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.
Forest devas chanting these beautiful ancient refrains of the Ratana Sutta at Sati Saraniya Hermitage came to an old bhikkhuni while she walked the trails of the monastery. When we are protected by the sanctuary of the Noble Triple Jewels, the heart's purity is sustained and great blessings rain forth - supreme refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, great compassion, wisdom, and incomparable peace. Herein - the joy of chanting our praise of these blessings.
Through the lens of Truth, mindful and attentive, we pierce anger, sorrow, fear and complacency. We are on the cusp of realizing who we are. Clear present awareness leads us inwards. We are on track to let go, relinquish and abandon all that is harmful. Discarding ancient beliefs one after another with microscopic insight, we empty out the rubbish from the mind. Radical awareness directly knows the impersonal, imperfect and empty nature of all that we experience. Now we see the face of holiness. Giving our hearts to truth, we are set free.
To vow for life: not to compromise our faith, our virtue, or our goodness - even in a moment of terror - is a powerful spiritual ally. Not cowering nor retaliating even in a hopeless-feeling-moment, we learn to stay present with compassion and kindness. As long as we remember to keep the practice alive within, we will have the stamina to grow in generosity, equanimity, and wisdom. So, at all times, make good-will the mantra of your heart.
We keep searching for happiness through travel, surfing the internet, shopping, and other worldly ways – but does it ever last? Supreme happiness arises right here in the heart. When we are present and patient beyond measure, we are stronger than we know. This groundbreaking inner seeing is free of devices – and free of vices. Pure, wise clarity and conscious awareness disentangle and unburden the mind of fear, obsession, all distractions, and at last, all suffering! This is the key to our self-made prison of beliefs, thoughts and opinions. We wake up to our true inheritance – the liberating Truth of what we are.
Our spiritual home is within the heart. Are we able to activate that awareness, and to treasure kindness and goodness in our daily actions and speech? Can wholesome states of mind prevail even when we face difficult or painful conditions? Moral purity is the harbinger for our waking up to the Truth within us. As we hasten to empty and weed out self-centredness, the poison arrow of craving is extracted. This is freedom – this is life-saving sanctuary.
Our spiritual home is within the heart. Are we able to know and bring to life that awareness, to treasure goodness in our daily acts and words of kindness as well as in wholesome states of mind - even where conditions are not so conducive to that? Let us empty ourselves of self-centredness to embody more and more the realization of the Truth within us. Let us guard the mind against the hindrances and pull out the poison arrow of craving. What freedom! We shall brighten the mind and lift up our hearts. This is life-saving sanctuary.
We are on a mountain with a tremendous view. Let the breath speak to us. Stay present and watch, both the joy and the suffering. Investigate wisely and patiently like a parent whose child may object or run away. We try to see the breath clearly, with mindfulness that is like the sun upon a flower. Attentive and receptive, timeless, and still, we gently soften and mellow – just knowing, observing, and selflessly giving the mind back to pure presence. To trust the breath is to let go moment by moment, discovering its hidden truths – our true home here and now.
To free us from our relentless conceptualising and the suffering that comes of it, the Buddha has thrown us a lifeline. We can grab hold of it by continually using the perspective that “this is impermanent”, and, thereby, we can pull ourselves to safety. A breakfast reflection given at Sati Saraniya Hermitage in 2018.
We sit at the edge of the heart peering in, tangled by clinging, inflated and inflamed by worldly ways. Yet we long to know the truth of what we are. For that we must explore the inner core. This is a letting go both magnificent and excruciating. So how can we bear it? Burn up all that you think you know to discover that which cannot be burned. It's a corelessness – the pure, unfathomable truth. Trust and see through to the emptiness of 'I' – there is no me and nothing to cling to. That knowledge and vision will set us free.
Forgiveness is the greatest generosity we can give ourselves. We come to it by wisely seeing that the harm in the world, whether it originates within ourselves or others, comes from ignorance. So there is nothing to fear and nothing to forgive. We can surrender to the challenges of life which seem to overwhelm us by staying in the present moment awake and aware. And in this way we polish our hearts until they can reflect the Truth.
