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Ayyā Suvīrā is Buddhist nun (bhikkhunī). She received higher ordination as a bhikkhuni in 2019 with Ayya Santini as preceptor, and is currently resident at Mettārāma Nuns’ Monastery in Harris Park. She had previously contributed to the development of the nuns’ education program at Newbury Buddhist Monastery, where she taught both monastic and lay audiences. At present, she is a respondent for the Metta Centre’s “Ask a Buddhist” Program, as well as contributing to the community as Buddhist representative to Rookwood Cemetary and Catholic Cemetaries and Crematoria. With the support of Bhante Sujato and Tina Ng and team of the Metta Centre/Mettārāma working group, she is continuing the vision of the Mettārāma project to provide an urban residence for nuns in Sydney.
Ayyā Suvīrā speaks English and Mandarin.
Ayya Yeshe Bodhicitta ordained as a nun in 2001. She discovered Buddhism whilst travelling in Nepal and India at the age of 17 on a search for the meaning of life. Coming back to Australia after a year of study and practice in monasteries, she helped run a Buddhist Centre in Sydney and trained with her teacher Khenpo Ngawang Dhamchoe for five years whilst working as well.
Upon ordaining as a nun at the age of 23 Venerable Yeshe, found like the majority of Western monastics before her that there was very little care or support for Western monastics, people preferring to access Tibetan Lamas who are already trained. She had no where to live and had to beg on traditional alms round to get food, she stayed with various friends and in garden sheds. She engaged in teaching Dharma in HIV hospices, schools, drug and alchohol rehab centres and trained as a yoga teacher.
Coming to India in 2004, Venerable Yeshe studied for two years in a monastery, but felt a need to make Buddhism accessable and socially engaged, whilst still trying to maintain her contemplative way of life. She met Indian Buddhists in 2005 and has been working with them ever since. Her teachers are Sakya Trizen (the second highest Lama in Tibetan Buddhism) and Ven Thich Nhat Hanh, the nobel peace prize poet and peace activist.
Ayya Yeshe Bodhicitta is the author of 'Everyday Enlightenment' published by Harper Collins and is featured in the documentaries 'life beyond the begging bowl' and 'Through the Eastern Gate'. She is also made a Buddhist chanting CD with one of Australia's top world music groups - India Jiva called 'Dakini'.
Akāliko Bhikkhu is the spiritual director of Little Dust. Bhante Akāliko is an Australian monk in the Theravada forest tradition. He is the founder of Rainbodhi LGBTQIA+ Buddhist Community, the spiritual advisor of Central West Buddhists and a chaplain at Western Sydney University. He sits on boards of the Buddhist Council of NSW and the Federation of Australian Buddhist Councils.
Bhante Akāliko received full ordination with Ajahn Brahm at Bodhinyana monastery in 2016 and later lived for several years with Bhante Sujato at the Monastery at the End of the World in Sydney. Bhante Akāliko now lives as a wandering monk, looking for a place to settle and shake off the dust.
Bhante Sujato left a career as a musician to become a Buddhist monk in 1994. He took higher ordination in Thailand and lived there in forest monasteries and remote hermitages. He spent several years at Bodhinyana Monastery in Western Australia before founding Santi Forest Monastery in New South Wales in 2003. Following Bhante Sujato’s wishes, Santi became a nun’s monastery in 2012, and he returned to live in Bodhinyana. In 2019, Bhante Sujato moved to Sydney to establish Lokanta Vihara (the Monastery at the End of the World) with his long term student, Bhante Akaliko, to explore what it means to follow the Buddha’s teachings in an era of climate change, globalised consumerism, and political turmoil.
