Ajahn Vayama

The former abbess of Dhammasara Nuns Monastery is Ajahn Vayama, an Australian Bhikkhuni, was ordained in Sri Lanka in 1985.  She spent the first ten years of her monastic life there. Ajahn afterwards spent a year with the community of Ajahn Sumedho, a disciple of Ajahn Chah, at Amaravati Monastery in England, before returning to live in Australia.

In 1998 the Buddhist Society of Western Australia invited her to take up the position of Abbess of the Dhammasara Nun's Monastery. She lived there from 1998 to 2010. The life of the monastery, the daily offering of the meal by devoted lay supporters, and teaching of the Dhamma by Ajahn Vayama, continued during that time. Over the years Ajahn Vayama gave numerous talks to the lay community at Dhammaloka Buddhist Centre. Her recordings are widely available on the Internet. Apart form giving daily Dhamma talks at her monastery and offering personal councelling/interviews to the lay community there, she also taught in prisons, attending to the ill and dying in hospital and held wedding and funeral services.

At her monastery the first trainee nun, Anagarika Elisabeth, upon completing her two years training, became ordained as sister Nirodha in May 2003. She thereby became the first Theravada nun to be ordained in Western Australia. Venerable Seri was ordained in July 2004. And Venerable Hasapanna was ordained in May 2006. Venerable Mudita was the first Perth-born nun to be ordained at her monastery.

Ajahn Vayama has also been very active in making full Bhikkuni ordination available at Dhammasara Monastery. In traditional Theravadan Buddhist countries the female Sangha has died out over the centuries, leaving only a handful of 10-precept (lesser) nuns and Mai-Chees living the monastic life. She is a keen proponent of the restoration of the ancient Bhikkuni tradtion established by the Buddha two and a half thousand years ago. Ajahn Vayama and her nuns were ordained as full Bhikkhunis in October 2009.

While monastery facilities have grown and the Sangha has increased considerably, Ajahn has stepped back from here role as abbess in 2010. Formally housed in ideal conditions by a lay disciple Ajahn receives medical treatment for Cerebellar Degeneration and is concentrating on her personal practice, assisted by her assistant, Venerable Seri.