Dhammadharini  ❧ Women Upholding the Dhamma

The Vision

Welcome, good lady; you are not unwelcome. The wise come this way... 

-- The Buddha to Sundari Theri,  Therigatha 

Welcome to Dhammadharini. We hope that you enjoy this site, and find many good things being here. Our goal is to support and uplift one another, as sangha. We aim to do this for a pillar Buddhism — the  women's monastic community, the Bhikkhuni Sangha. Having this pillar strong and sound will strengthen the entire Fourfold Assembly of the Buddha. By providing the conditions for women's awakening, we manifest the Buddha's own awakened intention for our Sangha, healing and making the community whole, including the masculine and feminine, householder and monastic.

Our women's monastic community  and not-for-profit religious support foundation are named Dhammadharini. 

Our symbol is a bodhi leaf (Bodhi meaning Awakening and the leaf symbolizing our embodiment) supported and uplifted by three flowing currents in the stream of the Dhamma: 

❧ our training in sīla - virtue
❧  samādhi - meditation
❧  pañña - wisdom

Our monastic residences 
in Northern California 
 
in the Sonoma Mountain area 
of Penngrove
 
in the mountain forest 
on the Sonoma Coast



Welcome to Dhammadharini

 Emerging from Winter Retreat in the time of Coronavirus
read the news from our Bhikkhunis' community

from our Bhikkhunis and the International Maha Sangha
"Buddhism in the time of COVID" 

 join our Dhammadharini Bhikkhunis' community for our first live online retreat led by meditation teacher Ven. Bhikkhuni Sobhana Theri 
Guided Metta Meditation Online Retreat 

read now:
Dhamma Dana ebook offerings from our Bhikkhuni Sangha
Let the Light Shine
 Leaving It All Behind
  Refuge 


"According to the Buddha’s teaching, our best chance for enlightenment is not in a heavenly realm, but here in midst of elements and aggregates, within these bodies which age and sicken, among the earth, rain, wind, fire and consciousness elements. We wake up here, not in another ideal place. This is the ideal place." 

 - Ven. (Ayya) Tathaloka Theri, 
Dhammadharini Founding Teacher 
& Preceptor

Our mission

Founded by Ayya Tathaloka & friends in 2005, Dhammadharini was first in the Western United States to offer a support network for bhikkhunis in Theravada Buddhism.  Our monastics have served as a vanguard & continue to deepen and refine their skill in nurturing an awakening and awakened Sangha. 

Liberation. To develop the optimal container for liberation in monastic life — complete in Dhamma & Vinaya, in virtue, meditation and wisdom.

Requisite Support. To channel and provide the basic requisite needs for bhikkhunis, novices and aspirants: food, shelter, robes and medicine.

Reviving "Her-story." To reconnect to the ancient luminary bhikkhuni leaders, teachers and sanghas of the past through research, publications, teaching and education.

Full Bhikkhuni Ordination. to nurture and cultivate networks by which aspiring women can explore and enter into monastic life, and be able to fully ordain as bhikkhunis.

Recluseship/Deep Practice. To support deep practice periods of intensive secluded retreat, integrated with the cultivation of strong mindfulness in all postures, and full practice of the noble Eightfold Path in daily community life.

Dhamma Teaching and Leadership. To support the growth of bhikkhunis as Dhamma teachers and Buddhist community leaders.

In Pali, the language of the earliest Buddhist texts, Dhammadharini means "to uphold the Dhamma in the feminine form".