Episode 7: Sayalay Khanticari
See the preview video for Sayalay Khanticari’s podcast.
While there is no direct flight from Colombia to Burma, Maria Alejandra Amaya V has carved her own path to the Golden Land.
Relatively speaking, there are not a lot of Vipassana meditators in Colombia, and out of that small number, very few ever make it to the Golden Land. But Maria is one of them. The provincial and traditional Catholic upbringing that characterized her childhood in the Colombian countryside outside of Bogotá could scarcely have predicted either her later interest in Vipassanā meditation in the tradition of S.N. Goenka, or her eventual life in the robes of a Buddhist nun.
After university, Maria moved to the cosmopolitan world of Bogotá, the country’s capital, with a committed boyfriend, and started an intriguing career as an advocate for Colombia’s indigenous community. However, it was a challenging job with increasing stress and a demanding boss, and deeper thoughts began to form in her mind about serving others and the essential meaning of life. When she was twenty-six years old, she took her first trip outside Colombia, to an anthropology conference in Peru; there she met an Argentinian restaurant worker who would change her life. Eschewing the normal career path, he was traveling throughout South America, stopping to work whenever he needed funds. That chance meeting spurred in Maria a strong desire to experience a similar kind of untethered life of freedom and discovery, as it did in her boyfriend (and later husband) as well when she told him about it. They decided to take a few months off to travel around the continent.
Their backpacking trip put them in touch with interesting new cultures and ideas. Ironically, it was in Peru, again, where she and her husband first heard about silent ten-day meditation retreats led by S.N. Goenka. While only mildly interested herself, her husband convinced her to try it out; after a single course, they knew their travel plans would take a big shift! “Sometimes I think this is like a very good romantic story in Theravada Buddhism,” she notes. “[Yet] at that time, I didn’t see what was happening.”
They now tried to organize their travel plans around meditation retreat schedules at the various South American Vipassanā centers in the S.N. Goenka tradition, although acceptance into the courses was not always possible due to the large numbers of female applicants. Finally, after extended stays at the Vipassanā centers in Argentina and Brazil, they knew they had found their path. “Just seeing there is a tool or a way to acknowledge what is happening in our mind, and how that is connected with our lives” was a profound understanding that transformed their path in life.
So now, renouncing the jobs waiting for them back home and dismissing the impact that the empty spaces they were creating on their CVs would have on their professional lives—all the more dramatic given the scarcity of employment opportunities in Colombia—they took another step on their Dhamma journey. Acting on the many inspiring anecdotes and advice they’d heard in Vipassanā center kitchens, they flew to India, where they planned to spend six months. There, they headed to the Global Vipassanā Pagoda and then Dhamma Giri, the headquarters of the Goenka tradition. Out of all the many meditators they met there, one in particular stood out—an American girl who was “bright, so peaceful, so happy.” Why? Because she had spent extended time in Myanmar. And so, a deep yearning formed in Maria’s heart: “Oh, I want to go to Myanmar!”
And their plans changed yet again. They extended their trip into Sri Lanka, where they met a Sinhalese monk who had trained in Myanmar, and who now encouraged them to visit the Golden Land as well. Thinking also of the girl they had met, they took the monk’s advice, and flew to Burma to enroll in a 60-day meditation course in the tradition of Sayadaw U Pandita. For the first time, they met monastics—monks and nuns who were dedicating their lives to the Dhamma. They also were startled when they realized the myriad opportunities in Myanmar for practice and study.
Initially, the couple felt some trepidation stepping outside of the Goenka tradition to explore this wider world of Dhamma, but the support they found was heartwarming. Maria particularly had the good fortune to train under U Pandita (who was already eighty-nine and would not live many years more), and she was also taken in by an American nun who looked after her; she and her husband ended up staying almost a full year at the center. Then following their Dhamma journey even further, they enrolled in the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University (ITBMU) in Yangon.
In sum, what had started as a touristy kind of backpacking trip around South America for a few months, and then extended to a slightly longer visit to India, had turned into something else entirely! By this point, however, her family had many misgivings, and questions about where her life was leading. Of course, she knew the answer—she was going deeper into renunciation. But after such a long time away from home already, she made plans to visit her family for Christmas, while her husband would seek temporary ordination at the Pa Auk monastery. Two months later, when she returned to Myanmar, she decided to do the same, ordaining temporarily as a nun and being given the name of Sayalay Khanticari. They chose Pa Auk monastery to pursue Abhidhamma study, and also take advantage of its diverse international community of monastics and lay meditators.
From this point on, we encourage listeners to pick up the remainder of the story from the podcast itself, for it is best to hear how it develops from here straight from Sayalay Khanticari herself.
Listen to a short snippet from Sayalay Khanticari’s podcast, illustrated by original artwork from meditator Andree Francois.