overcome these five obstacles to practice. With curiosity and determination, return again and again to the breath. As the mind is stilled and purified, explore the clarity, calm and spaciousness of its vast inner depths.
The Buddha gives us lessons in freeing ourselves but there are critical choices to be made - an emptying out, a readiness, a rising up, a deep yearning for truth. We are compelled to trust so completely to wake up to the peace in our hearts, offering the best we can. It's a harvest of wisdom. And in this remarkable learning, we receive the great gift of a love, a compassion, a kindness that pervades us and, in turn, allows us to extend it to all beings.
By practising awareness of your breath you will begin to understand your mental and physical processes and develop mindfulness. You will know what is happening as it happens, and you will be able to recognize a hindrance and turn it off. Spiritual regret for past unwholesome actions can develop and you will be able to abandon
them and let go of a lifetime’s accumulation of baggage. A talk given at a 10 day Ottawa Buddhist Society retreat at the Galilee Centre, Arnprior, Ontario, Canada.
How can we calm the mind in order to not be overwhelmed by thoughts and emotions? We can learn to live skillfully by realizing how the mind and body really work. Don’t be angry with your anger, don’t be caught up with your desires, don’t be overwhelmed by your delusion. But, go beyond and find an island of peace that can result in the ethical perfection that is known as enlightenment. A talk given during an Ottawa Buddhist Society 10 day retreat in Arnprior, Ontario, Canada.
When you move towards what is fearful step by step with courage, it is possible to overcome the darkest moments breath by breath. Draw together all the threads of your life, and let each one go strand by strand. A guided meditation on death at a 10 day retreat, Galilee Centre, Arnprior, Ontario Canada.
Shrouded in the cloud of ignorance, we believe that suffering will never happen to us. But when we emerge from that fog into a radical simplicity of heart, suffering becomes our teacher. Our eyes are opened thanks to Right View and direct experience of the Four Noble Truths. At last we transcend the tyranny of fear.
Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
Practice means we keep trying to purify the mind and strengthen our commitment to the precepts. There is no failure – we just begin again and again until we find our Dhamma wings. A short talk given during a Theravada Buddhist Community (TBC) retreat in Toronto.
While living in New Zealand, Ayya Medhanandi pays respects to the relics of St. Therese de Lisieux that were brought to the Catholic Cathedral in Wellington during a world tour. In this interview for the Catholic diocese, she reflects on what drew her to the spirituality of St. Therese.
Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
Can we fearlessly accept all that life gives with a wise and compassionate heart? We see how the sun shines unilaterally on all beings giving life and nourishment. But we must use sharp wisdom to discern what is harmful and abandon that; and to know what is wholesome and cultivate that. Even as a mother, may we emulate the Buddha's compassion that flows without bias in all directions across millenia.
Bodhinyanarama Monastery, Stokes Valley, New Zealand
Though we feel powerless to effect change globally, we can purify the mind and restore trust, peace, and harmony in our own lives. Six special qualities of reconciliation help us nurture the balm of forgiveness. We learn to see how our suffering begins and how to stop the bombs in our own minds. Practising kindness and compassion, we let go hostility. We put down our weapons and enter the temple of the heart.
