Ordination story with corrections
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sean feit
Sep 8, 2010, 5:57:55 PM9/8/10
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Friends in the Dharma,
I was thrilled to pass on this account of the ordination of 4 Bhikkhunis a couple weeks ago. Following sending it out, Amy (who wrote it) and I have found out that there were a couple important changes that needed to be made. The changes are important enough that we want to send out a corrected version and ask everyone to erase (any copies made) and not forward the original that was sent out on 9/3. Save/forward this version if you want.
In the interests of clarity and wise communication, here's Amy's corrected story. It's an inspiring rendering of an event that rings in history beyond our immediate practice to the transmission and continuity of the 2,500 year old original Buddhist Path - with full admission to the community of monastics open to both men and women without discrimination.
With metta,
sean
from Amy:
---------
It turns out there were a couple of inaccuracies in the original post. In particular, I want to make it clear that Ajahn Thanasanti was invited to the ordination by Ayya Tathaaloka, so here is a corrected account.
I went up a typical California dirt road: steep, twisty, narrow, rocky, with mysterious side roads going off even more steeply; but by the time I turned onto Aranya Bodhi's own side road, the sun was beginning to appear, and by the time I got the car, myself, and surprise ride-share Seymour Boorstein up the very steepest bit to the open parking area, the sun was out. The day stayed clear and beautiful all the way through.
The first person I saw was my old friend Ayya Sudhamma. We have known each other since before either of us even thought of being Buddhists, and true to form she instantly got me helping to set up a shelter for an extra latrine. She asked me, "Are you here for the joy of the occasion, or are you thinking of ordination?" When I said I was here for the history and the joy, but I was not thinking of ordination, she said, "Well, when you come to your senses, let me know!" We've been having variants on this conversation for years now.
I got my tent set up on a newly cleared tent site under fir and redwood and had a chance to explore the land. It had belonged to a logging company, but it's beautiful anyway; full of trees, with ferns and bunch grasses growing there, and there's a lovely little creek with big boulders. They hope to build a microhydro project there.
Right now living conditions are very primitive, with pit toilets, a couple of trailers for kitchen and (I think) living space, and tents scattered here and there. But weeks before the ordination they were able to put up a yurt for the meditation hall, and they are working on kutis.
The first event was the communal meal. How so many people got so much terrific food up there, I don't know. There was a crew of (mostly) Sri Lankan folks helping organize the meal.
It was wonderful to see so many monks and nuns in one place. Bhante Gunaratana, who has long supported the establishment of the hermitage, was there, as were monks from American Buddhist Seminary Temple in Sacramento. Ajahn Pasanno from Abhyagiri was also to be there but as the meal began a woman next to me asked if I recognized him among the monks, and we were both disappointed to realize that he was not as yet present.
Nuns came from all over the U.S. Ajahn Anandabodhi and Ajahn Santacitta from the Saranaloka vihara in San Francisco were there. Ayya Tathaaloka, the abbess of Aranya Bodhi--truly its spiritual center--invited Bhante Gunaratana to accept the meal on behalf of all the monastics, but he asked that one of the women do it, and Ayya Sobhana, the prioress, was chosen. Given how the monastic order places seniors ahead of juniors and men ahead of women, this was a beautiful gesture from Bhante G.
After the monastics took their food, the rest of us enjoyed our meal. I got to see some old dhamma friends and meet some new ones. Then Samaneri Suvijjana--who would be Bhikkhuni Suvijjana in a few hours--showed a few of us the steep path to the creek. She has spent a lot of time on the land and did a lot of work on the trail.
Then there was a lot of milling around--and then I saw Debbie Stamp from Abhyagiri in the crowd. She hadn't been there earlier, and sure enough, Ajahn Pasanno and another monk had arrived! Because Abhayagiri is in Ajahn Chah's lineage, and there has been bitter controversy in that lineage over bhikkhuni ordination, it was wonderful to see him there. In fact, he has been supportive of Aranya Bodhi since it was just a piece of land with an idea attached.
While the monks and nuns assembled for the formal procession into the meditation hall, Ayya Tathaaloka spoke on anumodana, the happiness of seeing virtue in others, and about the long road to this moment. It had in a way begun at a retreat at Spirit Rock, where people had seen her in robes. "It seemed that every time I went to sit there was a note slipped under the cushion, and every time I went to the bathroom there was a woman who wanted to whisper to me, 'How is it that you're in robes? Is this something I could do?' So I felt that there was strong aspiration." And so began the determination to establish a residence where women could ordain and practice as monastics.
She then invited people to speak. Ruth Denison, one of the earliest Western women to teach, spoke on interconnectedness. Sylvia Boorstein read a card from Jack Kornfield saying that Spirit Rock gave their wholehearted support, along with a Kuan Yin statue and a promise of a heating system for the yurt.
Then the monks and nuns filed up the former logging road, barefoot, while we threw flower petals over them. The samaneris (postulants) came last, carrying their bowls, flanked by Ayya Sudhamma and Ayya Sobhana, who were kammavacacarini and kammacarini (backup kammavacacarini): they would examine the samaneris and request that they be ordained.
At long last the ordinations. First each samaneri was ordained separately by the bhikkhunis, then as a group by the bhikkhus. This makes it a dual ordination. Some of the nuns, including Ayya Tathaaloka, had to have a "one-sided" ordination by bhikkhus only, because there were not enough nuns available to have a proper ordination (5 nuns with 5 years fully ordained, each). Ayya Tathaaloka, who was the preceptor, said that many of the monks might not have seen bhikkhunis being ordained, and that it was good that they would have a chance to see the ceremony.
Originally there were supposed to be three samaneris being ordained, but Ayya Thanasanti, formerly of Chithurst, now based in Colorado Springs, had accepted a last-minute invitation from Ayya Tathaaloka to take full ordination.
Each samaneri slowly approached Ayya Tathaaloka and the bhikkhunis with an offering of flowers and a candle (and, I imagine, incense) and, in Pali, thrice requested ordination, with much bowing. At that point Ayyas Sudhamma and Sobhana took the samaneri aside and asked her a series of questions three times over; then, the samaneri having answered appropriately (all in Pali) she waited outside the circle of bhikkhunis while Ayyas Sudhamma and Sobhana formally requested her ordination, at great length, again three times, again in Pali.
When none of the bhikkhunis objected, Ayya Sudhamma told the samaneri to come in, and the questions were repeated in front of all the bhikkhunis; at long last the ordination was pronounced, and the bhikkhunis all broke into delighted smiles (and some into tears) and the new bhikkhuni took her place with the other bhikkhunis. Ayya Tathaaloka was radiant the entire time, though it was a strenuous day.
After this was repeated for all four samaneris, all the new bhikkhunis went together to the other side of the hall to request ordination from the bhikkhus. This was a much shorter ordination, with the male kammavacacaryas requesting ordination for the bhikkhunis and the bhikkhus granting it.
Finally, there was a brief dhamma talk from Bhante Gunaratana. He said that in all his 70 years as a monk, this was the first dual ordination he had ever seen, and the most people he had seen given full ordination at one time. He has supported women's ordination from the first, and was proud that two of his disciples were serving as kammavacacarinis. Up to now, he had been able to ordain novice women at the Bhavana Center, but "we had to send them to Sri Lanka for full ordination." Even then, there were only a few male monks willing to ordain women.
He spoke passionately about the importance of women's ordination, saying that the Buddha had said that the Ubhato sangha, bhikkhus and bhikkhunis together, was the greatest field of merit, greater than the Buddha himself, and that concord and harmony within the sangha was the highest good.
For me, it was an amazing, inspiring day. As I watched the monks and nuns together, gathered literally from all over the world, taking part in this ceremony, and heard Pali chanted in stereo, in women's and men's voices, I felt as though a centuries-old wound was healing right there in, this old ritual renewed. And watching the tiny number of bhikkhunis being increased so abruptly gives me hope that the women's wing of the two-fold sangha will grow strong here in America and be a resource for the world.
I was also inspired by the hermitage. These women live so lightly on the land, with so few possessions, and with a clear commitment to caring for all beings there; we were cautioned to stay on the paths so as not to harm rare plants. It's such a different way to live, and I want to be around it.
So I'll be going back--soon, I hope!
For more on the ordination, and the long process leading up to it, see http://awakening-forest-hermitage.blogspot.com/
It turns out there were a couple of inaccuracies in the original post. In particular, I want to make it clear that Ajahn Thanasanti was invited to the ordination by Ayya Tathaaloka, so here is a corrected account.
On Sunday, August 29, I had the great good fortune to attend the ordination of four new bhikkhunis (nuns) in the Theravadan tradition, at Aranya Bodhi forest refuge (http://www.aranyabodhi.org/). This is the full ordination, which for centuries was not available to Theravadan women. It was a rare and historic occasion, with both bhikkhus (monks) and bhikkhunis ordaining the women. It was wonderfully inspiring so I thought you might enjoy an account and a photo.
The sea was fog-shrouded as I drove up the coast toward Aranya Bodhi. The fog struck me as inauspicious, and I nearly missed my turnoff to the hermitage because I could hardly see the landmark I was looking for.
I went up a typical California dirt road: steep, twisty, narrow, rocky, with mysterious side roads going off even more steeply; but by the time I turned onto Aranya Bodhi's own side road, the sun was beginning to appear, and by the time I got the car, myself, and surprise ride-share Seymour Boorstein up the very steepest bit to the open parking area, the sun was out. The day stayed clear and beautiful all the way through.
Right now living conditions are very primitive, with pit toilets, a couple of trailers for kitchen and (I think) living space, and tents scattered here and there. But weeks before the ordination they were able to put up a yurt for the meditation hall, and they are working on kutis.
It was wonderful to see so many monks and nuns in one place. Bhante Gunaratana, who has long supported the establishment of the hermitage, was there, as were monks from American Buddhist Seminary Temple in Sacramento. Ajahn Pasanno from Abhyagiri was also to be there but as the meal began a woman next to me asked if I recognized him among the monks, and we were both disappointed to realize that he was not as yet present.
Nuns came from all over the U.S. Ajahn Anandabodhi and Ajahn Santacitta from the Saranaloka vihara in San Francisco were there. Ayya Tathaaloka, the abbess of Aranya Bodhi--truly its spiritual center--invited Bhante Gunaratana to accept the meal on behalf of all the monastics, but he asked that one of the women do it, and Ayya Sobhana, the prioress, was chosen. Given how the monastic order places seniors ahead of juniors and men ahead of women, this was a beautiful gesture from Bhante G.
After the monastics took their food, the rest of us enjoyed our meal. I got to see some old dhamma friends and meet some new ones. Then Samaneri Suvijjana--who would be Bhikkhuni Suvijjana in a few hours--showed a few of us the steep path to the creek. She has spent a lot of time on the land and did a lot of work on the trail.
Then there was a lot of milling around--and then I saw Debbie Stamp from Abhyagiri in the crowd. She hadn't been there earlier, and sure enough, Ajahn Pasanno and another monk had arrived! Because Abhayagiri is in Ajahn Chah's lineage, and there has been bitter controversy in that lineage over bhikkhuni ordination, it was wonderful to see him there. In fact, he has been supportive of Aranya Bodhi since it was just a piece of land with an idea attached.
While the monks and nuns assembled for the formal procession into the meditation hall, Ayya Tathaaloka spoke on anumodana, the happiness of seeing virtue in others, and about the long road to this moment. It had in a way begun at a retreat at Spirit Rock, where people had seen her in robes. "It seemed that every time I went to sit there was a note slipped under the cushion, and every time I went to the bathroom there was a woman who wanted to whisper to me, 'How is it that you're in robes? Is this something I could do?' So I felt that there was strong aspiration." And so began the determination to establish a residence where women could ordain and practice as monastics.
Then the monks and nuns filed up the former logging road, barefoot, while we threw flower petals over them. The samaneris (postulants) came last, carrying their bowls, flanked by Ayya Sudhamma and Ayya Sobhana, who were kammavacacarini and kammacarini (backup kammavacacarini): they would examine the samaneris and request that they be ordained.
At long last the ordinations. First each samaneri was ordained separately by the bhikkhunis, then as a group by the bhikkhus. This makes it a dual ordination. Some of the nuns, including Ayya Tathaaloka, had to have a "one-sided" ordination by bhikkhus only, because there were not enough nuns available to have a proper ordination (5 nuns with 5 years fully ordained, each). Ayya Tathaaloka, who was the preceptor, said that many of the monks might not have seen bhikkhunis being ordained, and that it was good that they would have a chance to see the ceremony.
Each samaneri slowly approached Ayya Tathaaloka and the bhikkhunis with an offering of flowers and a candle (and, I imagine, incense) and, in Pali, thrice requested ordination, with much bowing. At that point Ayyas Sudhamma and Sobhana took the samaneri aside and asked her a series of questions three times over; then, the samaneri having answered appropriately (all in Pali) she waited outside the circle of bhikkhunis while Ayyas Sudhamma and Sobhana formally requested her ordination, at great length, again three times, again in Pali.
After this was repeated for all four samaneris, all the new bhikkhunis went together to the other side of the hall to request ordination from the bhikkhus. This was a much shorter ordination, with the male kammavacacaryas requesting ordination for the bhikkhunis and the bhikkhus granting it.
Finally, there was a brief dhamma talk from Bhante Gunaratana. He said that in all his 70 years as a monk, this was the first dual ordination he had ever seen, and the most people he had seen given full ordination at one time. He has supported women's ordination from the first, and was proud that two of his disciples were serving as kammavacacarinis. Up to now, he had been able to ordain novice women at the Bhavana Center, but "we had to send them to Sri Lanka for full ordination." Even then, there were only a few male monks willing to ordain women.
He spoke passionately about the importance of women's ordination, saying that the Buddha had said that the Ubhato sangha, bhikkhus and bhikkhunis together, was the greatest field of merit, greater than the Buddha himself, and that concord and harmony within the sangha was the highest good.
For me, it was an amazing, inspiring day. As I watched the monks and nuns together, gathered literally from all over the world, taking part in this ceremony, and heard Pali chanted in stereo, in women's and men's voices, I felt as though a centuries-old wound was healing right there in, this old ritual renewed. And watching the tiny number of bhikkhunis being increased so abruptly gives me hope that the women's wing of the two-fold sangha will grow strong here in America and be a resource for the world.
I was also inspired by the hermitage. These women live so lightly on the land, with so few possessions, and with a clear commitment to caring for all beings there; we were cautioned to stay on the paths so as not to harm rare plants. It's such a different way to live, and I want to be around it.
So I'll be going back--soon, I hope!
"to find the Buddha's Way,
drift east and west, come and go,
entrusting yourself to the waves."
(ryokan)
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