At the entrance to Pārāyana Vihāra in Port Townsend, Washington.
Photos by: Ayya Canda, Kate Hathirat, Samaneri Junha

Pārāyana Vihāra,  which in Pali means “The Way to the Beyond,” is a new residence for female Buddhist monastics in the small town of Port Townsend, Washington.

The vihara is intended as a welcoming place for people to gather to explore the Buddhist path of awakening. Our rented house is located at the end of a quiet street, which leads to a little footpath through the woods. We are in a quiet neighborhood, but with easy access to buses and to downtown.

Gradually, Parayana Vihara is taking shape. We have a Buddha shrine and a Gwan Yin shrine, meditation mats and cushions, and are just now ready to welcome people to come and sit with us on Sundays.  It feels good to be able to offer a space for people to gather.

As we move into the fall, we hope make public our Buddhist library that has been lovingly curated over the past 15 years. Currently we have the books but no place to display them, so we plan to convert a space into a reference library, for those who value a place to study and explore the dhamma through the written word.

Samaṇeri Junha and I are the monastic residents. A vihara is a place for monastics to live and practice, and also a place to share times of meditation and teaching with the wider community. It is not a cloistered monastery nor a dhamma center, but a place to support each other in our lives and in our dhamma practice, with respect and love.

There are several ways you can engage with us.

Whether you are new, experienced, or anything in between, we welcome you to join us for dhamma events in person and online. We will be offering Sunday programs through the summer months, and I will be offering evening online teachings on fourth Sundays throughout the year. I also offer meditation retreats, both online and in person.

In addition to attending teachings, you can offer a meal to the monastics at the vihara, or put food into our alms bowls on our Saturday morning alms round near the Port Townsend Farmers Market. We will be there most Saturdays, between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Offering your time and skills, or support in the form of the four requisites of food, medicine, clothing and lodging, is also greatly appreciated.

On September 22, Parayana Vihara will hold an almsgiving ceremony in Port Townsend. This is a traditional gathering to celebrate and strengthen our collective goodness and generosity, and to listen to the dhamma. Any donations given will go toward setting up the library as a resource for the community, and supporting the ongoing presence of the monastics at the vihara.

The Buddha established a relationship of symbiosis between the monastic and lay community. As Buddhist monastics we live entirely supported by the generosity of others, sharing teachings and times of practice together freely, with a wish to benefit those who seek to deepen their spiritual life and to gather with others on this path.

Here is a little background about who we are.

My monastic training began in England in 1992, when I joined the community of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, led by Luang Por Sumedho. As the founder of the monastery, he was generous in offering teachings and providing support for many kinds of people to come and practice in a monastic setting. We were an international community of bhikkhus (fully ordained monks) and siladhara (nuns who have a novice ordination but who keep a high level of monastic discipline). Living as part of the community of siladhara, was an important part of my training and development.

I also spent time at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in England under the guidance of Ajahn Sucitto. In this forest monastery I had the opportunity to spend time in secluded retreat in a benevolent forest setting, as well as time engaged in community life. This was greatly beneficial to my practice.

I had always hoped that the position for women in the community would strengthen and evolve over time, but my wish and the wish of many of the nuns there was not shared with the elder monks. After eventually hitting that glass ceiling, it became clear that it was time for me to move on.

In 2009 I moved to the United States with Ayya Santacitta and a small number of other nuns, at the invitation of the Saranaloka Foundation. We established Aloka Vihara in San Francisco, where we lived and shared dhamma for four and a half years. During this time we formally left our lineage in order to take full ordination,  something that is only  available to men in the Thai forest lineage. Although there was great loss in this parting, it connected us with the worldwide bhikkhuni sangha, and set us in a new direction.

In 2014 we left San Francisco and established Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery in Placerville, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. This was the realization of my aspiration to create a forest monastery for female monastics, and a place of refuge for many people.

However, in 2021 the Caldore wildfire swept through the area, burning 221,835 acres of forest, including our meditation huts and the 17 acres of forest that were part of our monastery. The fire came within 50 feet of the house, but thanks to the hard work of the fire department, and the prayers and metta of many people, the house and its contents were undamaged.

It was at that point, just as we were being evacuated, that Samaneri Junha (then Bethany Axtman) was making her way south from Chimucum, Washington to stay with us, with an  interest in exploring monastic life. She had to turn back part way due to our having evacuated, but was undeterred.

Once we returned to the monastery, she spent time with us and made plans to return as an aspirant. However, the wildfire changed the nature of our monastery and we had to acknowledge that with the increase in forest fires, a forest monastery in the Sierra Nevada may not be realistic. She returned just as the monastery was coming to an end, and decided to stay to study and practice under my guidance, even though it was unclear where that would be.

With the ending of the forest monastery, the monastics scattered in different directions, like seeds from a seed pod. There are now four new monastic residences that are growing from those seeds –  our new residence Pārāyana Vihāra – The Way to the Beyond  in Port Townsend; Passadhi Vihara in Olympia; Canmore Theravada Buddhist Monastery in Alberta, Canada; and Aloka Earth Room in San Rafael, California. In October 2023, Samaneri Junha took Samaneri (novice) ordination in Port Townsend.

The quiet natural environment of Port Townsend, the sacredness of the land, and the knowledge that there have been people in Port Townsend practicing Buddhism in various forms for many years, attracted us here. The vision of Camas Hall, a community meditation hall in Port Townsend open for all, was also a strong draw.

I have been deeply touched and grateful for the welcome and support we have received here since arriving last June. I was on a quiet sabbatical in Port Townsend until April, but we are now more engaged and looking forward to seeing how things evolve in this new chapter of life here.

While we offer regular programs, at certain times we will be in silent retreat, or away teaching in other places. You can stay up to date with what’s happening through our website, or through signing up for our monthly newsletter.