On February 7, 2021, Ayyā Santussikā of Karuna Buddhist Vihara met online with Portland Friends of the Dhamma and friends from Seattle, Northern California, and throughout the Western Hemisphere. Ayya spoke to these 60 practitioners during a daylong session of meditation and teaching on the Mahāmangala Sutta, (Snp 2-4) also known as the chant “The Highest Blessings.”
Ayya is well loved by PFoD. She has the ability to help us see both the content of a sutta and its inspiration for us. With her interactive style, suttas spring from the page with a relevance for daily life. The Highest Blessings unfurled into guidance for living a blameless life and seeing the freedom in this. She advised that it is important to make space for awakening and to practice as if seeing Nibbana will happen. It is right here. We just need to shift in our thinking so we are not looking from the place of the self.
Portland Friends of the Dhamma is grateful to the volunteers and donors who made possible the meal offering, online production, and recording of the session. The recordings and wisdom from today’s sessions are available here. Ayya’s teachings are available here and here. Join a growing number of PFoD practitioners at her online Sutta Study on Wednesday evenings here.