Wednesday 12 September 2012

sri lanka #3 - teachers and friends

 the buddha, fully enlightened being.
   sister sumedha or affectionately known as sumedha maniyo (nuns are addressed as maniyo here.)  a very wise teacher in her 80's. it was sister sumedha that instructed me to meditate in the small old shrine and gave me many more good advice that i will remember for a long time.


sister dhammadina (dhammadina maniyo), this is my teacher that i report to every morning after breakfast. she is so kind, gentle, caring, compassionate and so much more! i look forward to her sharing everyday, usually with some wonderful stories too and i love stories!

in all my meditation retreats in the past i have never been guided by nuns before, and i must say it's different, i feel more comfortable and open to sharing anything and everything with them as they have that tender motherly, sisterly love and compassion. i feel really grateful and blessed to be under their guidance.
 
sister kapilani (kapilani maniyo), sometimes she leads the chanting under the bodhi tree in the evenings.


sister subadra (subadra maniyo), she's in charge of the big shrine.


sister kapilani and me. background is the bodhi tree (with flags) where we do chanting every evening. and yes, that's our "uniform" as eight preceptor.


yogi friends. next to me is darshani (with kitten) my kuti mate (kuti means small dwelling, like really tiny house.), sudhamma, rasika, nanda, dharmmaloka and sunanda. (photo was taken by a fellow yogi from singapore.


a local yogi. she spoke to me in singhalese and i replied in english, we didn't understand each other yet continue talking as if we did, haha! in the end we used sign language, i took her photo and she was very happy.

3 comments:

Thank you for your comment.