![What’s the point of faith? - Ayya Santussika]()
September 22, 2022
Published with permission of Treasure Mountain Podcast. Please visit Treasure Mountain Podcast, Treasure Mountain website and Treasure Mountain facebook page.
On this episode of Sage Advice we have as our return guest, Venerable Santussika, the abbott of Karuna Vihara in northern California to offer sage advice on what role, if any, does faith play in the Eightfold Path of Buddhist practice.
Ayya Santussika was born in Illinois in 1954 and grew up on a farm in Indiana. While being a single mother, she received BS and MS degrees in computer science. She worked as a software designer and developer for fifteen years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her search for deeper meaning and ways to be of service led her to train as an interfaith minister in a four-year seminary program that culminated in a Masters of Divinity degree. She began traveling in Asia from 1999, learning from master teachers, particularly in Thailand. It was these experiences, along with time spent at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California that caused her faith to develop to the point of choosing to live and practice as a Theravadan nun.
Ayya Santussika entered monastic life as an anagarika (eight-precept nun) in 2005, then ordained as a samaneri (ten-precept nun) in 2010 and a bhikkhuni (311 rules) in 2012 at Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles. She has trained in large and small communities of nuns, including Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries of the Ajahn Chah tradition in England.
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![Guided By Faith - Ayya Santussika]()
September 15, 2022
Published with permission of Treasure Mountain Podcast. Please visit Treasure Mountain Podcast, Treasure Mountain website and Treasure Mountain facebook page.
On this episode of Spirit Stories our guest is Ayya Santussika, the abbott of Karuna Buddhist Vihara in northern California.
Ayya Santussika was born in Illinois in 1954 and grew up on a farm in Indiana. While being a single mother, she received BS and MS degrees in computer science. She worked as a software designer and developer for fifteen years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her search for deeper meaning and ways to be of service led her to train as an interfaith minister in a four-year seminary program that culminated in a Masters of Divinity degree. She began traveling in Asia from 1999, learning from master teachers, particularly in Thailand. It was these experiences, along with time spent at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California that caused her faith to develop to the point of choosing to live and practice as a Theravadan nun.
Ayya Santussika entered monastic life as an anagarika (eight-precept nun) in 2005, then ordained as a samaneri (ten-precept nun) in 2010 and a bhikkhuni (311 rules) in 2012 at Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles. She has trained in large and small communities of nuns, including Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries of the Ajahn Chah tradition in England.
Links related to this interview:
Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon.
To find and download more precious Dhamma teachings, visit the BSWA teachings page: https://bswa.org/teachings/, choose the teaching you want and click on the audio to open it up on Podbean.
![Nurturing a Buddhist Community - Dennis Sheppard]()
September 8, 2022
Published with permission of Treasure Mountain Podcast. Please visit Treasure Mountain Podcast, Treasure Mountain website and Treasure Mountain facebook page.
On this episode of Treasure Mountain Podcast we have a guest who has been a mentor to me and remains a personal friend. Dennis Sheppard has been involved with Buddhist community since 1978, joining with the Buddhist Society of Western Australia as a young man interested in meditation and spiritual practice, and going on to serve multiple terms as president, as well as serving in several other capacities including designing several buildings for both monastics and the lay community.
In this interview with Dennis Sheppard:
- Getting involved with Buddhism in Australia in the late 1970s and what that was like
- Sending lay people to Thailand to request Ajahn Chah to send monks to Australia
- How Ajahn Jagaro changed the Buddhist Society of WA and his lasting legacy
- The impact of Ajahn Jagaro's departure and the commencement of Ajahn Brahm's tenure as Spiritual Director
- What the early years of the Buddhist Society of WA were like, the challenges they faced and how they overcame them.
Links from the episode:
![A Journey Into Loving Service - Bhikkhu Mettaji]()
August 25, 2022
Published with permission of Treasure Mountain Podcast. Please visit Treasure Mountain Podcast, Treasure Mountain website and Treasure Mountain facebook page.
In this episode our guest is Venerable Mettaji, formerly Stephen Mayers, a man who has had a journey from the heights of corporate success down into the valley of trial and loss. This has led him on to ordaining as a bhikkhu - a Buddhist monk - later in life. But through all the ups and downs of Venerable Mettaji’s journey there has been a will to serve others stemming from a well-spring of kindness. In this episode we’re going to learn about that journey and some of the unexpected ways behind the scenes that he is serving the growing Buddhist community in Australia with a heart of kindness.
Links related to Venerable Mettaji and this episode:
Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon.
To find and download more precious Dhamma teachings, visit the BSWA teachings page: https://bswa.org/teachings/, choose the teaching you want and click on the audio to open it up on Podbean.
August 18, 2022
Published with permission of Treasure Mountain Podcast.
In this episode of Sage Advice, we have Venerable Mudu from Bodhinyana Great Southern calling in from the deep south of Western Australia, here to share his advice on finding a way back to peace when everything falls apart.
For more information about Venerable Mudu:
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Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon.
To find and download more precious Dhamma teachings, visit the BSWA teachings page: https://bswa.org/teachings/, choose the teaching you want and click on the audio to open it up on Podbean.
![Pioneering a dhamma community in a regional town with Bhikkhu Mudu - Spirit Stories]()
August 11, 2022
Published with permission of Treasure Mountain Podcast. Please visit Treasure Mountain Podcast, Treasure Mountain website and Treasure Mountain facebook page.
In this episode of Spirit Stories our guest is Venerable Mudu who is leading an effort to establish a community of practice in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Venerable Mudu first became interested in Buddhism when a chance invitation by a Thai friend to join her in offering food to the Buddhist monks at Serpentine’s Forest Monastery. He became inspired by the monastic way of life. Several years later after developing an understanding the importance of meditation and renunciation, he decided to take up the training to become a Buddhist monk.
In 2014, after completing the two year trial and preliminary training, Venerable Mudu received the higher ordination as a fully ordained Bhikkhu under his teacher and preceptor, Ajahn Brahm at Bodhinyana Buddhist Monastery. In 2018 he went to Albany at the request of community members there, and has since established Bodhinyana Great Southern Hermitage and he teaches regularly in Albany, as well as frequent visit to Denmark, Walpole and Mt Barker, all in the Great Southern region in the far south of Western Australia.
Links mentioned in the show:
To donate to Bodhinyana Great Southern use the link or QR code below:
Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon.
To find and download more precious Dhamma teachings, visit the BSWA teachings page: https://bswa.org/teachings/, choose the teaching you want and click on the audio to open it up on Podbean.
August 4, 2022
Published with permission of Treasure Mountain Podcast. Please visit Treasure Mountain Podcast and Treasure Mountain website.
In this episode of Sage Advice, we have Bhikkhuni Candavisuddhi, known as Venerable Canda, the pioneering nun blazing a trail for women monastics by striving to establish the Anukampa project, a monastery for fully ordained nuns in the United Kingdom. Those who previously listened to Venerable Canda’s story in a previous episode of Treasure Mountain will know that she has a lot grit to practice in challenging circumstances, and now to lead the way to establish a community of practice, and eventually a monastery in the UK. One quality that she has demonstrated in large measure is resilience, and she joins us today for this episode of Sage Advice to discuss the topic of resilience and determination.
Ayya Canda's links:
Treasure Mountain links:
![Blazing a trail for women monastics in the UK - Bhikkhuni Canda]()
July 28, 2022
Published with permission of Treasure Mountain Podcast. Please visit Treasure Mountain Podcast and Treasure Mountain website.
In this episode of Spirit Stories our guest is Venerable Candavisuddhi, also known as Ayya Canda, who first encountered meditation and the spiritual path when travelling through Asia as a young woman. This led to several years of going on and supporting retreats in India and Nepal. Whilst the yearning to live the Buddhist monastic life intensified, she found that opportunities for women to lead a meditative monastic life were few, until finding out about a chance to ordain with Sayadaw U Pannyajota in rural Burma. The meditative life suited Venerable Canda very well, but four years of the Burmese climate, diet and parasites took a toll on her health, and she decided to return to the West. A chance encounter led Venerable Canda to the teachings of Ajahn Brahm, and the opportunity to practice and take higher ordination at Dhammasara Monastery in Western Australia in 2014. Now she is blazing a trail for women monastics by leading a project to start a monastery for bhikkhuni sangha in the country of her birth, the United Kingdom. Venerable Canda joins us now to share her Spirit Story.
Links related to this episode:
Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon.
To find and download more precious Dhamma teachings, visit the BSWA teachings page: https://bswa.org/teachings/, choose the teaching you want and click on the audio to open it up on Podbean.
