The Relational Path of Awakening
an evening with guest teacher
Venerable Ajahn Thansanti
The Buddha taught in a particular social context that was shaped by the traditional society that he was living in. Sometimes it can be a challenge for us to apply and to fully live his teachings in our busy modern life. As we understand the journey from his traditional culture to our current post-modern society, we can come to see human relationship and connection as an imperative, central, and obvious feature for all of us on our spiritual path.
Since 1989, Ajahn Thanasanti has lived as a Buddhist nun, primarily at Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist monasteries in England. In 2000 she took Bodhisattva vows with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and from then on, compassion and relationship with nature became central to her practice. In 2009, she returned to the United States and founded Awakening Truth, a non–profit whose mission is to facilitate ways that monastic and lay practitioners can work together to create community in the modern world.