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Ajahn Candasiri is one of the Theravāda Buddhist monastics who co-founded Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in West Sussex, England, a branch monastery of the Ajahn Chah lineage. She is currently ordained as a ten-precept sīladhārā, the highest level that is allowed for women in the Thai Forest Tradition. She is one of the senior monastics in western Theravāda Buddhism and trained alongside women who later became fully ordained bhikkhunis and abbesses of monasteries.
Born in 1947, Ajahn Candasiri was raised as a Christian in Edinburgh, Scotland. She worked as an occupational therapist in the United Kingdom after graduation from university. She encountered the Buddha's teachings in 1977 through Ajahn Sumedho, after exploring several meditation traditions. She became a renunciant in 1979, a white-robed, eight-precept anagārikā, at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery.
Ajahn Candasiri was one of four anagārikā women who carved out an existence in the early days of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, along with a group of monks. In 1979, the monastery was little more than an abandoned, dilapidated house. After the group turned it into a functional residence, the nuns moved to a small house nearby and fixed it up. They called it Āloka Cottage and eventually founded the sīladhārā ordination community there. In 1983, Candasiri took sīladhārā ordination (brown robes and ten precepts). It consisted of a unique set of 137 rules and a new version of the Patimokkha recitation created by Ajahn Sumedho so that the women monastics could be trained in Ajahn Chah's lineage. Ajahn Candasiri was one of the pioneer sīladhārā monastics who were trained by bhikkhus (fully ordained monks), in parts of the Suttavibhanga and a version of the Vinaya Patimokkha.[1] Some of the sīladhārā sisters became skilled Sangha members, capable of keeping the patimokkha, living in harmony and maintaining their community with very few resources.
Ajahn Candasiri and the other sīladhārās remained at the Chithurst monastery despite the sīladhārās being subordinated to monastic men.[2] Though the sīladhārā community grew over the years, some began leaving to seek full Vinaya training.[3] Ajahn Candasiri had stayed in the sīladhārā community which shrank to three nuns at one point. She is one of the sīladhārās who have been allowed to teach and lead retreats. She lived at Chithurst until 1999 when she moved to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, where she continues to teach.[4]
She is one of the most senior monastics in the Amaravati Sangha. Since 2015, she has been increasingly resident in Scotland at Milntuim Hermitage in Perthshire. Initially on her own, supported by laywomen staying with her, there is now, in 2020, usually a junior female monastic from Amaravati resident with her, when she is there.
^"'Going Forth' and Entering the Flow". awakeningtruth.org. Thanasanti. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
^"The Five Points" (PDF). Alliance for Bhikkhunis. AFB. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
^"Finding a Way Forward" (PDF). sakyadhita. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
^"Ajahn Candasiri - teachings". forestsangha.org. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
AjahnCandasiri is one of the Theravāda Buddhist monastics who co-founded Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in West Sussex, England, a branch monastery of...
Ajahn Sumedho (born Robert Karr Jackman on July 27, 1934) is an American Buddhist monk. He was ordained in 1967, and was instrumental in establishing...
a Thai bhikkhu from Isan region who is credited, along with his mentor, Ajahn Sao Kantasīlo, with establishing the Thai Forest Tradition or "Kammaṭṭhāna...
Ajahn Pasanno (born Reed Perry, Manitoba, Canada, July 26, 1949) is the most senior Western disciple of Ven. Ajahn Chah in the United States, and most...
known as Ajahn Brahmavaṃso, or simply Ajahn Brahm (born Peter Betts on 7 August 1951), is a British-born Theravada Buddhist monk. Currently, Ajahn Brahm...
Ajahn Maha Bua (12 August 1913 – 30 January 2011) was a Thai Buddhist monk. He was thought by many of his followers to be an arahant (someone who has...
Ajahn Chah (17 June 1918 – 16 January 1992) was a Thai Buddhist monk. He was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries...
Ajahn Sucitto (Bhikkhu Sucitto, born 4 November 1949) is a British-born Theravada Buddhist monk (Ajahn is the Thai rendition of ācārya, the Sanskrit word...
Ajahn Khemadhammo OBE (also known as Chao Khun Bhavanaviteht; born (1944-07-17)17 July 1944) is a Theravāda Buddhist monk and retired professional actor...
Ajahn Viradhammo or Luang Por Viradhammo (born Vitauts Akers, April 27, 1947 Esslingen, Germany) is a Canadian monk in the Thai forest tradition of Theravada...
Ajahn Fuang Jotiko (1915 – 14 May 1986) was a Thai Buddhist monk and abbot in the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravada Buddhism. Fuang was a student of...
Ajahn Amaro (born 2 September 1956) is a Theravāda Buddhist monk and teacher, and abbot of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery at the eastern end of the...
was purchased in Perthshire, Scotland, known as the Milntuim House. AjahnCandasiri writes: The intention is for Milntuim eventually to be a place where...
ISBN 978-0861715510 Sundara, Ajahn; Candasiri, Ajahn (2011), Friends on the Path, ISBN 978-1-870205-24-5 Sundara, Ajahn; Candasiri, Ajahn; Metta, Ajahn (2013), The Body...
Phra Suddhidhammaransi Gambhiramedhacarya (1907–1961), commonly known as Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo, was a meditation teacher in the Thai Forest Tradition of...
Phra Ajahn Thate Desaransi (1902–1994), also known as Ajahn Tate, Luangpu Thet Thetrangsi, Phra Desarangsee, or by his monastic title Phra Rajanirodharangsee...
a Monk!". Buddhistdoor International. Retrieved May 15, 2013. BBC AjahnCandasiri's website Archived July 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Trebilcock,...
known as Ajahn Sujato or Bhikkhu Sujato (born Anthony Best), is an Australian Buddhist monk ordained into the Thai forest lineage of Ajahn Chah. Formerly...
Lao-speaking cultural region of Northeast Thailand known as Isan. Ajahn Mun learned from Ajahn Sao in the late 19th century, where he studied amidst the growing...
Buddhist monasticism. The Thai Forest Tradition started around 1900 with Ajahn Mun Bhuridatto, who wanted to practice Buddhist monasticism and its meditative...
in the West Mya Thwin (1925–2017), meditation teacher Ajahn Sundara (b. 1946) and AjahnCandasiri (b. 1947) are nuns in the Thai Forest Tradition Sylvia...
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