Ayya Yeshe and the Bodhicitta Foundation

This is a series of three videos featuring the Australian nun Ayya Yeshe and the Bodhicitta Foundation which she founded in India to help Dalits and other underprivileged people in the area.

In the first video Ayya talks about her first contacts with Buddhism in Nepal, and how she eventually came to ordain in the Tibetan tradition.

Once inside though she came across many obstacles and was considered an outsider in the tradition, first because she was a woman, but also because she was a westerner.

Already being somewhat disenchanted with her situation, when she met a community of Dalits in India, she found she could understand their situation much better, and set up the Bodhicitta Foundation, which is the focus of the second video.

The Foundation helps underprivileged people in many ways, including providing educational, medical and other support, as well as trying to see to the uplift of the community in general.

The final video is a recitation of an English translation of the Karaniyamettasutta, which she delivers in a flawless voice, and which is set against a backdrop of meaningful photographs.

If you would like to help support Ayya and her work, here is a link to her foundation, where you are able to make donations. There is also the Kalyanamitra Fund Account for direct support to Ayya personally.