Visiting Aranya Bodhi Hermitage in 2015

[Ayya Sobhana]

This spring and summer is a good time to join the Aranya Bodhi Hermitage for a residential visits of a month or longer, including periods of service and times for personal practice. 

Aranya Bodhi is a forest meditation hermitage located among the forest redwoods and high meadows of the California Sonoma Coast. It is offered for monastic women, monastic life aspirants or allies of the re-born women’s monastic sangha in the Theravada ... who wish to experience the Theravada bhikkhuni form of practice in the forest tradition ... who have experienced the transformative power of Vipassana meditation ... and who love the forest and practicing in nature. 

Visitors to Aranya Bodhi over the past year have noted the large and small improvements to our physical setting. Gone now are the old trailers that were so difficult to keep clean, dry and safe. They have been replaced by new buildings of standard construction, that have taken us safely through a rainy winter season.  The challenge of mold, mildew, rain and rodents that marked our first few years are well resolved with these new and easy to maintain structures. 

There is pure potable water on-tap, expanded solar electric capacity, and kitchen and shower facilities that look and feel like an ordinary home in town … except that one can step out the door and be in the deep silence of a magnificent forest.  

All this progress with the physical set-up has allowed us to pause on construction projects, leaving our daily life more balanced and quiet. The time available for supported personal retreat is gradually increasing. Besides our daily formal practice, there are monthly new moon day-long retreats; alms round in Sebastopol twice a month. For fun and inspiration, a few of us are creating a Dhammapada study guide, translating analyzing and reflecting on one verse per day. 

There is regular inter-visitation with the Dhammadharini Vihara in Santa Rosa, and many visitors find it fruitful to spend time in service, practice and training at both places.

For information about visiting Aranya Bodhi, please start here.

For information about stewardship opportunities at Dhammadharini Vihara in Santa Rosa, please start here.

Thank you for passing this announcement to others who may be interested.