Words of the Buddha · 1923–1997
Ayya Khema
Theravada · a modern transmission · Talks on happiness and liberation
She who passed through war and loss and brought the Buddha's teaching to the West in plain, warm words.
The essence of the teaching: The whole world can be found within your own body and mind. To seek fulfilment outside is futile; begin with kindness toward yourself, and it will spill over onto others without judgment.
Transmission
Ayya Khema was born into a Jewish family in Berlin and fled the Nazis as a child. She spent her life wandering, losing home after home, until she found her ground in the Buddha's teaching and became a nun. She spoke without esoteric fog: happiness does not come from outside; you cannot buy it or beg it from the world of the senses. Look within – the whole universe is there. Begin with loving-kindness toward yourself, for it is impossible to truly love others while you are at war with yourself. Suffering she neither denied nor prettified – she saw in it a teacher that points to where you are still holding on too tightly.
The full transmission — for members of the School. Here is its essence and its taste.
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Words of the Buddha
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