Ajahn Thanasanti

Ajahn Thanasanti was born in California. She was first introduced to Buddhism and insight meditation in 1979 in a class taught by Jack Engler. From that time she consciously committed to awakening and envisioned living her life as a nun.

After completing a BA in Biology from UC Santa Cruz, she worked for a few years as an analytical chemist. In 1987 she went on a pilgrimage to India, Nepal and Thailand to meet many of the meditation masters she had heard about.

She joined Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in 1989 as a part of the community of nuns to begin training as a novice and began integrating the meditation practice with the daily duties of a nun at both Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist Monasteries in England. She received ordination in 1991.

As part of her monastic life she has spent extensive time in retreat in the remote bush of Australia.

For the last several years Ajahn Thanasanti has been involved in the leadership team and guidance of the nuns' community at Chithurst. Since 1996 her community and monastic responsibilities have been interspersed with teaching intensive meditation retreats in the US, UK, Switzerland and Australia.

In order to pursue her vision of how monastic and lay practitioners can work together in the modern world to create viable communities for practice in the United States, she has taken the significant step of letting go of the formal affiliations of Amaravati and associated monastic communities. She will be living on faith according to the ancient principle of alms mendicancy and will be based initially in Colorado Springs. Her interests are in awakening compassion and wisdom to integrate insight into the whole human condition. She uses essential Buddhist and non-dual teachings, devotional practices and respect for nature as skillful means.