Santi Forest Monastery is preparing for Vassa, the annual Rains Retreat.

During this period the community will focus on meditation practice. We will be giving up idle chatter, using computers, email and telephones, unnecessary duties and errands that take us out of the monastery.

By avoiding these causes of attraction or aversion that grab our attention and unbalance the mind, we can open ourselves to the possibility of stilling inner chatter and developing deep silence. Only through cultivating a calm mind, can we experience a deeper understanding and ultimately release from Samsara.

Vassa starts 12th June

Vassa ends 8th October

Katina ceremony 26th October

During Vassa, Santi will continue to accept meal dana. If you wish to offer dana, please either:

send an email to santioffice@gmail.com,

go on line to http://ift.tt/1rfdG9q and fill in the Dana Form or

leave a phone message. (We may not be answering the phone but messages will be checked daily.)

However, during Vassa the accommodation office with be closed and we will be unable to accept guests. Bookings will open again in the first week of October.

This year there are 5 nuns, 1 monk, 5 lay women and 3 lay men staying for the whole of the 3 months Retreat.

Bhikkhuni Nirodha, Co-Abbot of Dhammasara Nuns Monastery in Western Australian, took Bhikkhuni ordination at Dhammasara in 2009.

Venerable Adhimutta first ordained in Thailand as a Mae Chee in 2005 (at Wat Ram Poeng with Ajahn Suphan), subsequently going forth as a Samaneri at Santi Forest Monastery in 2008 and then as a Bhikkhuni at Aranya Bodhi in 2010 (with Ayya Tathaaloka Theri as Pavatini).

Bhante Nandiya is a Kiwi Monk. He ordained as a Novice at Santi Forest Monastery in 2011, and as a Bhikkhu at Bodhinyana Monastery in 2013. He has done a great deal of work on the Sutta Central website.