Ayyā Medhānandī

Dare we go inside our own boat to find true safety? Enter the silent stillness of the mind and listen. This intuitive knowing connects us to the heart. We leave the world behind and tap into an inner energy field of pure receptivity – seeing what is inside us not through the senses but through the lens of pure awareness. It's a happiness that is sustainable because we teach ourselves from within how to live in that awareness. And we realize who we truly are. This liberating refuge is beyond all wanting. And we discover the end of suffering. We let things be in a way that surpasses all experience and all knowledge.  Guided meditation, Ottawa Buddhist Society

Can we dedicate every single moment to full awareness living? That’s what it takes to totally free the heart from suffering. Whether active with others or spending time alone, resorting to a secluded resting place and removed from social interaction, we study the mind and examine how fear or negativity arise. Looking inwardly at the mind's own weather, we grow wise enough to live in peace. The root of our practice is awareness. We move with awareness, eat with awareness, and do everything wherever we are with mindful awareness. We awaken day by day, drop by drop. Ottawa Buddhist Society Retreat, Nov 21, 2020

We trust that entering the path of Dhamma practice will yield incomparable joy and peace enough to fully satiate the heart. We cannot demand it but we know if the path is to bear fruit, we must walk it patiently, humbly, and graciously, with kindness and faith. Just knowing the possibility of awakening is a cause for joy. This energizes us to work, to give, to persevere and endure obstacles for the sake of this great freedom of heart. By letting go of the world, we return to our true home. At last, free from clinging, we can experience the mind's awakening. OBS, Dec. 18, 2020  

What is grace in this world? When noble qualities flower within us, that is grace. We come to know our true nature as we witness the pure mind's transcendent luminosity. Listening to the Buddha's teachings, we learn how to open the gates to the Deathless and experience for ourselves this inner splendor. The more we understand ourselves to this depth, the more our wisdom, love, and compassion ripen. So true grace is awakening itself. As the benefactors of the Buddha's enlightenment, we live these teachings everyday in our activities and relationships. Ottawa Buddhist Society, Dec. 17, 2021

While on retreat in the forest, an infestation of cicadas surrounded my meditation hut for weeks on end with intense, incessant screaming. Headphones offered no relief from the din. While bearing it, I closely observed mental pain. That meant seeing and knowing despair and anger too. I listened with patience and pure awareness, trying to draw forth threads – if not shreds – of compassion and empathy for myself. Weaving these qualities together repeatedly brought a welcome reprieve from the suffering – and a profound teaching for living the practice.  Sati Saraniya Hermitage, August 16, 2026