Affiliated Teachers
Ajahn Sujato
Lokanta Vihara (NSW)
Ajahn 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.
Ajahn Sujato has written several books including “A Swift Pair of Messengers” and “A History of Mindfulness”. In 2005, Bhante Sujato co-founded the Buddhist website SuttaCentral along with Rod Bucknell and John Kelly, to provide access to early Buddhist texts in their original language and make translations available in modern languages. After being unable to secure copyright-free digital translations of the Pali Canon for SuttaCentral, Bhante Sujato moved to the island of Chimei, off the coast of Taiwan, to undertake the task of creating English translations of the four, living there from 2015 to 2018. These translations have since been published on SuttaCentral, and as free edition books.
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.
~ Adapted from the Wikipedia article
Click here for Ajahn Sujato’s BSWA Teachings
Ajahn Nissarano
Newbury Buddhist Monastery / The Buddhist Society of Victoria
Ajahn Nissarano was born in Perth in 1952. After completing an arts degree, he worked in libraries for 20 years. From an early age he has had an interest in spiritual teachings, and has been involved with a number of different traditions such as Quakers, yoga, T.M. and Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh. During this period he encountered Buddhism, and in 1983, attended his first Buddhist meditation retreat run by the Tibetan Buddhist Society and thus became involved with the Hayagriva Centre in Perth. In late 1983 he started regularly attending the Buddhist Society of Western Australia (BSWA) at its previous location in Magnolia Street, North Perth. His most important Buddhist teachers have been Ajahn Jagaro, Ajahn Brahm, Ayya Khema and Bhante Gunaratana (Bhante G). In 1994, he stayed for six months at Bodhinyana Monastery, and the experience inspired him to return in 1996 to seek ordination. In March 1997, he was ordained as a novice monk and a year later he took full ordination. 2021 is his 24th year as a fully ordained Buddhist monk. In June 2006, he travelled to Sri Lanka and stayed there for almost 14 years. During that period he spent eight years living in a cave on the side of a beautiful mountain, surrounded by forest and going for alms round to the village below. It was an idyllic experience, though not without its challenges, that he will always treasure. In November 2019 he returned to Australia to teach at the Buddhist Society of Victoria. In July 2020, he spent the Rains Retreat at Newbury Buddhist Monastery, about 90 km from Melbourne. In January 2021, with the blessing of Ajahn Brahm, he became the resident Senior Monk at Newbury Buddhist Monastery, which has now become his base. Nevertheless, he still hopes to maintain his connection with Sri Lanka, and to pay short visits to Sri Lanka when opportunities arise.
Click here for Ajahn Nissarano’s BSWA Teachings
Ayya Karunika
Santi Forest Monastery (NSW)
Bhikkhuni Ayya Kārunikā has recently been appointed as the Abbot of the Santi Forest Monastery, NSW, Australia. She is also the spiritual director for New Zealand Bhikkhuni Sangha Trust, Hamilton. She has been in monastic life for over 15 years and she received her full ordination as a bhikkhunī in 2014 at Dhammasara Nuns monastery in Western Australia where she lived and trained for over a decade with Ajahn Hāsapaññā. She has been a student of Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Brahmali for over 2 decades.
Ayya Kārunikā is able to articulate the Buddhist teachings in a way that is practical and comprehensible to people of all ages and has experience in conducting retreats for both adults and youth. While she has a PhD in Microbiology and worked as a scientist, she has also been the building project manager for the construction of the Dhammasara Nuns Monastery main building complex and has worked with many volunteers over the years. Ayya Kārunikā was born in Sri Lanka but has been living and working in Australia for over 2 decades.
She has a passion to share her experience and knowledge and loves working with people and also doing creative projects. She is dedicated to supporting the growth of Bhikkhunis around the world and is currently involved in projects to support the establishment of places for Bhikkhunis in Theravada forest tradition in Australia, New Zealand, Poland and Sri Lanka.
Click here for Ayya Karunika’s BSWA Teachings
Ajahn Canda
Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project (UK)
Please see here for Ajahn Canda’s bio: https://anukampaproject.org/about/#director
Click here for Ajahn Canda’s Teachings available on the BSWA website
Ajahn Nitho
DNBF (Norway)
After finishing high school, a year at the University of Bergen, a Bachelor’s degree at NHH (The Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration), a few years working as a CFO and two years of global backpacking, Ajahn Nitho went to Australia in 2007 to be ordained as a Buddhist monk), under Ajahn Brahm and the Buddhist Forest tradition that came out of Thailand. It was Ajahn Chah who ordained and mentored many Westerners, including Ajahn Brahm in the forest tradition. After one year as an Anagarika (postulant) and one year as a Samanera (novice), Ajahn Nitho took higher ordination as a bhikkhu (monk) in 2009. After more than 10 years of training as a bhikkhu, he decided to return to Norway as a senior monk. Today, both Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Ganha (in Thailand) are his mentors and spiritual masters.
Click here for Ajahn Nitho’s BSWA Teachings
Ajahn Khemavaro
Wat Buddha Dhamma (NSW)
Ajahn Khemavaro was born in Vietnam in 1966. At the age of nine he moved with his family to live in California, USA. He obtained his BA in Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College, USA. Except for a brief stint as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger, West Africa, most of his jobs have been in the banking/finance sector.
While working as a stockbroker in Bangkok he became interested in Buddhism and meditation. He began his monastic training at Wat Pah Nanachat (International Forest Monastery) Ubon Thailand in 1999, and was ordained as a Bhikkhu in Ajahn Chah’s Tradition in 2000. Inspired by Ajahn Brahm’s light-hearted yet profound Dhamma talks, he asked to come to Perth to train at Bodhinyana Monastery, where he stayed for eight years.
Since 2005, Ajahn Khemavaro has lead retreats in Singapore, USA, Norway, and Australia. Currently, he is the Abbot of Wat Buddha Dhamma, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales.