“The Straight Truth”
About Ayya Medhanandi
Ayya Medhanandi, née 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 the Antipodes, 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’.
WHEN: Friday, June 17th, 7:00pm – Sunday June 26, 1:00pm.
WHERE: The Galilee Centre Arnprior, Ontario
COST FOR THE WHOLE TEN DAYS: $680 (CDN) ($650 for members of the Ottawa Buddhist Society)
COST FOR WEEKEND ONLY (FRIDAY EVENING, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY) $205 (CDN) ($175for members of the Ottawa Buddhist Society)
RETREAT REGISTRATION INFORMATION
The Complete Registration Form is in PDF and MS Word formats.
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