Ayya Khema was born in Berlin in 1923 to Jewish parents. In 1938, she escaped from Germany with two hundred other children
and was taken to Glasgow, Scotland. Her parents went to China and, two years later Ayya Khema joined them in Shanghai. With
the outbreak of the war, however, the family was put into a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp where her father died. She later
married, had a son and a daughter, and now has four grandchildren.
Four years after the American liberation
of the camp, Ayya Khema was able to emigrate to the United States. Between 1960 and 1964 she travelled with her husband and
son throughout Asia, including the Himalayan countries, during which she learned meditation. Ten years later, she began to
teach meditation throughout Europe and Australia. Her experiences led her to become a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka in 1979, when
she was given the name of "Khema" (Ayya means Venerable) meaning safety and security. In Sri Lanka she met her teacher
the Ven. Matara Sri Ña?anarama of Nissarana Vanaya who inspired her to teach jhana meditation. As it was not possible
at the time to organize an ordination ceremony for bhikkhunis in the Theravada tradition, Ayya Khema then received complete
monastic ordination at the newly built Hsi Lai Temple, a Chinese Mahayana temple under the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order, in
1988.
She helped to establish Wat Buddha Dhamma, a forest monastery in the Theravada tradition, near
Sydney, Australia, in 1978. In Colombo she set up the International Buddhist Women's Centre as a training centre for Sri
Lankan nuns, and the Parappuduwa Nun's Island at Dodanduwa. (now closed). She was the spiritual director of Buddha-Haus
in Germany, established in 1989 under her auspices.In June 1997 "Metta Vihara", the first Buddhist forest monastery
in Germany, was inaugurated by her, and the first ordinations in the German language took place there.
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 organisation. H.H. 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 has written twenty-five books on meditation and the Buddha's
teachings in English and German; her books have been translated into seven languages. In 1988, her book "Being Nobody,
Going Nowhere" received the Christmas Humphreys Memorial Award.
Ayya Khema ordained Ven. Sister
Sangamitta from Switzerland (now practising in Thailand), Ven. Sister Dhammadina (a graduate of Peradeniya University), Ven.
Sister Vayama from Australia, and Ven. Sister Uttpalvanna of Galle, and her pupils in Sri Lanka. Ayya Khema drew her last
breath on November 2, 1997 at Buddha Haus, Uttenbühl (part of the village Oy-Mittelberg) in Germany after a brief illness.
Dhamma Talks MP3 format
