Nuns (Bhikkhunis)

I've been interested in Buddhism

for a long time and have visited Dharmaloka a few times over the years I've lived in Perth.

Ajhan Brham makes me laugh, his english sense of humor is great and hes a realy nice fellow.

At some point in the last few years I met Ajhan Vayama.

I actually heard her first , shes the main chanter on the Dharmaloka Friday night chanting MP3

To be very honest I cant recall the first time I met her clearly but it was up at Dhamaloka on a Saturday , she was up there with one of the other sisters and they where chanting the Metta Sutta for a lady.

When she had finished talking to the nice older lady , I said to her "hey are you the lady chanting on the MP3 ?"

She smiled and said she was one of them yes , and we proceeded to chat for a few minutes.

She has an amazing aura of peace about her one cannot help but feel calm in her presence.

I didn't know that when I met her she wasn't a fully ordained nun ,I don't think it ever occurred to me that Bhikkhuni ordination was such a big deal.

I guess she was a Bhikkhuni to me because i didn't know any better.

I had previously met Venerable Losang Chodron somewhere and Seen a number of Japanese Nuns in my visit to Japan.

I was unaware that the Theravada tradition was any different in its attitude to the ordination of Women than The Mahayana tradition.

So I was very happy for Ajhan Vayama when she and her sisters at Dhammasara became fully ordained nuns.

I happened to be in Melbourne the weekend afterwards and I deduced that Venerable Sucinta might have been involved in in ordination so I decided to go and visit her and thank her for helping make this historic event happen.

I spent about 2 hours at her Bikkhuni Residence in Suburban Melbourne.

http://www.sanghamittarama.org.au/

In parting she said perhaps we would meet again , I replied I would be happy to see her again she was a lovely lady and she made me smile.