Ayya Santacitta
Ayya Santacitta was born in Austria in 1958 and has practiced meditation for over 20 years. After graduating in hotel management, she studied cultural anthropology and worked in avant-garde dance theatre as a performer and costume designer.
Her first teacher was Ajahn Buddhadasa, whom she met in 1988 and who sparked her interest in Buddhist monastic life. She has trained as a nun in both the East and West since 1993, primarily with the Siladhara Community at Amaravati Monastery under the guidance of Ajahn Sumedho. Since 2002, she also integrates Dzogchen teachings of the Vajrayana into her practice.
Ayya Santacitta is co-founder of Aloka Vihara, a Theravada monastic residence for women in San Francisco, where she lives since 2009. In 2011, she received bhikkhuni ordination with Ayya Tathaaloka Theri as preceptor. She offers teachings at the vihara, as well as in the wider Bay Area and occasionally other parts of the US, sharing her experience in community as a means for cultivating the heart and opening the mind.
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