Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery
Written by Leeann Soyka
Introduction
The Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery is a Buddhist community that is now located in the Sierra Foothills of California. Initially, the monastery was located in San Francisco, California but once they gained enough resources to purchase the land for a forest monastery, they relocated to Placerville, California. The word Aloka is derived from Sanskrit and means “vision, sight, appearance, glimmer, or aspect” and the word Vihara means Buddhist monastery. It is a women’s monastery designed to be a place where women can train as nuns and lay visitors can serve and practice. The nuns who are currently living in the monastery are all caucasian. The Aloka Vihara nuns are a community of bhikkhunis and samaneris, and their practice is based on the Buddha’s teaching style in the Theravada Forest tradition. In this practice, an emphasis is placed on renunciation, service, and simplicity, as well as learning from the natural world. The nuns also integrate contemporary societal issues into their practice. The founding nuns are Ayya Anandabodhi and Ayya Santacitta who lived and trained with the Siladhara Order at Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist monasteries in England from 1992 to 2009. These types of forest monastery communities were founded by Venerable Ajahn Sumedho. Sumedho was a disciple of Venerable Ajahn Chah, a teacher and meditation master of the Thai Forest Tradition. The Siladhara are a ten precept order of nuns with a high standard of training akin to the Bhikkhuni discipline. After Ayya Santacitta and Ayya Anandabodhi received full Bhikkhuni ordination, they developed the Aloka Vihara Monastery in 2011 along with other nuns who joined and supported the monastery. There are currently five resident bhikkhunis at Aloka Vihara; Anandabodhi Bhikkhuni, Santacitta Bhikkhuni, Ahimsa Bhikkhuni, Niyyanika Bhikkhuni, Dhammadipa Bhikkhuni.
Vision and Mission
The vision of the Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery is “together support awakening” and their mission is to be “a training monastery of forest nuns living the teachings of the Buddha and the Earth for the benefit of all beings.” Anandabodhi and Santacitta wanted to start a monastery just for women because in their past training they had been put in secondary positions below the monks. The role of nuns in the Buddhist community has been a point of contention throughout history. Because of this, the Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery has a strong focus on equity and inclusion, and they hold workshops and trainings in eco dhamma, undoing racism, and gender identity. They welcome all women to monastic life and also allow interested lay people of all genders to visit their monastery, as well as to practice, serve, and take part in every day monastic life. Lay people can also get involved by offering meals to the nuns, volunteering to help at the monastery, or offering financial contributions.
Ayya Anandabodhi
One of the founders, Ayya Anandabodhi, first encountered Buddhist teachings in her teens and became very interested in the Buddha’s path of awakening. She trained as a nun in the Forest Tradition at Amaravati and Chithurst Monasteries in England from 1992 to 2009. In 2009, she moved to the United States to help establish Aloka Vihara as a training monastery for women. Her practice and teachings are guided by early Buddhist scriptures and through nature’s Dhamma (universal truth/teaching of Buddhism). She took full Bhikkhuni Ordination in 2011, joining the growing community of women who are reacquiring this path given by the Buddha.
Ayya Santacitta
The other founding nun, Ayya Santacitta, was born in Austria and studied Cultural Anthropology in graduate school with a focus on dance, theater, and ritual. In addition, she worked in a dance theater as a costume designer and performer. She met Ajahn Buddhadasa in southern Thailand in 1988 who fostered her interest in Buddhist monastic life. She trained primarily in Ajahn Chah’s lineage in England and Asia from 1993 to 2009. She has practiced meditation for over thirty years and has also received teachings from the Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche lineage. Since she moved to the United States and co-founded the monastery, she has followed the guidance of Khenmo Konchog Nyima Drolma and Bhikkhu Analayo’s teachings on Early Buddhism. She is primarily interested in creating a sanctuary close to nature and bringing wisdom traditions to the environmental movement. She also offers Buddhist teachings in German, her native language.
Saranaloka Foundation and Community Support
The Saranaloka Foundation is a nonprofit organization that was created by a group of Buddhist lay practitioners to support the Theravada Buddhist nuns who were moving to the United States for the purpose of teaching and establishing a training monastery for women. In order for the founders to teach Theravada Buddhist practice, they had to take full ordination and leave the lineages of which they were a part. With the help of the Saranaloka Foundation, the nuns received full bhikkhuni ordination at Spirit Rock Meditation Center on October 17, 2011. The lay people and nuns have a very symbiotic relationship because the monastics could not live and practice without the support of their community. The community contributions allow the monastery to grow and flourish. In return, the monastery welcomes lay people and shares information about their insights and practice. Some of the events they offer for the lay community are meditation and chanting, meal offerings, sutta contemplation, dhamma sharing, and meditation retreats. To make accommodations during the pandemic, they offer online dhamma talks and meetings. They want to offer simplicity and renunciation as a model that people can live by. Anandabodhi mentioned that she wants people to recognize that you can still have joy in your life without having a lot of personal belongings, and that generosity and compassion can be much greater wealth. The founders of Aloka Vihara, Anandabodhi, and Santacitta wanted to establish their own monastery to be a place of respect and opportunity for Buddhist nuns.
Friends of Aloka Vihara was established in 2015 by Emily Carpenter and Mindy Zlotnick to help support the development of the Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery. The organization is composed of lay practitioners who help to organize the annual Aloka Viahra’s Kathina Ceremony. This ceremony is an opportunity for lay people to reflect on the interdependent relationship between monastic and lay communities, and transform that reflection into action. Lay practitioners are given the opportunity to help the Bhikkhuni Sangha survive and thrive. During the Kathina Ceremony, the lay community can express their support and gratitude by making formal offerings of material and financial support to the monastics. Due to the pandemic, they are taking donations and holding the Kathina Ceremony online.
History of Bhikkhunis
Women are an integral part of the Buddha’s vision of the four-fold-sangha. Due to political and cultural decisions, a strong female monastic presence disappeared for almost 1,000 years. The revival of the bhikkhuni sangha began around thirty years ago and has spread throughout the world. The beginning of women’s role in Buddhism began with Mahapajapati, Buddha’s aunt and stepmother, who wanted to become a Buddhist nun. Mahapajapati was the first strong bhikkhuni leader and brought many women into the sangha. There was, and still is, a lot of controversy over the stance on the position of women in spiritual life. The Buddha said in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta “I will not pass away…until I have bhikku disciples…bhikkhuni disciples…layman disciples…laywoman disciples who are accomplished, disciplined, skilled, learned, expert in the dhamma.” When King Ashoka ruled in 304-232 BC bhikkhus and bhikkhunis were well established in India. The bhikkhuni sangha also spread to China and Sri Lanka, with the trip from China to Sri Lanka and back taking four years. In 1017 CE, both the bhikkhu and bhikkhuni sanghas died out in Sri Lanka due to the Cholian invasions. Women continued to practice Buddhism in Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and England. In 1984, East Asian bhikkhunis helped revive the Theravada bhikkhuni sangha. In 1988 twenty nuns were ordained at the Hsi Lai monastery in Orange County, California. In 1996, Theravada bhikkhunis were re-established in Sri Lanka and ten Sri Lankan women were ordained in Sarnath, India. In 2009, Ajahn Brahm who ordained bhikkhunis at a monastery in Australia was delisted from the Ajahn Chah lineage for doing so. The ordination of bhikkhunis continued to expand and in 2011 the samaneri from Aloka Vihara and Canada were ordained in a dual ordination. Over 350 people, including 50 monastics representing the major branches of Buddhism, attended the ordination.
The Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery is poised to be a training ground for the next generation of bhikkhunis and a place where the four-fold sangha can practice together. So far the support from the community has been consistent and they have supported creating gender equity in the sangha which is what the Buddha had envisioned. There are now Theravada bhikkhunis world-wide in Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam. Some of the bhikkhuni monasteries that Aloka Vihara is affiliated with are the Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project, Aranya Bodhi Forest Hermitage, Dhammadharini Vihara, Karuna Buddhist Vihara, Mahapajapati Monastery, Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Santi Forest Monastery, and the Tilorien Monastery.
Works Cited
“About.” Friends of Aloka Vihara, https://friendsofalokavihara.org/about/. Accessed 7 October 2020.
Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery, https://alokavihara.org/. Accessed 31 October 2020.
Alliance for Bhikkhunis, https://www.bhikkhuni.net/. Accessed 31 October 2020.
“Kathina Ceremonies at Aloka Vihara.” Friends of Aloka Vihara, https://friendsofalokavihara.org/kathina-ceremony/. Accessed 7 October 2020.