History of Bhikkhunis and significance of Newbury Buddhist Monastery - video

AV
1

Greetings friends.

Last night there was a presentation by the Buddhist Society of Victoria about the History of Bhikkhunis and the significance of Newbury Buddhist Monastery in Victoria Australia, which has a dual Sangha.

The contents are as follow

  1. Welcome Message / Introduction to NBM and nuns - Ayya Upekkha
  2. Welcome Speech by CITYZEN’s Rep - Kav
  3. Invitation and Greetings by CITYZEN’s Rep - Kav

A. Pre-recording Session (~1 hour)
4… Initial establishment of the Bhikkhuni Order in India during Lord Buddha’s time - presented by Ayya Suvira
5. Establishment of the bhikkhuni lineage in Sri Lanka - presented by Ayya Sela
6. Spread of bhikkhuni lineage to China and northern countries in Asia - presented by Ayya Sankappa
7. Revival of Sri Lanka’s Bhikkhuni lineage in Sri Lanka after an absence of about 1000 years - presented by Ranjini de Silva + extract from Ayya Kusuma’s interview with Monk Jag and Ayya Upekkha at BSV in 2013

B. Live Session + Q&A (~0.5 hour)
8. The first bhikkhuni ordination in Australia - presented by Ayya Upekkha
9. Significance of NBM (a development from Sanghamittarama and BSV) - presented by Ayya Upekkha
10. Q&A - Quincy, President of CITYZEN, to give invitation to ask questions to Ayya Upekkha, Ayya Suvira, Ayya Sela, Ayya Sankappa and Ranjani de Silva
11. Conclusion message - CITYZEN President Quincy
12. Message of thanks to CITYZEN for initiating this program, NBM nuns for their contribution and to all participants - Ayya Upekkha
End with: Dedication of Merit Chant - NBM Nuns led by Ayya Sunnata.

16 Likes
2

@Suvira, Thankyou so much for your work! Please also pass on our thanks to the other nuns also.

Are the slides from your presentation available?

2 Likes
3

Hearing the Venerable Kusuma speak of her determination “even at the risk of my life.” .
Wow. :pray::pray::pray:

2 Likes
4

Hi Venerable @anon98123616,

I had been talking about gender and texts one day in the kitchen with Kav at NBM and this was what Kav cooked up afterwards! We originally thought we were just doing a small thing-go for our young adults’ group and then Singapore got involved, and then things escalated. In a good way. :wink: I was sooo impressed with everyone’s contributions.

I have the recording and slides (including video) from my part of the presentation, but not from the Q&A. Which is a shame, because I enjoyed the Q&A, although I wish I’d said more about what I meant by narrative therapy in this context.

A key finding from narrative based approaches to violence against women is that women who have experienced violence (or, in a broader sense, have had their social realities shaped by the threat of violence) “are not just ‘victims of patriarchy’ but are agentic beings capable of acts of resistance and demonstrating resilience in the face of violence and adversity” (Gordon, 2017).

We can also make a choice as readers to read Mahapajapati’s story as a story of resistance and resilience.

Thank you for everyone who tuned in. :slight_smile:

6 Likes