The Straight Truth: A 9-Day Meditation Retreat
A 9-day meditation retreat will be held from June 17-26 with Ayya Medhanandi at the Galilee Centre. The Galilee Centre is located west of Ottawa with a spacious building, surrounded by large lawns and trees, and features a scenic waterfront and walking trails.
The 9-day retreat will involve of various sitting and walking meditations, and Dhamma talks. There will be some meditation instruction. Since this is a silent retreat, participants are asked to maintain silence for the weekend.
Retreatants are asked to undertake the basic training rules embodied in the Eight Precepts and to observe noble silence and Retreat Guidelines. The Eight Precepts are:
Ayya Medhanandi, ne Mary Fiksel, 1949, a native of Montreal, began meditating at the age of 21. Inspired by the practice, she made pilgrimage to India, met an Advaita sage, and trained with him as a nun for four years. After completing an MSc in nutrition, she designed and managed NGO projects in Thailand, Senegal, and Ecuador as well as UNICEF/WHO health intervention programs for malnourished women and children in Nepal.
Her teacher's death in 1986 was a call to monastic life. She left her career to take her first vows as a Buddhist nun with Sayadaw U Pandita in Myanmar. Then came ten years of training at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery with Ajahn Sumedho as preceptor. Stepping out on her own, she lived as a solitary nun in New Zealand for six years before moving to Penang to continue teaching and leading retreats in t! he Antip odes, Asia, and the West.
In 2007, she received bhikkhuni ordination and the bodhisattva monastic precepts in Taiwan. Accepting an invitation to return to Canada, in 2008 she established Sati Saraniya Hermitage, the first Canadian monastic residence for Theravada bhikkhunis, located in Perth, Ontario.
In addition to running Hermitage programs and leading retreats, she teaches vipassana meditation courses for Ottawa area Hospice staff and volunteers. She is the author of 'Gone Forth, Going Beyond'.
source: http://ottawabuddhistsociety.com
The 9-day retreat will involve of various sitting and walking meditations, and Dhamma talks. There will be some meditation instruction. Since this is a silent retreat, participants are asked to maintain silence for the weekend.
Retreatants are asked to undertake the basic training rules embodied in the Eight Precepts and to observe noble silence and Retreat Guidelines. The Eight Precepts are:
- Harmlessness: not intentionally taking the life of any creature.
- Trustworthiness: not taking anything that is not given.
- Chastity: refraining from any sexual activity.
- Right Speech: avoiding false or malicious speech.
- Sobriety: not taking any intoxicating drinks or drugs.
- Renunciation: not eating after mid-day**.
- Restraint: refraining from entertainments and self-adornment.
- Alertness: refraining from over-indulgence in sleep.
Ayya Medhanandi, ne Mary Fiksel, 1949, a native of Montreal, began meditating at the age of 21. Inspired by the practice, she made pilgrimage to India, met an Advaita sage, and trained with him as a nun for four years. After completing an MSc in nutrition, she designed and managed NGO projects in Thailand, Senegal, and Ecuador as well as UNICEF/WHO health intervention programs for malnourished women and children in Nepal.
Her teacher's death in 1986 was a call to monastic life. She left her career to take her first vows as a Buddhist nun with Sayadaw U Pandita in Myanmar. Then came ten years of training at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery with Ajahn Sumedho as preceptor. Stepping out on her own, she lived as a solitary nun in New Zealand for six years before moving to Penang to continue teaching and leading retreats in t! he Antip odes, Asia, and the West.
In 2007, she received bhikkhuni ordination and the bodhisattva monastic precepts in Taiwan. Accepting an invitation to return to Canada, in 2008 she established Sati Saraniya Hermitage, the first Canadian monastic residence for Theravada bhikkhunis, located in Perth, Ontario.
In addition to running Hermitage programs and leading retreats, she teaches vipassana meditation courses for Ottawa area Hospice staff and volunteers. She is the author of 'Gone Forth, Going Beyond'.
source: http://ottawabuddhistsociety.com
