Name: Aranya Bodhi
Item: Aranya Bodhi
Author: Send an Enquiry

Aranya Bodhi is a hermitage for monastic women practicing in the Theravada forest tradition. It is a secluded natural setting, perfect for the reclusive life and meditation.

In 2015 we welcome residential visits of a month or longer, to include periods of service and times for meditation and Dhamma study. This is ideal for one who wishes to experience the Theravada bhikkhuni form of practice … who has experienced the transformative power of Vipassana meditation … who loves the forest and practicing in nature … and who is a monastic woman, a monastic life aspirant or an ally of the re-born women’s monastic sangha.

To protect the meditative space, we ask our friends to contact us before visiting. There is an application process, and when possible we ask new people to first come for a day visit or a few days.

The rustic facilities and reality of the rugged and wild forest environment are challenging for some. However, visitors over the past year have noted the large and small improvements to our physical setting. Gone now are the old trailers that were so difficult to keep clean, dry and safe. They have been replaced by new buildings of standard construction that have taken us safely through a rainy winter season. The challenges of mold, mildew, rain and rodents that marked our first few years are well resolved with these new and easy to maintain structures.

There is pure potable water on-tap, expanded solar electric capacity, and kitchen and shower facilities that look and feel like an ordinary home in town … except that one can step out the door and be in the deep silence of a magnificent forest.

All this progress with the physical set-up has allowed us to pause on construction projects, leaving our daily life more balanced and quiet. The time available for supported personal retreat is gradually increasing. Besides our daily formal practice, there are monthly new moon day-long retreats; alms round in Sebastopol twice a month. For fun and inspiration, a few of us are creating a Dhammapada study guide, translating, analyzing and reflecting on one verse per day.

There is regular intervisitation with the Dhammadharini Vihara in Santa Rosa, and many women find it fruitful to alternate periods at Aranya Bodhi with periods at the Dhammadharini Vihara. More information about visiting the Vihara is here.

Among the forest redwoods and high meadows of the California Sonoma Coast, a vibrant new community of Buddhist monastic women has taken root. It is a hermitage given the Pali name Aranya Bodhi, which means Awakening Forest. A generous donor offered the use of this land to Ayya Tathaaloka Theri several years ago, with the aspiration to make a forest meditation hermitage for Theravada bhikkhunis (fully ordained female monastics) and like-minded women.

This aspiration has become a reality through inspired leadership, the friendship of the Bhikkhu Sangha, the commitment of monastic women, and the help of many donors.

We invite your participation in developing this new community. The Theravada Bhikkhuni Sangha is still in its tender stage. Only a few of the Bhikkhunis have acquired the spiritual power that comes from decades of monastic training, and there are not enough practice communities for women seeking to enter monastic life.

Your nurturing help will make a great impact for the welfare of women, and the preservation of Buddhism in the modern world.

If you have considered becoming a Steward at Aranya Bodhi, whether for a week, a month, or longer, this is a good time to arrange it. Stewardship is ideal if you feel your practice could benefit from following a monastic lifestyle of devotion, meditation and service, and you feel happy to live in rustic "camping" type conditions. It is for monastic life aspirants, meditators, and whoever appreciates the Bhikkhuni Sangha and wants to help.

We would like for there to regularly be three women residents who can participate in the tasks that bhikkhunis are restrained by the Vinaya from doing ... tasks such as driving, using money, cooking, storing food, digging, and cutting plants. The most essential work is not very strenuous; strong physical work is offered for whoever has the ability and enjoyment of it.

If you would like to stay for an extended visit, please come for a day visit first. We need to meet each other, to get to know you, for you to get to know us and our forest.

After your day visit, you are welcome to apply to visit us for a few days. If this works out for you and for us, then an extended stay can be considered.

Our Daily Schedule:

Our goal is for all residents to be able to balance their work practice with time to be in stillness.

Almost every day is bookended with communal chanting and meditation, with time reserved for silent meditation from early evening through the night and early morning. Daily chores are done in the morning up to 1:00 pm. Afternoons are protected for personal maintenance, study, and time to be in the forest. Tea-time is our chance to discuss the Dhamma.

On our quiet days (see calendar), there are no formal programs.

Visitors are asked to:
* observe the 8 renunciate/monastic precepts
* participate in daily periods of chanting
* listening to, reading and discussing the Buddha's teaching (Dhamma)
* participate in communal times of meditation
* participate in mindful hermitage caretaking work
* be in harmony together with hermitage residents.

Our climate may seem very different to those who have not been to the northern California coastline. Summers are very cool and misty. Winters are mild and rainy.

The temperature can vary from 50 degrees to 95 in a single morning depending on your location and the time of year. Most of our areas do not have electricity, please be sure to have a flashlight.

Though we don't often see them, we share this land with a cougar, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, venomous snakes, scorpions and many other friends. Our native flora includes poison oak. If you've never seen poison oak, please ask one of us to identify it for you so you can avoid it on the trails.
You will need to bring:

long thermal under clothing, sandals and a change of shoes with good traction
(wet weather shoes during winter)
a sunhat and/or sunscreen for the sunny areas
some warm layers for the cooler forested areas
flashlight with batteries
alarm clock or watch
sheets or sleeping bag liner, and pillow case
cold weather sleeping bag or blanket (we have some to lend)
a pillow
a towel
cushion and blanket for sitting meditation
sitting mat for outside
personal medicine and supplements
personal supplies for washing up.

A more comprehensive list of useful things may be provided with your application.

Aranya Bodhi

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