Venerable Bhikkhunī Tathālokā Mahā Therī
Dhammadharini Founding Abbess & Preceptor
Short Bio (longer bio below)
Venerable (Ayyā) Tathālokā is an American-born member of the Buddhist Monastic Sangha. She entered monastic life more than thirty years ago, and received full bhikkhunī upasampadā ordination with the Sri Lankan Sangha in California in 1997, with the late Ven. Havanpola Ratanasāra Mahāthera as preceptor. In 2005 she cofounded Dhammadharini Support Foundation together with the first monastic community for Theravāda bhikkhunīs in the Americas. Inspired by Buddhist Forest traditions, in 2008, she cofounded Aranya Bodhi Hermitage on the Sonoma Coast, and later Dhammadharini Monastery in the Sonoma Mountain area of Northern California. In 2009, she became the first contemporary western woman to be appointed a bhikkhunī preceptor. Ven. Tathālokā first received instruction in Mindfulness and Insight practices at age ten, later studying and training with Indian, Korean, Thai, Sri Lankan and Burmese meditation teachers, including the Thai forest traditions emerging from the most venerable Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta and the Burmese Vipassana meditation masters Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa-auk Sayadaw. Her practice and teaching are profoundly influenced by the Buddha’s teachings as contained in the canonical Early Buddhist suttas, together with the teachings and practices of Forest and Insight meditation traditions.
Medium-length Bio
In 1988, at age nineteen, urgently inspired by the sudden death of an associate, she left her Pre-naturopathic Medical studies in university and made her way first to Europe and then on to India, entering monastic life as an anagarika and two years later undertaking ten-precept nuns' ordination as a novice. Wishing to connect with the ancient lineage of the Bhikkhuni Sangha, she sought and found her female mentor in Buddhist monastic life in South Korea, the most venerable bhikkhuni elder Myeong Seong Sunim (和法界 明星,), who gave her the name "Tatha-aloka" (Sino-Korean: 如光), under whose guidance she trained for ten years. Venerable Tathaloka Theri received the “going forth” (pabbajja, 出家) and took dependency (nissaya) with her bhikkhuni mentor (nissaya acariya 恩師) in 1993, and undertook the samaneri precepts (沙彌尼戒) with the late most venerable Mountain Forest Meditation Tradition bhikkhu masters Hye Am Sunim (慧菴堂 性觀大宗師) as Preceptor and Il Tah Sunim (日陀大師) as Acariya in 1995. Her grandmaster (bhikkhuni mentor's preceptor) was the late most venerable "Compassionate Cloud" Ja Un Sunim (慈雲堂盛祐大律師), the preeminent Vinaya master who reordained in Sri Lanka, before widely serving as preceptor for the revival of the Korean monastic Sangha in the 20th century.
Returning to the United States in early 1996, with her bhikkhuni mentor's blessings, in 1997 in Los Angeles, with an international gathering of bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, Dharma teachers and supporters in attendance, she received bhikkhuni upasampada from the Sri Lankan bhikkhu sangha led by her preceptor (upajjhaya), the late Chief Prelate of the Western Hemisphere, Most Venerable Dr. Havanpola Ratanasara Nayaka Mahathero. Since then Venerable Tathaloka has focused on meditation and on both the study and and practice of Dhamma & Vinaya. Her meditation training in Theravada Buddhism has been largely with the masters of the Thai forest traditions stemming from Ven Ajahn Mun Buridatta: Luang Ta Maha Bua Nyanasampanno and teachers of the Ajahn Chah tradition, together with the Burmese mindfulness and insight masters of Sayadaw U Pandita's tradition and meditation master Pa-auk Sayadaw. Her Path practice has also been deeply inspired and greatly supported by the late most venerable Webu Sayadawgyi and the teachings of the most venerable Kathukurunde Nyanananda. The late Phra Mahaghosananda of Cambodia and the venerable Rashtrapal Thero of India have also been significant exemplars. Overall, her practice and teachings are profoundly influenced by the Buddha's own advice and injunctions as contained in the canonical Early Buddhist suttas.
Recognizing the growing number of Theravadin bhikkhunis and samaneris in the United States and the true value of coming together in harmony, Ayya Tathaloka proposed and participated in the founding of the North American Bhikkhuni Association (NABA) in 2005. Several months later, she also participated in founding the first residential community for bhikkhunis in the United States named "Dhammadharini", together with the founding of the Dhammadharini Support Foundation. Not long after, she became a senior monastic advisor for the newly formed Alliance for Bhikkhunis, founded by Susan Pembroke. For her groundbreaking work, in 2006, Ven Tathaloka was awarded as an "Outstanding Woman in Buddhism" at the United Nations in Bangkok.
Ven Tathaloka Theri's primary role is as the founding abbess and preceptor of both the Dhammadharini Monastery (Dhammadharini Sonomagiri Bhikkhuni Arama) at the western foot of Sonoma Mountain in Penngrove and the Aranya Bodhi Awakening Forest Hermitage on the Sonoma Coast in Northern California, where she provides Dhamma and meditation teaching and guidance and monastic mentorship in conjunction with vice-abbess and co-teacher Ven Sobhana Theri and assisting teacher Ven Suvijjana Bhikkhuni. She also teaches regularly around the greater San Francisco Bay Area, in other states in the US, and internationally, most often in Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Canada.