Ayya Khema is a very large lady who left at an international level, a memorable impression in the Theravada tradition, especially for nuns.
Recall that the Theravada - the way of the Ancients - is based on the original texts of Buddhism, the "Tripitaka", written ENPALS, the language spoken in India at the time of the Buddha. The familiar terms from Buddhism such as dharma, karma, nirvana sutra, etc.. words are Sanskrit, Pali is the equivalent dhamma, kamma, Nibbana, sutta, we will find below.
Ayya Khema enjoyed a particularly eventful existence, but without having sought it says in his autobiography (Published in English and German) whose title sums up perfectly the simplicity and clarity of his speech: 'I Give You My Life ":" I give you my life. "
Born in Berlin in 1923 to Jewish parents, she had to leave Nazi Germany in 1938 with a transport of two hundred other children and was taken to Glasgow in Scotland. His parents went to China and two years later, Ayya Khema joined them in Shanghai. At the beginning of the war However, the family was put into a prison camp for Japanese war, and that's when his father died.
Four years after the camp was liberated by the Americans, Ayya Khema had the opportunity emigrating to the United States. She knew the life of a housewife between her husband and two children. She felt that something essential was missing, it was the beginning of a long quest that led her to South America, Pakistan, India and finally to Australia where she met the Theravada Buddhist tradition, the way of the Ancients she immediately recognized as his own.
She devoted himself entirely and began a few years later to teach meditation itself throughout Europe, America and Australia. She went in 1979, Sri Lanka, where she was ordained a Buddhist nun, in Khema's name, which means safety and security in Pali (meaning Venerable Ayya).
In 1978 she established Wat Buddha Dhamma, a forest monastery according to Theravada tradition, near Sydney, Australia.
In Colombo, she founded the International Buddhist women as a training center for nuns in Sri Lanka and the Isle of nuns Parappuduwa for women wishing to learn about religious life.
She met an old master of meditation who confirmed that it could and should teach in the West not only the practice of Vipassana - alertness to the moment - but also the states of absorption (that is to say states of bliss achieved through intense concentration) as practiced and taught by the Buddha and fell into oblivion. What she strove until his death.
This method allows the meditator to know quickly states who promote happiness in her practice has met with great success in the West, and Ayya Khema was soon spending more and more time to lead meditation sessions throughout West.
Then the Tamil guerrillas killed the founder and protector of the center of the island of Parappuduwa. Insecurity preventing development center and the arrival of Western postulants, Ayya Khema decided to accept the invitation she had received from German meditators and return to his home country where she created in 1989 a center of meditation, the Buddha Haus
Acknowledging the difficulties faced by women who wanted to become Buddhist nuns, in 1987 she organized the first international conference of Buddhist nuns in the history of Buddhism, which led to the creation of Sakyadhita a worldwide organization of Buddhist women. His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave the opening speech of the conference.
In May 1987 as lecturer invited, she was the first Buddhist to have never spoken with the United Nations in New York.
In 1988, she received the Chinese Mahayana tradition, the full ordination.
She wrote many books in English and German on meditation and the teachings of Buddha. Quote: 'll of us. "" Here and Now "," When the iron eagle flies. "In 1988 his book" Being Nobody, Going Nowhere "received the Christmas Humphreys Memorial Award, an award for the Buddhist literature.
In French, one of her book has been translated: "Being an island." it's teachings on meditation sessions in the island of Parappuduwa nuns.
She left this world November 2, 1997. "....
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