Sati Saraniya Hermitage is a registered religious charity and Theravada Buddhist monastery for bhikkhunis, the first of its kind in Canada, where women can receive monastic training or come for periods of work and retreat in a rural setting near Perth, Ontario.
It also serves the spiritual needs of individuals, families, and communities by transmitting the Buddha`s teachings and offering pastoral outreach through local hospice programs.
The Hermitage vision was conceived in April, 2007, during Ayya Medhanandi’s second teaching visit to Ottawa while she was still based overseas. After sharing her ideas, a group of supporters from Ottawa and Toronto invited her back and offered to help plant the seed in Ontario.
In 2008, Sati Saraniya Hermitage became a registered Canadian charity (#847237419RR0001), named in emulation of two vital principles for our lives, ‘sati’ and ‘saraniya’ – ‘wise insight and reconciliation’.
The presence of contemplative nuns on a life path of virtue, wisdom, and compassionate action offers women interested in fulfilling their highest potential as human beings an opportunity to take up monastic life. In the wider community, their example of training and moral commitment create a resource for educational and spiritual dialogue, meditation teachings, and pastoral outreach.
“Now is the time when our action is practice. . . with a noble mind, pure and generous, we will spread joy around us, we will feel great peace, and we will be able to communicate that peace to others.”
His Holiness The Dalai Lama
