Coming up on September 6th, we will honor the Bhikkhuni community with International Bhikkhuni Day. With this year’s IBD, we celebrate the end of an incredibly auspicious year—the 2600th year of the Bhikkhuni Sangha. We take this time to recognize the incredible blessings that the Bhikkhunis bring to this world, remember and honor their long history, and look forward to how we can support them in the future.
In recent months, Friends of Aloka Vihara co-founder Mindy Zlotnick has been performing an incredible service to share the history of the Bhikkhuni lineage, and its revival. Mindy has developed a presentation outlining the history of Bhikkhunis from the time of the Buddha until the present day, including the pioneering women who are helping to revive the bhikkhuni lineage.
Mindy was moved to create the presentation when she originally saw a similar presentation by the Alliance for Bhikkhunis in 2011. She had been meditating in the Theravada tradition for over 25 years at that point, and was surprised that she had never heard this part of the history of the tradition.
The presentation provides an overview of the history of the Buddha’s vision of the four-fold sangha and how women were an integral part of this vision. Because of political and cultural decisions, a strong female monastic presence disappeared for almost 1000 years. The revival of the Bhikkhuni Sangha began about 30 years ago and has now spread throughout the world.
Mindy has been offering this presentation live to groups throughout the US, helping to bring this history and the story of the bhikkhuni lineage to an ever-larger audience, and to raise funds to support Aloka Vihara and the Alliance for Bhikkhunis.
A recording of the presentation is available below – watching this with your sangha could be a great way of honoring IBD!
If you are interested in scheduling a live presentation to your group, please contact Mindy—she has plans to be in Northern California and New England over the next year, but is open to connecting with any sangha that is interested.
Celebrate the 7th International Bhikkhuni Day
Coming up on September 6th, we will honor the Bhikkhuni community with International Bhikkhuni Day. With this year’s IBD, we celebrate the end of an incredibly auspicious year—the 2600th year of the Bhikkhuni Sangha. We take this time to recognize the incredible blessings that the Bhikkhunis bring to this world, remember and honor their long history, and look forward to how we can support them in the future.
In recent months, Friends of Aloka Vihara co-founder Mindy Zlotnick has been performing an incredible service to share the history of the Bhikkhuni lineage, and its revival. Mindy has developed a presentation outlining the history of Bhikkhunis from the time of the Buddha until the present day, including the pioneering women who are helping to revive the bhikkhuni lineage.
Mindy was moved to create the presentation when she originally saw a similar presentation by the Alliance for Bhikkhunis in 2011. She had been meditating in the Theravada tradition for over 25 years at that point, and was surprised that she had never heard this part of the history of the tradition.
The presentation provides an overview of the history of the Buddha’s vision of the four-fold sangha and how women were an integral part of this vision. Because of political and cultural decisions, a strong female monastic presence disappeared for almost 1000 years. The revival of the Bhikkhuni Sangha began about 30 years ago and has now spread throughout the world.
Mindy has been offering this presentation live to groups throughout the US, helping to bring this history and the story of the bhikkhuni lineage to an ever-larger audience, and to raise funds to support Aloka Vihara and the Alliance for Bhikkhunis.
A recording of the presentation is available below – watching this with your sangha could be a great way of honoring IBD!
If you are interested in scheduling a live presentation to your group, please contact Mindy—she has plans to be in Northern California and New England over the next year, but is open to connecting with any sangha that is interested.
More information can be found a the Friends of Aloka Vihara webpage >>
Header photo: https://www.photodharma.net/Thailand/Wat-Pho-Murals/Wat-Pho-Murals.htm