No one wants sickness. Nor does anyone want the pain,disability, anger, fear, vulnerability, uncertainty, or the way in which identity is stripped away that often accompanies illness. Yet, in every part of the process we are invited to understand more about who we really are and how we can grow from these experiences. With perspective and tools this unchosen path can show us a wholeness and profound well being that we didn’t know before.
Ajahn or Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni was born into a loving family of Jewish ancestry in Burbank, California. She was first introduced to Buddhist teaching and insight meditation in 1979 in a class taught by Jack Engler at University of California Santa Cruz. From that time she consciously committed to awakening and envisioned living her life as a nun. From the onset, Ajahn Chah, Dipa Ma and His Holiness the Dalai Lama were primary inspirations to her. Her teachers also included Christopher Titmuss, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfeild, Peace Pilgrim and the work and teachings of Gandhi.
After completing a BA in Biology from UC Santa Cruz, she worked for a few years as an analytical chemist. In 1987 she went on a pilgrimage to India, Nepal and Thailand to meet and practice with Dipa Ma, his Holiness Dalia Lama, Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Buddhadasa; meditation masters she had heard about in 1979.
In 1989, she formally joined the Ajahn Chah lineage and the community of nuns at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery to begin training as a novice. That began the process of intensive training, study and meditation practice. After 2 years as an Anagarika, she received ordination in 1991 with Ajahn Sumedho as her preceptor. She lived at both Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist Monasteries in England.
For several years Amma Thanasanti was involved in the leadership team and guidance of the nuns’ community at Chithurst and Amaravati. Since 1996 her community and monastic responsibilities were interspersed with teaching intensive meditation retreats in the US, UK, Switzerland and Australia.
In 2000 she took Bodhisattva vows with His Holiness Dalai Lama en-route to spend extensive time in retreat in the remote bush of Australia. From that point on, her practice shifted and the place of compassion and relationship with nature became central.
In order to pursue her vision of how monastic and lay practitioners can work together in the modern world to create viable communities for practice in the United States, she took the significant step of leaving the formal affiliations of Amaravati and associated monastic communities and returned to the USA. In 2009 she founded Awakening Truth a non-profit 501 (c)3 organization whose mission is to create a Bhikkhuni training monastery and facilitate ways monastics and lay practitioners can work together to support whole life practice.
In August 2010, after being a nun for 19 years, she was ordained as a Bhikkhuni at Aranya Bodhi Forest Hermitage, in the historic first dual Theravada Bhikkhuni ordination to be conducted in North America. Ayya Tathaaloka is her preceptor.
Amma’s work spans rigorous understanding of Buddhist teachings, non-dual meditation, depth psychology, subtle body energies, and the Divine Feminine. She teaches meditation as an art and skill, integrating body, heart and mind with finesse and compassion.
Currently she is based at the Shakti Vihara hermitage in Colorado Springs, Colorado as a solitary alms mendicant nun where her time is interspersed between writing, teaching and time meditating in the nearby Garden of the Gods.
Sit & Dharma Talk, The Unchosen Path of Illness, with Amma Thanasanti
News, Weekly MeditationNo one wants sickness. Nor does anyone want the pain,disability, anger, fear, vulnerability, uncertainty, or the way in which identity is stripped away that often accompanies illness. Yet, in every part of the process we are invited to understand more about who we really are and how we can grow from these experiences. With perspective and tools this unchosen path can show us a wholeness and profound well being that we didn’t know before.
Ajahn or Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni was born into a loving family of Jewish ancestry in Burbank, California. She was first introduced to Buddhist teaching and insight meditation in 1979 in a class taught by Jack Engler at University of California Santa Cruz. From that time she consciously committed to awakening and envisioned living her life as a nun. From the onset, Ajahn Chah, Dipa Ma and His Holiness the Dalai Lama were primary inspirations to her. Her teachers also included Christopher Titmuss, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfeild, Peace Pilgrim and the work and teachings of Gandhi.
After completing a BA in Biology from UC Santa Cruz, she worked for a few years as an analytical chemist. In 1987 she went on a pilgrimage to India, Nepal and Thailand to meet and practice with Dipa Ma, his Holiness Dalia Lama, Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Buddhadasa; meditation masters she had heard about in 1979.
In 1989, she formally joined the Ajahn Chah lineage and the community of nuns at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery to begin training as a novice. That began the process of intensive training, study and meditation practice. After 2 years as an Anagarika, she received ordination in 1991 with Ajahn Sumedho as her preceptor. She lived at both Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist Monasteries in England.
For several years Amma Thanasanti was involved in the leadership team and guidance of the nuns’ community at Chithurst and Amaravati. Since 1996 her community and monastic responsibilities were interspersed with teaching intensive meditation retreats in the US, UK, Switzerland and Australia.
In 2000 she took Bodhisattva vows with His Holiness Dalai Lama en-route to spend extensive time in retreat in the remote bush of Australia. From that point on, her practice shifted and the place of compassion and relationship with nature became central.
In order to pursue her vision of how monastic and lay practitioners can work together in the modern world to create viable communities for practice in the United States, she took the significant step of leaving the formal affiliations of Amaravati and associated monastic communities and returned to the USA. In 2009 she founded Awakening Truth a non-profit 501 (c)3 organization whose mission is to create a Bhikkhuni training monastery and facilitate ways monastics and lay practitioners can work together to support whole life practice.
In August 2010, after being a nun for 19 years, she was ordained as a Bhikkhuni at Aranya Bodhi Forest Hermitage, in the historic first dual Theravada Bhikkhuni ordination to be conducted in North America. Ayya Tathaaloka is her preceptor.
Amma’s work spans rigorous understanding of Buddhist teachings, non-dual meditation, depth psychology, subtle body energies, and the Divine Feminine. She teaches meditation as an art and skill, integrating body, heart and mind with finesse and compassion.
Currently she is based at the Shakti Vihara hermitage in Colorado Springs, Colorado as a solitary alms mendicant nun where her time is interspersed between writing, teaching and time meditating in the nearby Garden of the Gods.
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor, Rich Howard
News, Weekly MeditationThe topic of Rich’s talk is to be announced.
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Teacher, Dennis Warren
News, Weekly MeditationThe topic of Dennis’s talk is to be announced.
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Visiting Mentor, Heather Sundberg
News, Weekly MeditationThe specific topic of Heather’s talk is to be announced. The talk is part of a series of talks on “Suttas that Speak to Us”.
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Founding Teacher, Dennis Warren
News, Weekly MeditationThe topic of Dennis’s talk is to be announced.
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor, Rich Howard
News, Weekly MeditationThe topic of Rich’s talk is to be announced.
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor, Diane Wilde
News, Weekly MeditationThursday, March 10, 7-9:00 pm. Sitting and Dharma Discussion with Diane Wilde, SIM Community Mentor
Suttas that speak to us…
King Pasenadi and his worldly challenges
King Pasenadi was a contemporary of the Buddha and apparently became a treasured acquaintance as well as a supporter of the early sangha. An entire section of the Samyutta Nikaya (one of the “books” in the Pali Cannon) is devoted exclusively to twenty-five conversations Pasenadi had with the Buddha. King Pasenadi spent a great deal of time thoughtfully dissecting his everyday life, relating to the Buddha his challenges and reflections. His issues certainly stand the test of time! Marriage difficulties, over-eating, corruption, tolerance of other faiths, dealing with grief, hypocrisy… Pasenadi lived fully in the world with all of its concerns. We will explore King Pasenadi’s world, and specifically the suttas where he raises questions about the “self” and how to hold our sense of self. Taking it one step further, how does an inherent sense of “me” coexist with the training of “anatta’” i.e. the absence of a permanent abiding self? It should be an interesting discussion.
This event will begin at 7:00 pm at Sacramento Friends Meetinghouse, 890 57th Street, Sacramento
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor, Rich Howard
News, Weekly MeditationThursday, March 24, 7-9:15 pm. Sitting and Dharma Talk with Rich Howard, SIM Community Mentor
Satipatthana Sutta – WITH SIM COMMUNITY MENTOR RICH HOWARD – THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2016 – 7:00-9:15 PM
Looking at the Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (MN 10, the Satipatthana Sutta), we arrive at perhaps the single most important description of how and why we practice meditation. The many practices described in this discourse form the basis for SIM’s Introduction to Meditation course and most Vipassana (insight) meditation retreats. SIM spent almost two years from March 2009 through December 2010 examining this subject in depth, and many excellent book-length studies are available (including Joseph Goldstein’s Mindfulness, Bhikkhu Analayo’s Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization, and U Silananda’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness). So what could be gained from looking at this text for a single night? In our continuing exploration of the Suttas That Speak to Us, SIM Community Mentor Rich Howard will approach the Satipatthana Sutta as if in conversation with a good friend, looking literally at how it speaks to us as practitioners of insight meditation.
This evening’s talk will lead into SIM’s monthly daylong retreat on Saturday March 26 (see description below under Upcoming Events).
This event will begin at 7:00 pm at Sacramento Friends Meetinghouse, 890 57th Street, Sacramento
Sit & Dharma Talk with Long Time SIM Community Member, Laura Rosenthal
News, Weekly MeditationThursday, January 14, 7-9 pm. Sitting and Dharma Talk with Laura Rosenthal
“Views and Opinions: With Friends Like This Who Needs Enemies?”
According to the Pali suttas (discourses, or “sutras” in Sanskrit), the historical Buddha was asked to teach about many topics, including lofty questions about the nature of the universe – but refused. Why is this? And what can it teach us about a fruitful attitude toward practice? Join Laura Rosenthal, a long-time SIM participant and graduate of Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioners Program, for a discussion of a few Buddhist texts that cast light on these questions.
This is the beginning of a SIM series highlighting some suttas we have found particularly meaningful.
Sit & Dharma Talk with SIM Community Mentor, Rich Howard
News, Weekly MeditationThe talk is part of a series of talks on “Suttas that Speak to Us”. The specific topic of Rich’s talk is to be announced.