Many attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which officially  launched  the Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community and Monastery.
Photos by: Sarah Haverstock, Ian Hunter, Christine Lem

A new monastic community, focused on nuns and depth of practice, is blossoming in the  Canadian mountain town of Canmore, Alberta.

The Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community and Monastery opening ceremony on June 17, was attended by about 100 people in person, 35 on Zoom, including many monastics from different traditions. It was held at the Canmore recreation center, starting with a delicious potluck multi-cultural meal, followed by the ceremony.

Sanghamitta and Ayya Ahimsa, co-leading the Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community and Monastery.

The Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community became a monastery six months earlier, after 28 years as a meditation center, with the Dec. 11 arrival of Buddhist nun Ayya Ahimsa.

Now the monastery includes four people: Ayya Ahimsa, Sarah Haverstock, who took anagarika vows in June; Bodhipala, steward; and Sanghamitta, steward and lay meditation teacher.

Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community and Monastery aspires to continue as a residence for two bhikkhunis, or one bhikkhuni and one in training, plus one or two stewards. In addition to providing a place for deep monastic practice, the monastery also intends to offer the teachings of the Buddha to the community.

The monastery is a small place, which attracted the resident community.  Aside from Sanghamitta, who already lived there, the others came because it was a small place requiring little upkeep, and with restrictions on visitors.  These founders had all lived in larger monasteries that took a lot of work to maintain, and which hosted many visitors, who also took time to manage.

The Canmore Therevada Buddhist Monastery is a spiritual place of peace, love and rest.

All this work took away from the secluded, meditative time the Buddha had recommended for monastics.  Now Canmore residents have a good balance: lots of quiet time for meditation, and then offering teachings to the community three times weekly, plus individual interviews, if requested, after the noon meal.

The monastics attending the June event included Dharma Master Heng Shyun from the Avatamsaka Monastery in Calgary, accompanied by two other nuns and a samaneri. Ajahn Sona and Sister Mon came from Sitavana Birken Forest Buddhist Monastery near Kamloops, B.C.

Bhante Chandananda came from the Western Canada Buddhist Association in Calgary, and Bhante Dhammarakkhita from Ehipassiko in Calgary.  The latter was accompanied by a senior monk visiting from Ottawa.

Members of the Canmore Monastery greeting monks from Calgary.

Ayya Medhanandi and Ayya Anuruddha from Sati Saraniya Hermitage in Perth, Ontario, were not able to attend but sent greetings.  We were also graced by the attendance of several nuns in the zoom room.

After greetings were shared, a history of the development of CTBC was read out by the board members.  This was followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony.  Since we were not at the monastery, a large photo of the building was placed at the front of the room and a ribbon strung in front, held by the monastics and board members.  Jayanta, representing Sakyadhita Canada Association of Buddhist Women, cut the ribbon.

The final act was a water blessing ceremony.  Ajahn Sona, accompanied by Anagarika Sarah and Bhante Chandananda, accompanied by Ayya Ashimsa and amidst much laughter, sprinkled the audience with water while chanting Iti pi so.

The Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community and Monastery offers a meditation group twice a week, which includes a dhamma talk.  Once a week there is a sutta contemplation.

CTBC’s Red Door kuti on a snowy  afternoon.

An all-day sitting occurs on the two moon days each month.  That day includes some personalized meditation instructions at the beginning and end of the day.  Since Ayya’s arrival we have held a three-day retreat, and a one-day introduction to Buddhism and meditation.  We hope to offer several retreats and introductory sessions each year.

Ayya Ahimsa and Sanghamitta co-teach the twice-weekly meditation group. Ayya Ahimsa
has been a nun for 10 years, four years as a samaneri and now six years as a fully ordained bhikkhuni. As a junior nun at Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery in California, where she lived for the past six years, she did not do much teaching.

Every new moon day and full moon day people can join the monastery residents for meditation, either in person or on zoom. The day begins and ends with an opportunity to ask questions about meditation. Weekend retreats are also offered three or four times during the year. Every few months an introduction to Buddhism day-long is taught, for people in the community who are new to meditation or Buddhism.

The meditation room at CTBC’s Monastery, with Ayya Ahimsa and Sanghamitta teaching to people simultaneously online and in person.

The Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community and Monastery is a home on a double lot at the edge of Canmore.  Canmore is in the Rocky Mountains, 10 minutes from the east gate of Banff National Park.  The house is set back in a forest of spruce trees with a resident squirrel who believes he owns the place, and vocally lets you know when he feels you are trespassing!

When you enter the house, on the right is the kitchen and on the left is a sunroom, full of plants.  This is where the monastics eat their noon meal.  Next to this is the monastery library.  Upstairs is the meditation sala, where all the meditation groups and retreats are hosted.

When you exit the back door of the house, the Red Door Kuti is on the left and the Bodhi Leaf kuti is on the right.  This kuti is a conversion of half of the two-car garage.

The idea for this monastery was planted in 2011 when Sanghamitta met Ayya Medhanandi at Sati Saraniya Hermitage in Perth, Ontario.  Sanghamitta was driving across Canada to scatter her husband’s ashes with family and friends.  She had decided to do a tour of Canadian Buddhist forest monasteries at the same time.

Ayya Brahmavara receiving food dana in CTBC’s kitchen.

At that time there were only four such monasteries, one in British Columbia (Birken) and three in Ontario (Sati Saraniya Hermitage, Tisarana, Arrow River Forest Hermitage).  From Ayya Medhanandi, Sanghamitta learned of the struggles that female monastics face.  Their full ordination is not universally accepted, and they receive less support for the requisites (food, clothing, shelter and medicine) compared to male monastics. 

Given that she was now a widow and had no children, Sanghamitta thought of turning her home into a monastery for bhikkhunis.  She had already been offering twice-weekly meditation groups in her home, plus several three to five-day retreats each year.  Also she hosted people who wanted a quiet place to stay for a personal meditation retreat.

Ayya Brahmavara and Samaneri Saddhajivi doing rice pindapat at CTBC, June 2022.

In 2014 a charity board was established, which went through a few name changes, settling on Canmore Theravada Buddhist Community (CTBC).  When it became a monastery on December 11, 2022, the words “and Monastery” were added to the name.

Ayya Ahimsa had Ajahn Sona as a teacher at  Birken Forest Monastery when she was a layperson.  Her lay career was first as a classical musician and later as a speech pathologist.   She felt drawn to the Dhamma and became a steward at Sati Saraniya, training with Ayya Medhanandi.

This led to her taking anagarika precepts in January 2012, and then samaneri precepts in 2013 with Ayya Medhanandi. In 2016 she joined the nuns’ community at Aloka Vihara in California, and was given bhikkhuni ordination in 2017, with Ayya Gunasari Theri as her preceptor.  Since 2022, Ayya Ahimsa has had Beth Upton as her meditation teacher.

Sanghamitta was introduced to Buddhism in 1991.  She experienced immediate and profound changes to her life, which she has written about on CTBC’s website.  She immediately started sharing the Dhamma with her psychiatric patients.  When she moved to Canmore three years later, there were no meditation groups to which to send her patients for more in-depth teaching of the Dhamma, so she started what is now known as CTBC.

Sanghamitta initially trained with Theravada lay teachers, then did two retreats with Bhante Piyadassi, a senior monk from Sri Lanka, and two retreats with Thich Nhat Hanh.  Then Ajahn Sona moved from the coast of British Columbia to Princeton, B.C., and started to offer retreats in Edmonton before eventually moving to what is now Birken Monastery, near Kamloops.

Ajahn Sona became Sanghamitta’s main teacher.  Ajahn Sona had trained with Bhante Gunaratana, and then spent a few years in Thailand at Wat Pa Nanachat with Ajahn Passano.

Sanghamitta also had the opportunity to attend retreats with Ayya Medhanandi, Ajahn Punnadhammo, Ajahn Brahm and Bhikkhu Thankissaro, and to go on pilgrimage to the Buddhist holy sites in India with Ajahn Brahmali.