Wisdom and Love: Facing the Fires – Abiding in Not-Knowing a weekend retreat with Ayya Anandabodhi, Ayya Ahimsa, and Ayya Niyyanika of Aloka Vihara Bhikkhunis

The Buddha’s teaching is ever-relevant, guiding us to meet our experience in a way that increases the qualities of wisdom and love, even in difficult time. Drawing on this liberating teaching, and their own practice experience, the Bhikkhunis of Aloka Vihara will share teachings, offer meditation guidance, discuss the practice in Q & A sessions, and just be together with you through the weekend retreat.

This will be a zoom retreat.

To register for this retreat and receive the schedule and zoom contact information, please contact:

Karen Kvasnicka: karenkvasnicka@gmail.com

Dana (donation): Because these liberation teachings are  priceless, there is no charge for this event. Dana will be gratefully accepted by the teacher and by Dharma Zephyr, giving participants the opportunity to freely engage in the practice of generosity, the first step toward freedom.

Donate to Aloka Vihara Bhikkhunis: https://alokavihara.org/support-2/donate/

When making a donation, please note that this is for our Wisdom and Love retreat, thanks.

Donate to Dharma Zephyr

Aloka ViharaBhikkunis

Ayya Anandabodhi first encountered the Buddha’s teachings in her early teens, igniting a deep interest in the Buddha’s Path of Awakening. She lived and trained as a nun in the Forest Tradition at Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries in England from 1992 until 2009, when she moved to the US to help establish Aloka Vihara, a training monastery for women.

Her practice and teaching are guided by early Buddhist scriptures and through nature’s pure and immediate Dhamma. In 2011 she took full Bhikkhuni Ordination, joining the growing number of women who are reclaiming this path given by the Buddha.

Ayya Ahimsa was born in Vancouver, BC in 1959. Her first career was as an orchestral clarinetist. Then, in order to be at home more when her two children were young, she taught preschool music. When her children were in elementary school she herself returned to university to obtain a Master’s in Speech-Language Pathology which enabled her to work with children with developmental differences.

She began to meditate in 2006 and soon after knew she wanted to completely devote her life to training the mind and purifying the heart. In 2008 she was first introduced to monasticism through visiting Ajahn Sona at Birken Forest Monastery. Due to aging parents and teenagers still at home she was not able to leave the householder life and go forth until 2012. Ayya Ahimsa took Anagarika Precepts in January 2012 and then Samaneri Precepts in September 2013 with Ayya Medhanandi at Sati Saraniya Hermitage near Perth, Ontario. In June 2016 she joined the nuns’ community at Aloka Vihara and was given Bhikkhuni Ordination in August 2017 with Ayya Gunasari Theri as her preceptor.

Ayya Niyyankia

Before becoming a monastic, Ayya Niyyanika balanced life in Minnesota between work as an ontology consultant for building management and emergency response systems, and practicing with the Common Ground Meditation community.

She received her initial training with the Dhammadharini community from 2014 through 2019 and is currently practicing with the Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery community. Niyyanika Bhikkhuni gratefully practices monastic life within community and, through learning from the teachings and monastic discipline established by the Buddha, works for their own development on the path and the development of others.