Ajahn Canda

Ajahn Canda is a bhikkhuni, a fully ordained nun in the Theravada tradition, and the spiritual director of Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project, a charity building a monastic home for women near Oxford. She met the Dhamma on a Goenka course in India in 1996 and gave the following decade to sitting and serving on vipassana retreats in India and Nepal. She was first ordained in Myanmar in 2006 and trained there with Sayadaw U Pannyajota, then went to Australia as a disciple of Ajahn Brahm, receiving full ordination in 2014 at his request to begin teaching.

Since coming back to England in 2016 she has guided the project from an idea to Anukampa Grove, a residence where women in Britain can now train towards full bhikkhuni ordination. Her teaching stays close to the early suttas and is warm and plain-spoken, with constant emphasis on kindness, right view and letting go as the way into calm and insight. She leads online sutta discussions and guided metta sessions from Oxford, teaches retreats in Britain and Australia, often alongside Ajahn Brahm, and guides month-long practice at the IMS Forest Refuge. Several months of every year are kept for her own silent retreat.