NUNS INITIATIVE – AN OVERVIEW
Through our Nuns Initiative, established in 2019, Cloud Mountain is dedicating more of our retreat schedule to hosting retreats led by fully ordained nuns (bhikkhunis) and former female monastics. By doing so, it is our hope to fulfill the following goals:
- To ensure that our retreats continue to be led by highly qualified and realized teachers.
- To continue to offer retreats that are solidly rooted in Buddhadharma.
- To support momentum toward greater modern-day gender equality in the oldest Buddhist institution, Theravadin Buddhist monasticism.
- To fulfill the Buddha’s aspiration to maintain the Fourfold Sangha (nuns, monks, lay women and lay men).
Cloud Mountain is offering quite a few retreats annually with bhikkhunis and ex-nuns in order to provide a forum for the extraordinary depth of practice that exists within the women’s monastic and ex-monastic community. Many of the meditation teachings being offered in our culture are becoming untethered from the Buddha’s foundational teachings. This is not the direction in which Cloud Mountain wishes to head. We wish to support teachings solidly grounded in the fullness of the Buddhadharma.
Part of our response to this state of affairs is to strongly support and foster the voices of self-identified female and non-binary monastics. It is an extraordinary gift to receive teachings from those whose lives have been unconditionally dedicated to Buddhist practice and who have attained deep understanding and realization. We honor the brave commitment of the women who have challenged the Theravadin Buddhist patriarchy to take full monastic vows, and are deeply grateful that they make the depth and breadth of their many years of practice, understanding and cultivation available to us. These women have been a woefully underutilized resource in modern Dharma in both the East and West, and it is our intention to help change that by bringing their voices to the forefront at Cloud Mountain.
If you wish to support the Nuns Initiative through a financial gift, you can donate through our Donation Form. If you wish to offer other kinds of support to this project, please email us at info@cloudmountain.org.
To read more about the Nuns Initiative, the attached pdf provides in-depth discussion of its nature and aspirations.
Links to a variety of bhikkhuni communities and groups:
Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project (Great Britain)
Dhammadarini/Aranya Bodhi (California)
Dhammasara Nuns Community (Australia)
Mahāpajāpati Monastery (California)
Padukka Mathika Matha Bhikkhuni Aramaya (Sri Lanka)
Sati Saraniya Hermitage (Canada)
Treasure Human Life Foundation (Ven. Dr. Pannavati Bhikkhuni, North Carolina)