Ayya Santacitta Bhikkhuni co-founded Aloka Vihara in 2009, a monastic residence for a small group of nuns that had moved to America from England, and received Bhikkhuni Ordination in 2011. Santacitta Bhikkhuni is committed to Gaia as a living being and resides at Aloka Earth Room, a contemporary temple-space located in San Rafael, California.

For more information about the Aloka Earth Room, events, and Ayya Santacitta's programs, please see the following links:

https://alokavihara.org/aloka-earth-room/

https://alokavihara.org/aloka-earth-room-events/

In the podcast, we discussed weaving art, ecology, and Buddhism together in the Aloka Earth Room, how to develop the courage to be with the unknown, dharma as meaning "to support" and "to be supported," actively being a part of the Earth's immune system to meet the illness of the climate crisis, and the experience of living in monasteries and monastic communities around the world within the Thai Forest Tradition.

If you're interested in some book recommendations around the topics we discuss and Ayya Santacitta's work, Ayya Santacitta suggests picking up the following:

David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology, 2011

David Abram, The Spell of the Sensous, 1997

Vanessa Machado de Oliviera, Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism, 2021