Dear dhamma friends,

I am delighted to share with you the remarkable and wholly unexpected news that Ajahn Thanasanti was ordained as a Bhikkhuni on Sunday, August 29th in Northern California! She will be sharing a much fuller version of the joyous and wild story herself soon, but I wanted to at least give you a little hint of how this came about.

I picked Sister up at SFO on Friday evening and Saturday morning we drove into a beautiful redwood forest along the Sonoma Coast. We had come to witness the first Bhikkhuni ordination of Western women in the Northern Hemisphere on Sunday afternoon. After the meal, we went to pay our respects to Ayya Tathaaloka, the founder of Dhammadharini and the Aranya Bodhi Hermitage where we were guests. She mentioned she had sent two emails to Sister a month earlier to which she’d never received an answer. The relevant one for this brief recap was a heartfelt invitation from all the Sisters for Ajahn Thanasanti to join them in the ordination! We were both in some shock and I teared up at the obvious warmth and depth of the invitation and the clear opening that it offered Sister (gaining, for example, the authority to ordain). After asking a few key questions and learning that Ayya Tathaaloka was herself the preceptor, that the ordination was conducted by the sisters for the sisters, and that the Bhikkhu contingent that would be in attendance would simply confirm the ordination, Sister excused herself to sit with the redwoods and await her answer. Shortly before the lengthy rehearsal was to begin, Sister returned, radiant and calmly excited, to say Yes, she would join them!

Happily, I was able to call her mom, who of course we wanted to be there (Santa Rosa is just about 1 hr away), and Gwyn Waterfield, her recently-arrived attendant, who were both as shocked, ecstatic, and full of questions as we were. I left a message for Awakening Truth Board President Kathryn Turnipseed and she requested I send the board and advisors a brief accounting myself as soon as I could.

This was an historic event. Among the 100 or so guests were respected lay Vipassana teachers Ruth Dennison and Sylvia Boorstein (representing Jack Kornfield and the Spirit Rock Teachers Council), beloved sisters from Saranaloka in the SF Bay Area (who were so thrilled that Sister would be among the ordainees), Awakening Truth Board member Priyan Guneratne’s beautiful mother (!), and Ajahn Passano, the abbot of Abhayagiri, a Thai Forest monastery in the lineage of Ajahn Chah, from which Ajahn Brahm was expelled for conducting the Bhikkhuni ordination in Australia last year. Ayya Tathaaloka sent emails to Ajahn Passano and the Saranaloka sisters informing them that Ajahn Thanasanti would be among the ordainees in case that might alter their plans to attend. The fact that they came was extremely heartwarming and positive.

There is much to tell and much to absorb. The only cloud was not having all of you in our midst! As this was decided only 24 hrs in advance in a place hours distant from San Francisco with very limited access to the outside world, it was, sadly, impossible to make this happen. Where’s the teleportation technology when we really need it??

I’ve attached a few photos and know you’ll hear from our beloved Bhikkhuni about all this soon! Until then, be amazed and joyous!

Sister right before the ordination, wearing her new robe (that the sisters managed to sew the night before)

Ayya Tathaaloka

Marly Fein (aka Mom) and Sylvia Boorstein

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana and Ajahn Passano at the head of the monastic procession into the yurt

The ground after the monastic procession

Ajahn Thanasanti Bhikkhuni after the monastic confirmation, grinning from ear to ear!

There was a video made of the entire event, which we’ll post as soon as it’s available.

Much metta,

Terry