Can a totally secure place be found in the world? In this talk Ayya Piyadassī will share about her journey of meeting this challenge through the Dhamma and explore our insecurities, their sources and skilful ways of working with them.
Ayya Piyadassī was born and grew up in Lithuania where she completed a degree in chemistry. Over six years of dedicated meditation practice and Dhamma service in the UK as well as Lithuania, she developed an increasing interest in the Buddhist scriptures and theory behind meditation. This interest led her to study Pāḷi in India. She then proceeded to Myanmar to absorb the teachings available in its traditional Buddhist cultural context and took robes in 2013 with the Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw as a preceptor. After several years of practising and learning various meditation techniques in mostly, small Pa Auk meditation centres, she returned to Europe for a couple of years. There she had an opportunity to integrate whatever she had learnt in Myanmar while living in the caves of Southern Spain. She is back in Myanmar and currently studying old Indic languages in the Shan State Buddhist University.
Her training in Pa Auk meditation system, academic Buddhism and science coupled with a free life in the wilderness outside of traditional Buddhist society informs the way she shares the Dhamma: giving precise and individual recommendations tailored to a situation, based on the tradition of Theravāda Buddhism.
We herewith want to thank everybody who has participated in the Tilorien iSangha in the last few months during lock-down and thereafter, as well as all the monastics and lay people who have shared their knowledge and wisdom. We have been so touched by all your positive responses and have decided to continue to provide a program on Zoom for the foreseeable future. The enormous shift that our world has seen in the first half of 2020 has also brought some benefits that we can be grateful for. One of these benefits is that we as monastics had to find new ways of connecting to people and in doing so we have discovered that we can also reach people who otherwise have no possibility to come to a monastery. Over the last months, our iSangha has seen visitors from most European countries, but also from Asia, the Americas and even as far away as Australia.
As Zoom has announced some changes to its platform, you will need a passcode to enter the iSangha from now on. For the Dhamma Contemplation we have already sent out a passcode to the participants who are registered for this. If you have not yet received a passcode from us while you have previously attended, then please re-register again HERE to receive the new access details.
In the last months, the iSangha has provided a program with daily meditation and chanting sessions, Dhamma Talks, Insight Dialogue sessions, Dhamma Contemplation sessions and even the online celebration of Vesak!
During the Vassa, our program will be as follows:
Daily silent meditation and morning puja at 6am
Taking of 8 precepts on Uposatha days at 7am
Dhamma Contemplation group on Mondays at 7.30pm
Chanting and silent meditation on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6pm
Chanting and guided meditation on Saturday at 6pm
There might also be occasional Dhamma Talks; these will be posted here.
For more information see our website at iSangha – Tilorien Monastery.
Ayya Soma is an Italian Buddhist monk living at Empty Cloud Monastery in New Jersey. As the co-founder of Buddhist Insights, a non-profit organization connecting people with monastics, she has learned the Dharma through the perspective of monks of all different traditions, and incorporates aspects from all of them in her own practice. Her spiritual path is inspired by the social engagement of her preceptor, Venerable Paññāvati Bhikkhuni; by the knowledge and wisdom of Ven. Robina Courtin; and by the compassion of Khenmo Drolma.
For more information on Ven. Somā and Buddhist Insights / Empty Cloud Monastery, see http://buddhistinsights.com/
Bhikkhu Sukhacitto was born in Germany in 1963 and first came into contact with Buddhism in 1986 in Thailand by attending a meditation retreat, offered through Wat Suan Mokkh. He ordained there as a monk in 1990. He returned to the West in 1993. Since then he has lived at various monasteries, including Dhammapala Monastery in Switzerland for six years and Amaravati Monastery in the UK for 4 years.
On his first Insight Dialogue retreat in 2005, he was amazed by the powerful experience of meditating together with other people and subsequently joined many more Insight Dialogue retreats. In 2010 he began his teacher training with Gregory Kramer and other teachers. In his experience, interpersonal meditation is an extremely helpful aid for the development of wholesome qualities. It bridges the gap between traditional silent meditation and our everyday lives and relations with other people. Bhikkhu Sukhacitto sees Insight Dialogue as an important tool for liberation.
In 2016 Bhikkhu Sukhacitto founded Kalyana Mitta Vihara, or “House of Noble Friendship,” where relational practice is part of the living.
If you have never attended the Dhamma Contemplation Peer Group and would like to take part, please register at Tilorien iSangha to get the Zoom link and password.
