Ayya Santussika, in residence at Karuna Buddhist Vihara (Compassion Monastery), spent five years as an anagarika (eight-precept nun), then ordained as a samaneri (ten-precept nun) in 2010 and as a bhikkhuni (311 rules) in 2012 at Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles.
Ayya Santussika was born in Illinos in 1954 and grew up on a farm in Indiana. While being a single mother, she received BS and MS degrees in computer science and moved with her two children to the San Francisco Bay Area. She worked as a software designer and developer for fifteen years. Her search for deeper meaning and ways to be of service led her to train as an interfaith minister in a four-year seminary program that culminated in an Masters of Divinity degree and a brief period of practice as a minister before ordaining as a Buddhist nun. She is currently serving on the Board of Directors for Buddhist Global Relief.
As we develop generosity, moral virtue, meditation and wisdom, our lives become simpler and we become more and more trustworthy. We become less entangled and at some point, we awaken to fully living the Dhamma.
With the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as the framework, we reflect on what we believe to be ourselves and use mindfulness practices to see ourselves more clearly in relation to the body, feelings/emotions, thoughts and Dhamma. In doing this, we untangle our attachments to self and discover who we really are.
