The Yurt Is Up

Full slideshow here

by Sara Sacksteder  - June 23, 2010

Shortly after the summer solstice of 2010, an excellent, skillful crew assembled the large yurt at our hermitage. Many thanks to Kemanthi, who gathered her friends for a pizza party fundraiser to buy and offer a 27 foot diameter, well insulated yurt. For now, this will be our main indoor space for Dhamma talks, meals, and meditation. It can seat up to 30 people comfortably for meditation and up to 50 for a talk.

It is impossible to state how important Jill has been. She has been stewarding the land and spearheading and doing so much of the development work. On this day she had arranged to have Tina, Charles and Michael available to provide the expertise and the wonderful good cheer necessary to put up the yurt. Tina and Charles found a way to be available to answer questions and give guidance all day long. They also kept us right on track until the last nail was in place. Michael found answers to problems repeatedly throughout the day. He spent a lot of the day hoisting things up to be placed on the central ring of the Yurt and then helping with the placement of the yurt ceiling beams, ceiling liner, ceiling insulation,and the roof.

Dominic and Brian were invaluable. Dominic spent much of his day at least 12 feet above the ground with Michael supporting and inserting beams into the central ring of the yurt, placing insulation and installing the roof. Brian found a way to be in the right spot to help with his height and strength all day long (on one occasion he was in the wrong spot, I clipped him on the head with a beam as I swung around). I saw him help with placing the ceiling beams, the side walls, the side wall insulation, and the external walls of the yurt.

Jurasri provided transportation for Sister Suvijjana on the way up and for Ayya Tathaaloka and Sister Suvijjana at the end of the day. She gave us wonderful food in large quantity. She helped with every stage of the raising of the yurt. She also donated much needed plates and silverware to the hermitage. Jill Zwicky arrived just in time to infuse some fresh energy and effort. I saw her doing whatever was needed and spent the most time with her as she was helping to install the insulation between the inner wall and outside wall of the yurt. Sister Suvijjana arrived on Tuesday. Ayya Tathaaloka arrived on Monday evening with Sister Adhimutta.

Sister Adhimutta will be staying on the land from now until at least the end of the Vassa. Marcia arrived on the land last week and is also going to stay and help with the many hermitage projects that we would like to complete before the Vassa actually begins. All worked all day to complete the yurt.

Warm welcome and thanks for all the efforts of the newest arrivals and best wishes for a wonderful time leading up to and during the Vassa. We started the work day, paused at lunch and ended the day with chanting led by Ayya Tathaaloka.

The hermitage is on the way. None of this could have happened without your help. We continue to need your contributions for the development of the hermitage. Thank you.

Getting Ready for Full Operation

 Ayya Tathaaloka, Ayya Sobhana and Beebe at the site of a future kuti

The Aranya Bodhi: Awakening Forest Hermitage is on the way to becoming a comfortable setting for monastic women and dedicated lay aspirants to practice for liberation… (Read more...)

The yurt platform ... soon to be our main Dhamma Hall

Now We Are Three

Warm greetings, dear friends of our sangha,

I am very glad to share the news with you that the Venerable Ayya Sobhana Bhikkhuni has accepted my invitation to become a full time resident of our Aranya Bodhi Hermitage, special Monastic Advisor to our Dhammadharini board, and full time co-leading participant in our hermitage project.

In past years, Ayya Sobhana has visited our Dhammadharini Vihara on numerous occassions, as well as our Bodhi House and hermitage land. We have travelled together to Germany at HH the Dalai Lama's invitation and to Australia on two occassions. She participated in our first bhikkhuni camping retreat together as well as coming this previous winter for a month long retreat on the land together with our Samaneri Suvijjana. She knows the land well and has a great love and respect for it. Her advice was invaluable at our recent Easter weekend Visioning Retreat which she participated in, as well as subsequently with our Dhammadharini board meetings.

Ayya Sobhana has been a student of Bhante Henepola Gunaratana ("Bhante G") since 1989, served on the Board of Directors of the Bhavana Society during the 1990s, and took novice ordination at the Bhavana Society in 2003; her full ordination was at Dambulla, Sri Lanka, in 2006. Bhante G has now given Ayya Sobhana formal independence — meaning that she is competent to independently practice and to serve the Dhamma.

During her eight years of residency at Bhavana Society, Ayya Sobhana worked closely with Bhante G as an assistant; provided continuity for the ever-changing community of female residents and guests; learned Dhamma and teaching skills under Bhante G's tutelage; learned Vinaya rules and protocols and became adept at their modern applications; learned Pali language; counseled and taught lay residents and retreatants; consulted with the Board of Directors; learned to lead traditional rituals of Theravada Buddhists; managed logistics of dozens of retreats led by senior monks, and began leading retreats herself at Bhavana. As her skills have become known, she has been increasingly invited to teach at outside venues including Philadelphia, Annapolis, Hot Springs NC, Washington DC and Calgary. She also revised the Pali-English chanting book, Bhavana Vandana: Devotions for Meditation; managed the Bhavana Society's library; and served as Kammavacacarini (Advocate) in the October 22, 2010, bhikkhuni ordinations in Perth, Australia.

We are blessed by her many skills and talents that she brings with her, and hope that our hermitage will be a most excellent place for the practice in nature that she has found so conducive, together with her heart to share such space and opportunity with fellow monastic-minded women of similar heart and intent.

Bhante Gunaratana's Support

Graciously, Ayya Sobhana's mentor Bhante G has fully blessed and encouraged Ven Sobhana's participation in our Aranya Bodhi Awakening Forest Hermitage project.

We are very appreciative of Bhante G's unstinting outreach to women over many years. He has now announced his support for bhikkhunis to establish their own independent centers, recommending this above our practicing in the shadow of the bhikkhu communities. The Bhavana Society will donate a starter library of Dhamma books to the Aranya Bodhi Hermitage. Bhante G has pledged his ongoing support: to participate in women's full ordination when invited to do so; to visit our hermitage to teach or lead retreats; to continue as an Senior Advisor to the North American Bhikkhuni Association; and to invite qualified monastic women to lead public retreats at the Bhavana Society. Finally, by sending Ayya Sobhana to Aranya Bodhi Hermitage (at some inconvenience to the Bhavana Society), Bhante G is helping in a most practical, tangible and wise fashion. Thank you, Bhante G!

With a heart full of metta and great gladness, gratitude and appreciation,

Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni
for our Dhammadharini Sangha

first Bhikkhuni Training Retreat on the land

Becoming Sangha

The first Theravada Bhikkhuni Training Retreat in North America was held on our hermitage land from June 9th through 16th.

Bhikkhunis came from all around America: Ohio, South Carolina, Minnesota and California. For seven days, led by Ajahn Chandako, a senior Western bhikkhu in the Thai forest tradition, we focused on mindfulness in the forest tradition monastic discipline for our own development and for developing our sense of community - Sangha - with one another.

This is a big step for us here in North America, as most of our bhikkhunis have been and are strong, independant individuals. Spending time, learning how to train together as a community - as a sangha - with one another, is a very big step ahead.

~ Participants ~

- Ven Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni, Theri - Dhammadharini, Aranya Bodhi Hermitage

- Ven Sudhamma Bhikkhuni - Carolina Buddhist Vihara

- Ven Satima Bhikkhuni - Minnesota Buddhist Vihara

- Ven Maduka Bhikkhuni - Great Determination Hermitage

- Sr Suvijjana Samaneri - Dhammadharini, Aranya Bodhi Hermitage & The Bodhi House

~ Training Teacher ~

Born in America, our training teacher, Ajahn Chandako, lived and trained in the Thai forest tradition of Ajahn Chah, and is currently abbot of Vimutti Buddhist Monastery in New Zealand. He spends retreat time each year in the early summer at the King's Creek Hermitage near Vajrapani in the Boulder Creek area of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

~ Teachings ~

Saraniya Dhammas (see Anguttara Nikaya - Numerical Discourses of the Buddha - AN 6.12)

Natha Karana Dhammas (see Numerica Discourses - AN 10.17)

Kor Wat - Monastic Discipline of the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah

Vinaya - The Original Buddhist Monastic Discipline

Community Building, Mindfulness and Respect in Monastic Discipline

See the full Slideshow from our Training Retreat here at
Awakening Forest on Picasa

Anumodana

~ ~ ~

~ ~

Many thanks to all friends who made this historic first training retreat possible, especially: Jill, Ruwinie, Christopher, Jerry (Jinaraso), Brenda, Kemanthi, Joan, Asha & friends from Sacramento, Supatra, Sima & Siman, Jacqueline & Nai'a Rose, Shari, Brian and family, David and tipi.com, Dominic & Gaora, Judith, Jeannie & Kitty, Khun O, Liz, and especially Ajahn Chandako.

reopening the way

The Feeling and Real Vision

of the Way Reopening

With the blessings and encouragement of our experienced venerable monastic Elders (see the post directly below this one), on October 22nd, after 25 years, the old logging access road and its double landings were reopened and cleared.

This is the first real step in developing the very basic infrastructure for our monastic hermitage here on this land.


Having been well cleared, the road and landings will need to set now through the Northern California winter rainy season, and in the late spring / early summer 2009, a little rock will be put down. Then, under the sun, the road will bake. After baking, it should serve as a good, strong access road to the common areas of our hermitage for years to come.


Funding for the clearing of the road and landings was provided by donations from the small women's monastery/retreat "dream" trust established in 2004/5.


Our gratitude and appreciation to Ayya Tathaaloka's late Grandpa Gil for his establishment of the dream trust, as well as the friends of Wat Buddhanusorn and founding Dhammadharini Board members for their contributions.

walking in the newly cleared access road

the newly cleared upper landing

The old road continues off of the newly-cleared landings leading through the forest, past many lovely nooks and crannies for meditation, perhaps the places of future platforms, tent sites and kutis. Walking on, one comes to the pathway down the mountainside and to the creek.

the blessings of our kalyanamittas

Visit of Bhante Gunaratana and Ajahn Pasanno to the Hermitage Site

On July 10, 2008 we welcomed elder master Bhante H Gunaratana Sangha Nayaka Thera (Bhante G), the venerable Ajahn Pasanno Bhikkhu, Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni, Samaneri Sister Suvijjana and the Dhammadharini Board of Directors to the land to see what was then still known as the proposed hermitage site.

We all felt greatly honored, delighted and blessed by their visit, as both Bhante G and Ajahn Pasanno have probably the most extensive experience with Buddhist forest monasteries and hermitages both in North America and in their original context in Asia as just about anyone alive.

Bhante G is the founding Abbot of the Bhavana Society Forest Monastery in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia and Ajahn Pasanno previous Abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat (the International Forest Monastery in North-eastern Thailand) and current Co-Abbot of Abhayagiri Forest Monastery in nearby Mendicino County. Both have been respected as teachers/mentors/advisors by Ayya Tathaaloka and her Dhammadharini Board members for many years.

After Jill's gracious offering of the late morning almsmeal to all of the visiting monastics, we set out to take a good look at the land. We passed first through the area that is used for the vipassana meditation and women's mindfulness in nature camps, then across the creek, up the steep hill to the saddle between the mountains and across the ridge on Dhammagiri to the old logging access road. We then came down the road to the first and the second of the two old logging landings and then, passing many beautiful secluded potential platform or kuti sites, hiked the trail down the mountainslope to what friends have begun calling the "bhikkhuni beach" .

All along the walk both Bhante G and Ajahn Pasanno shared invaluable reflections, insights and advice from their many years experience.

We learned much about trailers, propane, "off the grid", solar and wind, satellite phones, yurts, kutis and platforms, and especially about the Pelton Wheel micro-hydro technology, which, with such a strong year-round water flow and steep slope could provide any and all electrical needs for the hermitage.

All in all the two Mahatheras seemed to think that it was an excellent site with fine potential and left us with their blessings. An excellent visit.

A few of the photos taken follow here:

Bhante G on the porch at land steward Jill Rayna's cabin

on the bridge crossing the creek.

walking in down the old logging road from the ridge of Dhammagiri

coming to the first of the old logging landings (now cleared) recommended as the central community area for the hermitage

the second, lower landing (now also cleared)

coming into the forest and onto the trail leading from the second, lower landing through many beautiful, secluded camping or khuti sites down to the creek

hearing from the Master at "bhikkhuni beach," the monastic hermitage's landing on the creek

the first woman's "going forth" on the land

The Samaneri Pabbaja (going forth into the noviciate)

of Anagarika Carol Porter -- now Samaneri Suvijjana

[clipped from an announcement mailed to friends on June 04, 2008:]

A Historic Happening for Buddhism in North America

Dear friends,

Soon an important event in the unfolding history of Buddhism in Northern California and the Western United States will be taking place.

The Buddha spoke often of his longterm commitment to having an Ubhato Sangha--a monastic community of two harmonious halves--female as well as male, bhikkhunis and bhikkhus, as other Buddhas of antiquity had also had in the past. He often spoke of his commitment to well establish, before his entry into final Peace, what he called the Fourfold Assembly, and regularly praised those of all four assemblies as amongst his great disciples. The four assemblies: those of the bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, upasakas and upasikas he often compared to the pillars of his house, the wheels of the vehicle of his Sasana, each balancing and uplifting one another in harmony.

This was the Buddha's vision and dedication.

It takes at least 4 bhikkhunis or 4 bhikkhus gathered together to make a Sangha.

On the 21st of June, in the afternoon at 1:30 pm, an ordination will happen, the novice (samaneri) ordination of Anagarika Suvijjana, to which you are welcome.

This ordination marks another historic event. For the past years, in the absence of Theravadan bhikkhunis to ordain women into the Sangha, Theravadan bhikkhus and bhikkhunis of other traditions have served to fill that gap, as they are allowed and called to do so by Vinaya. Now, for the first time, with the presence of Theravadan Bhikkhuni Sangha here, we will ourselves ordain and welcome a woman into the novice training in our Sangha.

On the day of the ordination, we expect the presence of 5 bhikkhunis, 1 or 2 siladhara sisters, and one samaneri = 7 or 8 monastics:

* Ven Bhikkhuni Sudarshana Theri, Chief Incumbent of Samadhi Buddhist Meditation, Florida

* Ven Bhikkhuni Ayya Tathaaloka Theri, Abbess, Dhammadharini Vihara, Northern California

* Ven Bhikkhuni Sudinna, Bhavana Society Forest Monastery, W Virginia

* Ayya Sudhamma Bhikkhuni, Abbess, Carolina Buddhist Vihara, S Carolina

* Ayya Sobhana Bhikkhuni, Bhavana Society, W Virginia

* Siladhara Sister Ajahn Chandasiri, Amaravati, England

* Siladhara Sister Ajahn Anandabodhi, Amaravati, England

Our great appreciation to all supporting lay retreatants and supportive friends for making this event possible.

Anumodana.

May you be well, happy and peaceful,

Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni

photos of Samaneri Suvijjana's ordination day from friend Darlene ~

Anagarika Carol Porter with younger brother David and elder sister Eileen before her "going forth"

lunch dana

foot washing before ascending the ordination platform

exhortation being given the novice candidate with the examination of the prepared robes

returning with the two bhikkhuni instructors carrying offering tray ready to request the novice precepts

requesting and avowing herself to the novice training

the new novice, Samaneri Sister Suvijjana with her son Matthew. Congratulations!!

our first retreat together on the land

The first gathering of our Theravadin Bhikkhuni Sangha in Northern California happened at the San Francisco International Airport on June 11th, 2008. On June 14th we travelled up to the Sonoma Coast for our retreat.

Photos from the first Bhikkhuni Sangha Wilderness Camp Retreat

Jill and Ayya Sudhamma walking the land

Ayya Tathaaloka's tent/campsite (on top of the knoll in the center of the saddle, other bhikkhunis campsites are just a little farther down over the knoll)

Ayya Sudhamma mindfully walking through the forest, over the cave, and down to the creek

Learning creek walking

wild white azaleas above the creek

pindapata, almsmeal and Anumodana Dhammakatha at a friend's cabin, our "village"

Peaceful afternoon abiding (if you look very carefully you can see Ayya Sudinna meditating next to the middle of the lower right tree trunk :)

Late afternoon light on the saddle

sunset

more photos are posted on flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25760881@N08/

a gathering of clouds

a "gathering of clouds" is an ancient expression for the coming together of the Sangha which holds the Dhamma Rain, a rain, a moisture to nourish all good roots and their fruits, and, to end all thirst.

Welcoming the Theravadin Bhikkhuni Sangha to the land

With the proposal of a women's monastic community on the land, Ayya Tathaaloka suggested the idea of welcoming Theravadan bhikkhunis and samaneris from around North America to retreat there, to see if they felt to practice there and whether it seemed a good place to establish a permanent women's monastic hermitage.

This idea was met with warm enthusiasm.

At the first gathering of the Theravadan Bhikkhuni Sangha in North America at the Carolina Buddhist Vihara in November 2007, the bhikkhunis had called for a follow up gathering, perhaps somewhere on the West Coast.

Several bhikkhunis had also mentioned their interest and support for Anagarika Carol Porter's novice ordination or samaneri pabbaja then tentatively scheduled for sometime in the first half of the year 2008.

Additionally, upasika friends had expressed the wish to be able to participate in the meritorious deed of being able to offer Sanghadana to the Bhikkhuni Sangha on the North American West Coast for the first time.

Thus, for these four good reasons, with Jill's blessings and the support of the Dhammadharini Support Foundation, the follow plan was hatched and invitation sent:

North American
Bhikkhuni Sangha Theravada:
Wilderness Retreat on the Sonoma Coast
June 15-21, 2008

Dear friends on the Path ~

Warm greetings to you all. We are planning Anagarika Suvijjana (Carol Porter)'s samaneri ordination in June. A good number of the bhikkhunis in North America who know her have expressed their interest in coming together for that.

We've also thought about having a special Bhikkhuni Sangha camp retreat on the land that has been offered here... laying the sima stones up in the meadow...reciting Patimokkha....ordaining Suvijjana there.... having a chance to spend some good time out in nature meditating, walking, talking and communing together. it would be a very nice, relaxing, peaceful and beautiful North American follow up on the International Bhikkhuni Parisadh upcoming in Maharashtra, India in February and the Bhikkhuni Seminar at Santi Forest Monastery in March, as well as on our last year's first gathering for Bhikkhuni Patimokkha recitation on the east coast at the Carolina Buddhist Vihara.

i can think of no better way to bless the space that has been offered us in Northern California for forest retreat. Friends tell me that the spring wildflowers are at their peak in the high meadow called 'the Saddle' between the peaks where we plan to lay the sima stones then. i think this would be very good for our hearts, as for the lovely present and developing future of our women's monastic community.

the June full moon is the 18th. we have scheduled the retreat from the 15th to the 21st~ with an option to stay and camp longer for who would like a limited number of spaces are available for lay women who would like to camp on the land during this time to offer support and for their own retreat. Everyone is welcome for Suvijjana's novice ordination on the 21st.

WELCOME

Please let me know if you think you may join us there then.

in the great love of the Path,

Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni, Theri

The proposed monastic hermitage site is located on more than 200 acres of mountain forest, meadows and waterfalls directly on the Northern California Coast north of San Francisco. It is 1 and 1/2 hours drive north-west of Dhammadharini Vihara.

RSVP to Ayya Tathaaloka by email or telephone: USA (510) 791-2331.

Here is the basic calendar schedule:

(June 6-15: Monastic Retreat at Spirit Rock with Ajahn Sumedho)

June 11: begin Bhikkhuni Sangha arrival

June 13: visit Ajahn Sumedho at Spirit Rock

June 14: to the land

June 15: being Bhikkhuni Sangha camping retreat

June 17: establish sima at the high meadow (the saddle)

June 18: Patimokkha recitation

June 21: Samaneri pabbaja for Anagarika Suvijjana

June 22: day to honor bhikkhuni Sangha at Dharmapala Institute, Milpitas

June 23: arrival day for Western Buddhist Monastic Conference at Shasta Abbey

June 27: end day of WBMC

June 28: return to Dhammadharini Vihara

first visit

First Visit to the Land

September 18, 2007

Northern California Coast

When asked how she would like to spend her last birthday before 40, Ven Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni's mention of the land that we'd been invited to retreat at brought us up the coast from our home base at Dhammadharini Vihara that day.

After our first hearing of it at DhammaDena Desert Vipassana, Ayya Tathaaloka had a sort of mental image of the land. Driving in that first day, after miles of astoundingly beautiful coastline, driving in the dirt road and climbing upwards, she was curious to see if it actually looked anything like it. It did. Meeting our host at her lovely home for lunch, we heard some of the older and more recent history of the land and how she came to be there. And then we set out on foot into it.

Such an amazing place. Peaceful, quiet, beautiful. Fairy rings of redwood forest and THE CREEK, the site of so many meditations, the teacher of so many things of the body and the heart.

Our host had lived on the land for 25 years by then as its loving steward. She shared her hope and aspiration that it would never be logged again and that it remain as a refuge, as it had been, for women's spiritual practice.

It was then that she told us again that she would like to welcome all of us, all female monastics and friends, into the nurturing support of the forest, mountains and creek for our meditation, for our calm, tranquility and insight in the reclusive forest practice.

This was the welcome announcement sent to Dhamma Sisters the following day:

My dear Venerable Bhikkhuni Sisters and Dhamma friends,

Warm greetings, with every good blessing. I hope this note finds you well, happy and at ease.
Yesterday, my birthday, we visited a Insight meditation teacher friend living up the coast from San Francisco.

She had invited us to visit the 200 acres of incredibly beautiful mountains and forest several months ago.

The use of the land has been offered for short term or extended retreats for the women of our developing Bhikkhuni Sangha in North America, as well as for our associated samaneris (female novices), anagarikas (8 precept nuns, and postulants/aspirants-in-training), and dedicated upasika (laywomen) practitioner friends.

Of course, approval for retreat time may be on an individual basis.

There are a variety of rustic lodgings: cabins, campers and tent camp sites. Miles of trails, redwoods and madrones, creek and waterfalls, a great high meadow overlooking the ocean... great quiet and wind in the trees. It is for women only, very private and very, very safe with series of locked gates, so i think it may easily be made possible as a Vinaya-appropriate place for bhikkhunis to have relatively solitary, secluded time for practice in the wilderness, unburdened with duties, living simply.

The owner is thinking about the possible building of a few more monastic kutis and a sala/meeting hall/uposatha hall up in the meadow that it may transition into being a women's forest monastery. Just an idea. It has been a place of women's spiritual practice now for the past 20 years. It is her hope and vision and dedication that, if possible, it might remain so for indefinate future time. I have offered my collaboration with her in this.

Thus, on her behalf, i would like to invite all of you to come and spend some retreat time there this coming year or whenever you feel the call to. For bhikkhunis, the land use is completely offered and a kapiya or companion may retreat together or nearby for offering support. For those other than fully-ordained monastics there are no rent or fees, everything is dana, whatever you feel inspired to contribute - one must simply take care of one's own needs and care for the natural space, fellow humans and living beings harmoniously, with honor and respect.

Or come and visit, meet the owner and see the place. Get to know the place and see if it seems suitable. I am happy to go visit together with you. Very welcome.

in love and kindness and great appreciation for the Path,

Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni in Dhamma

the beginning

DhammaDena Desert Vipassana
Joshua Tree, Mohave Desert
Women's Retreat, 2006

It was winter in the high desert. Windswept sand, mind reflecting the great open space. It was there that we met the woman we had been waiting for, walking outside near the zendo. We had heard of her before from Brenda Walsh, and of the 200 plus acres of reforested coastal land that she had rescued a couple of decades back on the Sonoma Coast.

She had been inspired hearing Ruth's offer at the Women's Retreat of Samadhi House at DhammaDena for the use of our women's monastic community.

(see: http://dhammadena.googlepages.com)

She welcomed us and other female monastics -- nuns, bhikkhunis, samaneris, siladharas -- for our retreat time, telling us of the benevolence of the land, of its privacy and safety, and of her dedication to its being open for the spiritual practice of women in nature.

We promised to remember her kind offer and to come to visit the land when we had the chance.