Mettarama Vision Day

Speakers: Bhante Sujato and Ayya Suvira (Host: Tina Ng)

Collaboration between Mettarama Nuns’ Monastery and Metta Centre

Saturday 21 August 2021 | 9am-10:30am

Via Zoom (link below)

Cost: Free

An urban nuns residence called Therimettarama was born in September 2018 with the intention to support Buddhist nuns, founded by Bom Hyon Sunim and Tina Ng. Since then, Metta Centre has continued to support the nuns’ monastery community, which has gathered support, now has Ayya Suvira as the resident nun, and has adopted a new name: Mettarama Nuns’ Monastery.

Mettārāma Nuns’ Monastery is a place to support renunciant women who are giving their whole lives to the path, to the study and practice of Buddhism, especially of meditation. This in turn will be beneficial for the spiritual development of the lay community, as Buddhist nuns increasingly seek to undertake both traditional and new Dhamma education roles, and provide a solid foundation of mettā (loving-kindness) for the benefit of society and the environment. Mettārāma has the potential to become a ship to “ferry beings across the ocean of suffering.”

We invite you to be a part of this monastery and a movement to support the full participation of Buddhist nuns in practicing and sharing the Buddha’s teachings. Through this Mettarama Vision Day, we are inviting all sections of our community, monastic and lay, to bring your ideas and energy to discuss about our collective mission and plan for Mettārāma. All are welcome to participate: Let’s work for the Buddha’s mission together!

Program:

• Welcome & introduction by the Host
• Short talk by Bhante Sujato
• Short talk by Ayya Suvira
• Facilitated discussion about vision, ideas and action plans
• Next steps
• Dedication of Merits and Closing

About the Speakers:

Bhante Sujato is an Australian Theravanda Buddhist monk ordained in a monastery in Chiang Mai in Thailand during the 1990s. Besides spending 3 years in the Bodhinyana monastery with Ajahn Brahm, he also spent several years in remote hermitages and caves in Thailand in Malaysia. He helped establish the Santi Forest Monastery in Bundanoon, where he was the abbot for many years. As a scholar of early Buddhism, Venerable Sujato has authored several books and essays, and is the founder of SuttaCentral.net, an impressive online collection of early Buddhist texts, attributed to the teachings of the Buddha or his earliest disciples, with translations and commentary available on the site. Venerable Sujato has taught Buddhism and meditation in Australia and internationally such as in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, America, Germany, Norway, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan and many others. Venerable Sujato is now residing at Lokanta Vihara (the Monastery at the End of the World) in Sydney, Australia.

Ayya Suvira is Buddhist nun (bhikkhunī) in the Theravāda tradition and a student of Bhante Sujato. She received the going-forth ordination as a sāmaṇerī in 2016, and higher ordination as a bhikkhunī at Dhammasara Nuns’ Monastery in 2019 with Ayyā Santinī of Indonesia as preceptor and Ajahn Brahm as instructing teacher. At present, she works on Sutta Central related projects dealing with sutta parallels in Sanskrit.

Tina Ng is the Founder and President of the Metta Centre and also the Principal Solicitor of Metta Legal, a law firm that deals with cases relating to family law, child protection, property, civil litigation and guardianship matters. She is an accredited mediator at Metta Resolution, which provides mediation, training and coaching to resolve conflict in the community and within families. Tina has a keen interest in supporting the youth, and has run various mentoring programs through her business and social projects. She has organised various events, has played the role of coordinator, emcee, and auctioneer at charity functions. She has shared the Buddha’s teachings in conferences, talks, workshops, and in her writings.

History of Bhikkhunis: To learn more about the history of Buddhist nuns, you can watch this recording of the Special Event on the History of Bhikkhunis co-hosted by Buddhist Society of Victoria , Newbury Buddhist Monastery and CITYZEN (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDKcn6ZU7s).

Zoom Login details: If you would like to join our session online, just click on this link to access the session: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83506489824?pwd=cmpNQ1ljSmFVYURLWVN1dWllYUN1dz09

Alternatively, you can dial in from your telephone (call charges apply): +61 2 8015 6011 | Meeting ID: 835 0648 9824| Passcode: 718905