Our spiritual director, Ayya Santacitta, met her first teacher Ajahn Buddhadasa in the forests of southern Thailand in 1988 and quickly developed an interest in Buddhist monastic life.
From 1992 to 2009 she lived and trained with the Siladhara Order at Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition in England. These communities were founded by Ajahn Sumedho, the foremost western disciple of Ajahn Chah.
The Siladhara are a Ten Precept order of nuns who keep a high standard of training similar to the Bhikkhuni discipline ~ read a Forest Sangha Newsletter from 2007, commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Siladhara Order.
In 2002 Ayya Santacitta met her Vajrayana teacher, Dzogchen master Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, at a Kalachakra event near her home town Bruck/Mur, Austria.
In 2009 the Saranaloka Foundation invited Ayya Santacitta, together with Ayya Anandabodhi, to develop Aloka Vihara in San Francisco, where they resided until 2014 ~ watch ‘A New Beginning’.
In 2011 Ayya Santacitta and Ayya Anandabodhi took leave of the Ajahn Chah lineage and the Siladhara Order and received Bhikkhuni Ordination at Spirit Rock with Ayya Tathaaloka Mahatheri as preceptor.
Mid 2014 the San Francisco vihara moved to the Sierra Foothills near Placerville and became Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery. Over the years the 17 acre property developed into a peaceful sanctuary and received many visitors.
In 2021 the Caldor Fire swept through the monastery grounds and by 2022 it had become clear, that efforts stewarding a forest monastery in the Sierra Foothills were unsustainable for the nuns’ community. Beginning 2023 Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery closed and the resident monastics dispersed like seeds bursting from a pod:
Ayya Santacitta established Aloka Earth Room in San Rafael, CA.
Ayya Anandabodhi established Pārāyana Vihāra in Port Townsend, WA.
Ayya Niyyanika co-founded Passaddhi Vihara in Olympia, WA.
Ayya Ahimsa returned to her homeland, Canada to establish Canmore Theravada Buddhist Monastery, in Canmore, AB.
Ayya Dhammadipa, having now returned to her Zen roots, founded Dassanāya Buddhist Community in Alexandria, VA.
The financial assets held by the Saranaloka Foundation were equally shared between Ayya Santacitta and Ayya Anandabodhi’s new viharas. Today the foundation continues to empower female-identified Theravada monastics to practice, teach and train with Ayya Santacitta as spiritual director and resident senior weaver at the Aloka Earth Room.
~ Anicca vata sankhara
All conditions are transient ~