A Nun's Perspective:

Ven. Ariya Nyani

Starting July 21, 2004, Ven. Ariya Nyani – a Swiss nun from the Mahasi tradition – will teach through late September at The Forest Refuge, together with Myoshin Kelley. Ariya Nyani and Myoshin first met over a decade ago while practicing under renowned meditation master Ven. Sayadaw U Janaka’s guidance at his monastery in Yangon, Burma. Their teachings will be offered immediately following Saydaw U Janaka’s visit.

Ariya Nyani is the first nun from the Burmese Mahasi Sayadaw tradition Theravada Buddhism to teach for an extended period at IMS. (Nuns from the Thai Forest tradition teach on a regular basis at The Retreat Center.)

Originally intending to ordain for just a few months in 1992 with Sayadaw U Janaka, she has remained happily in Burma as a nun for most of the last 12 years. Since 1996 she has taken care of foreign yogis practicing at Sayadaw’s forest center in Hmawbi, Burma, translating for them in interviews, conducting interviews herself and providing general assistance for their retreat programs. In 1999, she was invited to teach in the West – something she has continued to offer. In a recent conversation with Myoshin, Ariya Nyani outlined what she likes to emphasize in her teaching.

For insight to arise and wisdom to develop it is important that mindfulness is constant, precise and yet relaxed. So it is helpful to cultivate a continuity of awareness throughout the day, throughout all the different body postures and activities. For a vipassana meditator, there shouldn’t be any division or discrimination between the ‘ three parts’ – sitting, walking and mindfulness of daily activities– but one steady flow of mindfulness.”

In her own practice, she has found this continuity particularly helpful. “ It was during my first ten-day retreat with Sayadaw U Janaka in Australia in 1991 that I came to understand and realize the value of establishing an unbroken awareness for the whole day. It was only then that I really started to meditate. This constant awareness of what is happening in the present moment held the entire practice together and led me to much deeper levels of concentration and mindfulness, resulting in a more profound understanding,” she explained. “I have also observed that this training in uninterrupted mindfulness proves to be immensely helpful when people leave the retreat environment and return to normal, worldly life.”