ABOUT

Awakening Truth

At Awakening Truth, we harness the wisdom of the Buddha’s teachings alongside a toolkit of transformative practices. Our approach is centered on unraveling the complexities of stress and converting them into gateways for growth, compassion, and profound joy. Through these integrated methods, we guide individuals on a journey of self-discovery and empowerment, helping them navigate life’s challenges with resilience and authenticity.

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HOW TO

GET STARTED

It’s easy to get started with Awakening Truth! Check out our blogs, videos, and audio recordings. Look at the meditation and yoga classes that are on offer. Explore the Integrated Meditation Program and Compassionate Witness events and see if they address your needs.

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ABOUT

Amma Thanasanti

Amma, a seasoned meditation teacher, and life coach, draws from decades of immersive experience within monastic communities. Her journey, deeply influenced by the wisdom of these environments, revealed that alleviating suffering often demands a broader approach than what conventional Insight meditation practices and ethical guidelines can provide. Her keen awareness of the complexities surrounding individuals grappling with developmental trauma led her to the realization that a more comprehensive strategy was needed.

In 2017, Amma transitioned from her monastic life to civilian living, bringing with her a profound understanding of the intricacies of the human experience and the diverse paths to healing. This transition marked a new chapter in her journey, one where she channels her insights to support others on their quests for authentic growth and transformation.

Amma’s unique perspective, enriched by her immersion in meditation, trauma-informed approaches, and a commitment to personal and collective healing, fuels her mission to foster connection, authenticity, and empowerment. Her teachings are deeply rooted in nature, self-discovery, and meaningful interactions, encouraging the lives of those she guides to navigate their paths with clarity and purpose.

Why It’s Important

As human beings, we have incredible potential within us – the potential to understand our inherent goodness and to lead lives filled with love, joy, and peace. However, for various reasons, these qualities are often out of reach. Awakening Truth is rooted in both modern insights and timeless traditional teachings. Through a blend of time-proven tools drawn from ancient wisdom and a psychological understanding of trauma and attachment formation within our welcoming community, we strive to bridge the gap between this potential and its realization. Our mission is to guide you on a journey that transforms limitations into possibilities, allowing you to embrace the beauty of your true nature and experience the profound changes it can bring to your life

What You’ll Learn

At Awakening Truth, we provide a rich learning experience that draws from time-tested Buddhist practices, neurobiology, and modern psychology to understand our experience. Our classes offer you the chance to immerse yourself in these practices, fostering the growth of qualities like mindfulness, loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.

We value the practice of inquiry. This leads us to recognize how observing together in pairs and in groups enhances not only our personal growth and realization but also fosters growth among our fellow participants contributing to integration and the journey of awakening.

Additionally, we’re excited to introduce you to Integrated Meditation, a method that targets early imprints within you. Through this practice, you’ll have the tools to gently reshape deep-seated beliefs, allowing you to thrive.

Our aim is to empower you with these practices, helping you cultivate a deeper connection with yourself and the world around you.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Introduction to the Integrated Meditation Program

MORE VIDEO

HOW TO

Volunteer!

There are many ways to get involved and to volunteer you can join a committee or just offer your unique services.

  • Board of Directors
  • Events Promotion and Communication Committee
  • Website and Media Committee
  • Volunteer Management Committee

Please contact info@awakeningtruth.org for more information.

HOW TO

GET STARTED

20 March

Yoga with Vidya

Welcoming Vidya Uma Awakening Truth is happy to introduce Vidya Uma, a good friend and Yoga teacher Amma first met when she was at the Saranya Aryurvedic Hospital in India […]

22 March

Yoga with Vidya

Welcoming Vidya Uma Awakening Truth is happy to introduce Vidya Uma, a good friend and Yoga teacher Amma first met when she was at the Saranya Aryurvedic Hospital in India […]

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LATEST

BLOG POSTS

21 December 2023

December 21 is a turning point. In the Northern Hemisphere, the darkest time of the year starts to have more light. As we pass the winter Solstice, we count on the nights to get shorter and the days to get longer. 

Yet for many, we are burdened with a different kind of darkness, the heavy weight of knowing that some of the suffering in our world won’t automatically get lighter with time. 

To bring light to this darkness, it’s important to start where we are at. We can be feeling rage, despair, heartbreak, collapse, fear, grief, guilt, shame, blame, numbness, and not wanting to know. When we are within our window of tolerance, we can have all of these feelings while having a sense of safety in our own body, and some capacity to be aware of our feelings and respond to them. 

When we can’t metabolize the suffering, our nervous system compensates. One way is that we can get outside of our window of tolerance. When this happens, the normal range of feelings then becomes exacerbated by being less able to track and respond to them. One of the first things that goes offline when we are outside of our window of tolerance is our capacity to make skillful choices and see things in perspective. We can feel on edge, startle at unexpected noises, have volatile emotions, or be numb.

When I notice this is going on, I recognize it. When I’m agitated, I prioritize calming down and restoring the feeling of safety in my body. Simple things like rocking, humming, nature time, singing, and spending time with loved ones help me. Once inside my window of tolerance, I have different choices in how I respond to the kaleidoscope of feelings that I may be feeling. 

When I feel rage, I honor the force coming through and recognize it as a response to harm and violation. I distill and funnel the raw energy into doing what I can to stand for justice, protection, and safety.

Let me take you back to a moment that still impacts me decades after it happened. Picture this: 20,000 Cambodian refugees gathering illegally to hear the revered monk Mahagosananda. He didn’t say a single word. Instead, he began chanting a well-known verse from the Buddha: “Hatred never ceases by hatred but by non-hatred alone does it cease.” Over and over, he kept chanting it, and slowly but surely, the crowd joined in. In the aftermath of their unspeakable suffering, they realized that revenge and hatred weren’t the paths to healing.

When questioning the impact of my actions, I hold onto this truth: even the tiniest light can dispel the darkness. Whether it’s simply bearing witness, standing in solidarity with those in pain, holding others accountable, or offering a small act of kindness—every single one of these actions holds significance and matters. 

When I feel despair at how humans can do unspeakable things to each other, it helps me to remember the shadow of monastic life. Even for people who are committed to non-harm, awakening, and have liberating teachings and a lifestyle to support them realizing it, the trauma that isn’t cleared out of a human nervous system perpetuates more trauma. 

When I feel numb, I know that as I have more capacity, I will again be able to feel and respond.

When I feel guilty for not doing enough, I have to reconcile the reality of what it takes to keep a roof over my head, food on the table, and stay healthy enough to function. Then I check if the guilt is an old voice that I am not good enough or an accurate assessment that I could be doing more. 

Love can touch what is unloved, in ourselves and the world. Love makes it possible to accept our humanness, the joy and sorrow we feel, and focus attention on what we value. We become a beacon of light when love speaks through what we do, 

In small and large ways, I’m grateful to be part of this community with you, in this human vehicle during this remarkable time to be alive. I’m grateful for your support, and the Awakening Truth community. 

With you by our side, we can continue to offer trauma-informed courses and programs that help us return to our window of tolerance and have more choices in how we respond to what is going on.

Warmly,

Amma

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04 January 2023

About  

Thank you for considering me as your mentor. I value the chance to tell you about myself so you have more information to decide whether what I offer and how I teach is a good fit for your aims and values.

Some significant experiences include: Meditation Master Dipa Ma showing me how transformational loving presence can be. A bear (https://youtu.be/i0S-baljhh8) teaching me the power of refuge and surrender.  Being a Buddhist nun for 26 years showing me how to suffer wisely, and where to find joy, love and peace that’s innate. Chronic illness continuing to show me many things including finding the balancing between patience with things as they are and doing whatever it takes.

I am devoted to the pursuit and embodiment of truth personally, relationally, in meditation, and watching others grow. Being an MMTCP mentor allows me to do what I love.

I am passionate about cultivating connection, supporting individuals both in their Dharma practice and their growth as teachers. Regardless of the skill you have already achieved, I invite you to step into your full potential.

I thrive in contexts where everyone can show up authentically, lean into vulnerability and experience presence. This includes understanding how different characteristics of identity – levels of ability, race, sexual orientation and gender identity shape our experiences. As part of this effort, I also emphasize trauma-informed practices, and integrate them into every aspect of the curriculum, and where applicable in mentoring my students.

I invite you to be responsible – know your needs, advocate for them asking for support when appropriate and letting me know when I or another have done something to cause you to feel less safe. I will ask you to take leadership roles in both the peer and mentor groups.

You can expect me to refer to the early Suttas particularly when they differ from the teachings of Western secular Buddhism. I do this in order to empower you in your Dharma practice and in your teaching. My teaching style alternates from relaxed and conversational where I ask you questions to didactic where I share information.

BIOGRAPHY 

I was born in 1962 and started meditating in 1979. My first Dharma teacher, Jack Engler, said, “you have to be someone before you can be nobody.” Thus, from the onset of my spiritual path, I have been interested in psychological development alongside awakening. As a gender fluid, queer, white woman of Jewish ancestry, with invisible disabilities, I understand the importance of belonging and the pain of not belonging. I speak intermediary level Spanish.

I was a Buddhist monastic for 28 years. My first monastic teachers were Ajahn Chah and His Holiness Dalai Lama. I became an Anagarika (postulant) in 1989 and received my first nun’s ordination in 1991 in England. I first started teaching Dharma to families in 1989- and ten-day intensive retreats in 1996.

I left formal affiliations with the Ajahn Chah Forest Tradition and returned to the USA as an independent monastic in 2009. The circumstances sensitized me to harmful patterns around power and privilege. Living in monastic communities in different countries for decades showed me several ways that ending of suffering required more than what was available to us from our meditation practices and ethical guidelines; particularly true when individuals were dealing with developmental trauma.

In 2010, I was part of the first dual platform Theravada Bhikkhuni ordination in North America with Ayya Tathaaloka. I co-created a 3-year training combining Dharma study and practice with leadership skills, psychological developmental and community building. I returned to civilian life in 2017.

I have had many teachers, Theravada, Tibetan Buddhist, Non-Buddhist, monastic and lay, and I feel grateful for all of them. Currently, I’m part of the Diamond Approach school – an evolving teaching that leads to the realization of the many dimensions of our human potential and our spiritual nature. My north star is the truth and so I’m more of a Dharma Cayote than a devote. Love and the power of the land teach me and support me every day.

PASSIONS 

CULTIVATING: Inquiry, ceremony, land stewardship, singing, writing, and dancing.

DISMANTLING: White privilege, misogyny, patriarchy, homophobia, and climate chaos.

PUBLISHED WRITING:

Awakening Truth Blog posts

Lions Roar

Inquiry Mind

Rebelle Society

Abhayagiri Reflections

Forest Sangha Newsletter

BOOK COMPLIATIONS

Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master

Knee Deep in Grace: The Extraordinary Life and Teaching of Dipa Ma

Freeing the Heart and Mind

Awakening Presence

Dancing with Dharma

Let the Light Shine

TALKS and GUIDED MEDITATIONS:

Dharma Seed

Awakening Truth

Read more about Awakening Truth here: www.AwakeningTruth.org

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09 December 2022

Why Compassionate Witness?

We live in a divided and increasingly complex society. Together we are experiencing the effects of a global pandemic, isolation, climate chaos, racial tension, hate crimes, political instability, war, disinformation, and more.  The way these compounding stressors impact us, interactive meditation can help us find balance and stability.

 

What is Compassionate Witness?

Compassionate Witness calls upon our shared humanity to embrace suffering. Through  inquiry-based mindfulness offered by team of Awakening Truth teachers, with presence and compassion, stress slowly releases and suffering transforms..

 

Compassionate Witness in practice

We begin with some basic guidelines to create safety and holding. Then offer a guided meditation to allow ourselves to settle. As we feel our bodies more, that invites sensitivity to the vast array of feelings, numbness, joys, and sorrows that may be present. We then make an open invitation for anyone to share about their present moment experience. When someone is speaking we  all practice deep listening, adding to the support and safety of the speaker. An Awakening Truth teacher invites pauses and asks simple questions to facilitate acceptance and letting go. In this way, as one person lets go, the group also can let go; as one heals, many of us heal.

How it evolved

Compassionate Witness  evolved out of the Interactive Inquiry calls we had for many years and more recently in collaboration with Anita Pottekkatt, Sunil Joseph and Brian Smith.

Compassionate Witness events with Awakening Truth

Every first Sunday of every month

9:30am-11:00am Pacific Time, 12:30pm – 2:00pm Eastern Time.

Zoom link here: Passcode: 082690

Next one will be January 1, 2023.

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