Ayya Santussika

Ayya Santussika became seriously interested in spiritual practice when her father died suddenly in 1996. She joined an interfaith community and trained to be a minister in their four-year seminary program. This training culminated in her receiving a Master of Divinity degree in 2002 and practicing as a minister. During her ministry training, she also found the Thai Forest Tradition through her son, who became a monk in the Ajahn Chah lineage. Many visits to forest monasteries and master teachers gave her a good foundation for Dhamma practice. In 2005, she took robes, and went on to train in large and small monasteries in both England and America. In 2012, she received full ordination as a bhikkhuni and founded Karuna Buddhist Vihara (KBV), located in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Boulder Creek, California. Besides the forest monastery, KBV also has a meditation center in Sunnyvale. Ayya Santussika’s Dhamma teachings are primarily based on the Pali suttas.

• Visit Ayya Santussika’s website
• Listen to archived Dharma Seed talks