Ayya Santussikā Q&A - Building Faith Brick-by-Brick: How We Grow on the Path

Описание: In this interview, Ayya Santussika speaks about her path to robes, and how we can build faith little-by-little in our lives.

Venerable Santussika Bhikkhuni began exploring meditation in the late seventies. In 1996 she joined a Kriya yoga-based center, where she deepened her meditation practice and made spiritual development the central theme of her life. In 2002, she received a Masters of Divinity degree after completing a four-year interfaith seminar program to become a minister.

In 1999, Ayya Santussika made her first trip to Thailand to visit her son who had ordained there as a monk in Ajahn Chah’s international monastery, Wat Pah Nanachat. As a guest at the monastery and mother of a monk, she was able to spend a lot of time with the monks and learn from many of Ajahn Chah’s students. Over the years, she traveled to Thailand once or twice each year to stay in various monasteries, learning from master teachers including Ajahn Jayasaro, Ajahn Anan, Ajahn Dtun, Luang Ta Maha Boowa, and Ajahn Pannavaddho.

With a gradual deepening of her faith in the Buddha, Dhamma and enlightened Sangha, it became clear to Ayya Santussika that she wanted to become a Theravada Buddhist nun. She took Anagarika Precepts with Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni in 2005 and spent a year helping start Dhammadharini Vihara. She then took up training at Amaravati and Chithurst Monasteries in England until 2009, when she moved with three of the Siladhara nuns to San Francisco to start Aloka Vihara. Desiring full ordination, Ayya Santussika turned to the Sri Lankan tradition. She received samaneri ordination in 2010 and bhikkhuni ordination in 2012 at Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara with Ayya Sudarshana as her preceptor.

In 2012, with the help of Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi and her son, Ayya Santussika started Karuna Buddhist Vihara, a neighborhood Theravada monastery for bhikkhunis now located in Mountain View, CA. Her teachings are primarily based on the suttas of the Pali Canon as they are applied to everyday life and lead to awakening.

A turning point in KBV's history came in 2014 when Ayya Cittananda decided to join the monastery. Since then they have worked together to
develop KBV and share the Dhamma.

For more information, visit https://www.karunabv.org/

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Tune in with fellow practitioners every Saturday morning at 10:00 am PT and Wednesday evening at 6 pm for a Dhamma Talk and Q&A with Tan Nisabho and Ajahn Kovilo. Wednesday evening Q&A's are followed by a discussion on Zoom from 6:45 - 7:30 pm. Talks may be slightly edited. See https://www.clearmountainmonastery.org/ for details. Welcome!