Claim OwnershipAyyā Medhānandī
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Buddhist Women on a Path of Spiritual Awakening
271 Episodes
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"Do not hate those who wrong you. How else can you manifest the unborn power of compassion.” Hatred even of our critics is not the resort of the wise. Day by day, know the blessings of peace, of forgiveness, kindness and pure awareness. Wisdom dispels our fears and sorrows in the clear light of awakening. Just like plants everywhere keep turning themselves towards the sun whenever it shines – the trees, flowers, vines, even weeds – they teach us. We always return to the unrelenting light. Sati Saranya Hermitage, Nov. 5, 2023
The world is forever fraught with the fires of greed, hatred and delusion causing much harm and suffering within and around us. Seeking refuge from the mind's vulnerabilities and restlessness, we secure our spiritual moorings. For here and now, as disciples of the present moment, we have full protection. We stand tall in virtue and wisdom. For we graze in the field of mindfulness and pure awareness. Whenever the ego drags us away, we return to pure presence, undaunted and aware – guarding the jewels of our heart. Reflections at Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Aug. 17, 2025
We are eager to know how to quiet the restless and anxious mind. Will peace ever come in the face of life's struggles? Let us listen to the voice of the inner heart and peer through the magnifying glass of present moment awareness. Softly practise this simple way of being present, balancing and resting on the pinnacle of every breath. Again and again, as we enter the timeless, let the world fall away into a beautiful vast spacious awareness. Here and now, tenderly know the joy and unsurpassable refuge of that universal silence within us. Ottawa Buddhist Society, Oct. 17, 2025
The Buddha left us a key to blessings – wisdom and freedom. Can we use it for awakening? In the face of all the inevitable challenges of this human life: painful feelings, worries, fear, illness, betrayal, loss of the loved, aging – so many ways we suffer and are locked in by that suffering. The blessings are awareness and vital care of our actions, speech and thoughts regarding ourselves and each other. Living ethically, with kindness and humility, we wake up to universal truths, to what we really are. We see with new eyes: the shrine is within us and this life on planet Earth is pilgrimage itself. Sati Saraniya Hermitage breakfast reflections, Oct, 20, 2025
Though distinct, our body and mind share the ultimate characteristics of all conditioned phenomena, being impermanent, imperfect and impersonal. Nor do they have any solid core or trace of any 'self'. This is key to freeing ourselves from identifying with body or mind as what we truly are. So we investigate further to understand, purify and protect the mind. Virtue is our moral shield from harmful, unskillful states. Sustained awareness and inner listening nurture stillness, peace, and wisdom. We are on track to enter the gates to the Deathless. Insight Meditation Society Retreat, May 6, 2013
Day by day, we bear witness to the flow of experience through which the world seems to tumble and thrash, as it did even a thousand years ago. In every age, doesn't life unfold through change, success, pain and struggle? How do we harm ourselves and each other and how can we repair and heal suffering with the timeless tonics of loving kindness, compassion and forgiveness? Such is the power of living harmlessly – the most ancient remedy of all. Sati Saraniya Hermitage Sunday talk, Oct 5, 2025
Can we stay true to our spiritual aspirations and fulfill them without compromise? Keep remembering and applying the Buddha's instructions to protect virtue, trust the practice and commit to this noble search and rescue. We hold the reins to free ourselves from life's inevitable trials, so let us see the way to emerge from unfathomable darkness with our compass of wisdom. Here and now, awareness ripens the heart in joy, compassion, and blessing. Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat, 2015
The Buddha guides our way to inner purity and awakening through cultivating the special qualities of universal love. First, we devote ourselves to a noble life of virtue, loving kindness, and care for others. We observe our own conduct – instead of blaming or judging anyone. We aim to abide with unconditional loving kindness, compassion and gratitude. Wisely reflecting, living in peace and understanding towards all beings, we shall surely know deliverance of the heart. Breakfast reflections at Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Sep 24, 2025
When the mind opens to the present moment in a humble, homage, witness way, sustaining that, know every wave in the ocean of the heart. In the silence of here and now, awareness melts all thought. We can see with clarity and listen with great compassion. Awareness deepens as we dive into the timeless, vast dimension of pure consciousness. We are awake. And we know – I am not fear, I am not anger. So let fear die. Let anger die. We are free, not separate – awareness aware of itself. Love prevails. And we never time out. Theravada Buddhist Community retreat, Toronto, May 23, 2025
Spiritual abuse is a hidden danger even among the most well-intentioned. If we allow the ego to undermine our nobler instincts, we fall prey to power and authority. Vigilant awareness will alert us and open our eyes to truly see and wisely protect the heart. When we are with the Dhamma, we are with the Buddha. We may not be perfect but we are on a noble path. So guard the mind and bear no hatred. Enshrine this pure presence and connection to the heart, to life and to each other with humility, respect, and loving-compassion – and share these blessings with all beings.
As an alms mendicant nun, dependent on the kindness of others for nearly four decades, I reflect on the generosity as well as the violence in this world. And yet, this path yields immense blessings. For the Buddha’s teaching is founded on the Noble Truth of suffering. If we care only about our own happiness, we suffer. But if we care about the happiness of others, peace of heart ripens. With humility, we free ourselves from darkness. The ego blinds us until we see with the eyes of kindness and compassion. Madison, WI. Retreat, Oct. 18, 2024
There is much fear in this world and yet there is a wondrous way beyond fear. Just as humans create weapons of mass destruction, we are capable of the exact opposite – nurturing the enlightened mind. We need only wake up from the toxic delusion and deceit of this world. Just as we turn from darkness to discernment, from fighting to forgiveness, grow in wisdom and see things as they truly are. Unconditional love and compassion shield us to peacefully work with what is not peaceful. At last, empty yourself of fear and be the true love you seek. Sati Saraniya Hermitage, June 15, 2025
Do we really want to wake up? We may have to face painful truths about ourselves. So we examine the depth of our dedication to this spiritual work and we watch out for the ego. The Buddha had zero tolerance for young monastics who resisted his advice. Yet pivotal to this training of the mind is just that – being open to reflections or feedback from a wise spiritual friend – if they are willing to guide us. Even if we think we are doing well on the path, their perspective may mirror a critical blind spot that will clear our path to awakening. Madison, USA retreat, Oct. 18, 2024
How do we extinguish the fires of greed, hatred and delusion that burn within the mind? The Buddha has thrown us a lifeline. We grab hold of it right here and now – one moment at a time. Free yourself from relentless conceptualizing and the suffering that comes of it. Stop and be aware – again and again. What is happening within you? The Buddha's first aid is just this – see each moment of turmoil or fear that is assaulting us as impermanent. Witness these feelings of despair or darkness arise and pass away – not what you are. Breathe free. Breath by breath, we let the heart heal – at peace. Breakfast reflections, Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Nov 2018
How true can we be so we don’t have to lie? Not just in what we say or think but also in how we live this precious life both in our doings on the outside, and also what goes on inside the mind – where no one can see! But we see. We know the state of the heart. When we turn away from self- deception to the inner shining, we are set free from our deepest pain – with pure love. So live caring for yourself as for others – spiritually in tact and whole, with measureless kindness and compassion. Sitting in the school of Truth, more than pilgrims, we are stars crossing space. We shine, even in the dark.
Living in the forest, we are always aware of the trees. Patient, deep-rooted, even in fierce storms, they stand. So stand like the trees, committed and enduring. See the world with pure awareness, just the way it is. Living in a state of gratitude, we make peace with the divisiveness of this realm. We offer the blessing of our own inner harmony – the heart's compassionate, pure presence – to live and die in a state of grace, gratitude and love. Some will be blessed by that. But can we spread peace in the world without being peaceful ourselves? Ottawa Buddhist Society, June 20, 2025
The Buddha encourages us to abandon the unwholesome and develop wholesomeness in our daily acts, words and thoughts. As we learn to trust in pure awareness and present moment mindfulness, the weight of the world is lifted from the heart. Here and now, we abide in the formless, changeless, and eternal. Not only do we bear testimony to others that this is within our reach but we are also directly blessed by it ourselves. We see the nature of emptiness and know the peace of true freedom.
What is true joy? All too soon, joy declines because of its nature to change, like all conditions of life. True joy is not an idea or belief in a perfect moment but it is knowing the truth of change and how to free ourselves from clinging to ephemeral happiness. Just as we avoid poison ivy when walking in the forest, refrain from touching anger or hatred. To see beyond the duality of likes and dislikes, the beauty of flowers or the fear of danger, wisely investigate and know the nature of all experience. Day by day, living the middle way with pure present moment awareness, we discover the joy of peace in the midst of change.
Do we know the truth of what we are? If not, how can we love unconditionally? When the heart abides in loving-kindness, the misery of fear, anger and despair is vanquished. If we look for unconditional love outside of us, we will never find it. Nor can we know it by thinking. The mind must grow in silence and stillness, in unsullied conscious awareness. Then we can see what we truly are – intuitively, beyond thought, in the quality of this very breath, this moment. We pierce through the dust of lifetimes to know the core of our being, to wake up – here and now. Just to live in that kindness is the truest life of all. Sati Saraniya Hermitage, January, 2025
The heart’s splendor is known in pure awareness – not tainted by any harmful thought or feeling. It is integrity itself – present now. Traverse from the self, the narrow sense of me and mine, to surrender – knowing that we are nothing of this realm. But this emptiness is a fullness, measureless and complete – so vast that it dwarfs everything. It is universal love, compassion, supremely gentle, kind. Once known, it can never not be known. We are not separate from awareness. Like the sky. It is always there – a silent homage, our true home. Ottawa Buddhist Society meditation, June 2025
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Thank you for this excellent teaching! I bow three times😀