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FACE TO FACE | EASTERN HORIZON 25

long retreats anticipated in the near future for the wider
community. The NZBST hopes, when it is possible, to
bring in more bhikkhunī teachers to New Zealand for
the benefit and inspiration of the whole community.

The NZBST also wishes to preserve and encourage a
depth and breadth of the concentration and wisdom
practices available in the Theravāda tradition. A guiding
principle is to preserve a tradition that is wide as the
Higher ordination at Aranya Bodhi Hermitage, California.
sky, as deep as the ocean and as finely grained as the
sand on the sea-shore.

If anyone would like to know more about our
project and how to support, please visit the
website: https://bhikkhuni-sangha.org.nz or email
nz.bhikkhunitrust@gmail.com

My personal vision of the future of the bhikkhunī
Saṅgha in New Zealand.
Higher Ordination, Aranya Bodhi Hermitage, California, with Ayya
Tathaaloka as preceptor.
My own personal vision for the future of the Theravāda
bhikkhunī Saṅgha in New Zealand, is to create the
conditions where the bhikkhunī Saṅgha and the
knowledge and practice of the Dhamma can be
preserved for as long as possible in in light of this time
of environmental degradation.

For this purpose, I have the intermediate term vision
(5-7 years) to bring together a group of interested
Dhamma friends and to purchase a piece of land large
With my mother (the one in blue) and three of our NZBST trustees,
enough to establish a meditation hermitage, especially August 2021.
to give bhikkhunīs the opportunity, so often denied
them, to dedicate themselves to meditation in solitude,
as well as having kutis for serious lay practitioners, a
comprehensive reference library for Buddhist texts
from all traditions and from contemporary disciplines
such as psychology and an associated lay-village. The
plan includes the possibility to be self-sufficient in
terms of food and medicinal herbs if necessary.

New Zealand is an island nation which has enough land
and water and not so many people, and is also relatively
isolated from the rest of the world. Thus I feel that we
have the possibility and the responsibility to preserve the
Dhamma here into the future, when the difficulties of life
in other countries might make this very challenging. EH