We are delighted to announce that North Sydney Yoga will host Ayya Yeshe for an exceptional afternoon in September 2023. Ayya is a mindfulness teacher and socially engaged Buddhist nun of 22 years. They are also a student of Thich Nhat Hanh (Nobel peace prize nominee) and the Dalai Lama. They run a charity empowering poor ex “untouchable” Dalit women and children in Nagpur, central India.
The workshop/talk part of the event is about embodied spirituality & indigenous wisdom – based on Buddhism and the Native American Medicine wheel. Learn about the directions and stages of life, how Native Americans live life in a sacred and dignified way connected to the earth, nature, the sacred and community and your sacred connection to nature and animal archetypes, finding your true calling and rights of passage and managing thoughts to find more peace and in inner freedom. This is based on authentic traditional philosophy from both the Native American medicine wheel and the Buddhist eightfold path (also a complete spiritual path with many parallels to the medicine wheel). Re-write your destiny.
About Ayya Yeshe
Coming to India in 2004, Venerable Yeshe studied for two years in a monastery but felt a need to make Buddhism accessible 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 is an engaging speaker, and as someone who was once a street kid, lived in India for 17 years, and whose story has been published by Harper Collins and the Sydney Morning Herald will add altruism and value to our yoga studio and community.
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 also made a Buddhist chanting CD with one of Australia’s top world music groups – India Jiva, called ‘Dakini’.
Today, she runs a monastery in Tasmania, the Bodhicitta Monastery. They are focusing on bringing the modern world and the Buddhist philosophies and other traditions together. It is a place where Western monastics can come and receive training and make retreats, as well as lay people and those interested in monastic life.
The Bodhicitta Foundation NGO works in India and other developing countries to empower mainly women and children with education, job skills, human rights, health and well-being. We have a range of projects such as women’s job training, girl’s home and education facilities and so forth.
More about the Bodhicitta Monastery here.
Click here to know more about the Bodhicitta Foundation’s work and engagement
And watch Ayya’s videos here.
