Rev. Danny Fisher

Born in Berlin, she escaped from the country of her birth to Scotland with over two-hundred other Jewish children in 1938.  She was later reunited her parents in Shanghai, China, only to be interned with them at a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, where her father ultimately died.

Following the liberation of the camp by American forces, she moved to the United States and married. While traveling with her husband and son through several Asian countries, she first learned meditation.  Then, in 1979, she ordained as a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka.  Her ordination name, Khema, means “safety and security.”

Her expansive work as a dharma teacher included serving as the spiritual director of Buddha-Haus and inaugurating Metta Vihara in Germany (the latter being the country’s first monastery in the forest tradition); establishing the International Buddhist Women’s Centre and the former Parappuduwa Nun’s Island in Sri Lanka; and helping to establish Wat Buddha Dhamma near Sydney, Australia.

Her biography page at Wikipedia adds:  ”In 1987 she co-ordinated the first International Conference of Buddhist Nuns in the history of Buddhism, which resulted in the setting-up of Sakyadhita, a worldwide Buddhist women’s organization.  His Holiness the Dalai Lama was the keynote speaker at the conference. In May 1987, as an invited lecturer, she was the first ever Buddhist nun to address the United Nations in New York on the topic of Buddhism and World Peace.”

Ayya Khema’s many books include Being Nobody, Going Nowhere:  Meditations on the Buddhist Path (winner of the Christmas Humphreys Memorial Award); Be an Island:  The Buddhist Practice of Inner Peace; When the Iron Eagle Flies: Buddhism for the West; and Who is My Self?:  A Guide to Buddhist Meditation.

Here’s the quote:

The inward direction is an important aspect of our contemplative life. Whatever happens inwardly has direct repercussions on what takes place outwardly. The inner light and purity cannot be hidden, nor can the defilements.

We sometimes think we can portray something we are not. That is not possible. The Buddha said that one only knows a person after having heard him speak many times and having lived with him for a long time. People generally try to show themselves off as something better than they really are. Then, of course, they become disappointed in themselves when they fail, and equally disappointed in others. To realistically know oneself makes it possible to truly love. That kind of feeling gives the light-heartedness to this job in which we’re engaged, which is needed. By accepting ourselves and others as we truly are, our job of purification, chipping away at the defilements, is made much easier.