The two founding nuns, Ayya Anandabodhi and Ayya Santacitta, trained for many years as monastics at Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries in England before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009, where they established Aloka Vihara. After four and a half years in San Francisco they moved to a rural forest property in California’s Sierra Foothills.
Transitioning to this larger property provides a setting for welcoming female aspirants to monastic life and also offers the possibility for interested lay people of all genders to visit, practice, serve and take part in daily monastic life.
Currently there are four resident nuns at Aloka Vihara and together they developed the following Vision and Mission statements.
Vision:
Supporting Awakening Together
Mission:
A training monastery of forest nuns living the teachings of the Buddha and of the Earth for the benefit of all beings.
Ways to Be Involved:
- Visit the vihara for a shorter or longer stay.
- Offer meals or rides for the nuns.
- Volunteer to help out at the vihara.
- Join ‘Friends of Aloka Vihara’.
- Offer a financial contribution to Saranaloka Foundation to provide the Four Requisites of food, medicine, lodgings, and clothing and to develop the monastery.
