Part of a series on Buddhism
History Buddhism History of Buddhism Timeline Councils Gautama Buddha Later Buddhists Category: Buddhism
Teachings concepts Dharma Four Noble Truths Five Aggregates Impermanence Suffering Non-self Dependent Origination Middle Way Emptiness Karma Rebirth Samsara Cosmology Category: Buddhist terms
Practices Threefold Training Three Jewels Noble Eightfold Path Morality Meditation Wisdom Perfections Mindfulness Compassion Aids to Enlightenment Monasticism Laity
Nirvana Nirvāṇa Four Stages Arahant Buddha Bodhisattva
Traditions Schools of Buddhism Hinayana Theravāda Mahāyāna Vajrayāna Tibetan
Texts Buddhist texts Pali Canon Chinese Buddhist canon
Buddhism by country General Countries India India Southern Transmission Sri Lanka Thailand Cambodia Laos Burma Eastern Transmission China Japan Korea Vietnam Indonesia Malaysia Singapore Northern Transmission Tibet Bhutan Mongolia Nepal Russia Western Transmission Western countries USA
Outline Buddhism portal view talk edit

Dukkha (Pāli; Sanskrit: duḥkha; Tibetan phonetic: dukngal) is a Buddhist term commonly translated as "suffering", "stress", "anxiety", or "dissatisfaction". Dukkha is identified as the first of the Four Noble Truths.

Within the Buddhist tradition, dukkha is commonly explained according to three different patterns or categories. In the first category, dukkha includes the obvious physical suffering or pain associated with giving birth, growing old, physical illness and the process of dying. These outer discomforts are referred to as the dukkha of ordinary suffering (dukkha-dukkha). In a second category, dukkha also includes the anxiety or stress of trying to hold onto things that are constantly changing; these inner anxieties are called the dukkha produced by change (vipariṇāma-dukkha). The third pattern or category of dukkha refers to a basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all forms of life, due to the fact that all forms of life are impermanent and constantly changing. On this level, the term indicates a lack of satisfaction, a sense that things never measure up to our expectations or standards. This subtle dissatisfaction is referred to as the dukkha of conditioned states (saṃkhāra-dukkha).

Neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic[link]

The central importance of dukkha in Buddhist philosophy is not intended to present a pessimistic view of life, but rather to present a realistic practical assessment of the human condition—that all beings must experience suffering and pain at some point in their lives, including the inevitable sufferings of illness, aging, and death.^[1] Contemporary Buddhist teachers and translators emphasize that while the central message of Buddhism is optimistic, the Buddhist view of our situation in life (the conditions that we live in) is neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic.^[a]

Walpola Rahula explains the importance of this realistic point of view:

First of all, Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic. If anything at all, it is realistic, for it takes a realistic view of life and of the world. It looks at things objectively (yathābhūtam). It does not falsely lull you into living in a fool’s paradise, nor does it frighten and agonize you with all kinds of imaginary fears and sins. It tells you exactly and objectively what you are and what the world around you is, and shows you the way to perfect freedom, peace, tranquility and happiness. One physician may gravely exaggerate an illness and give up hope altogether. Another may ignorantly declare that there is no illness and that no treatment is necessary, thus deceiving the patient with a false consolation. You may call the first one pessimistic and the second optimistic. Both are equally dangerous. But a third physician diagnoses the symptoms correctly, understands the cause and the nature of the illness, sees clearly that it can be cured, and courageously administers a course of treatment, thus saving his patient. The Buddha is like the last physician. He is the wise and scientific doctor for the ills of the world (Bhisakka or Bhaisajya-guru).^[6]

Surya Das emphasizes the matter-of-fact nature of dukkha:

Buddha Dharma does not teach that everything is suffering. What Buddhism does say is that life, by its nature, is difficult, flawed, and imperfect. [...] That's the nature of life, and that's the First Noble Truth. From the Buddhist point of view, this is not a judgement of life's joys and sorrows; this is a simple, down-to-earth, matter-of-fact description. ^[7]

The Buddha acknowledged that there is both happiness and sorrow in the world, but he taught that even when we have some kind of happiness, it is not permanent; it is subject to change. And due to this unstable, impermanent nature of all things, everything we experience is said to have the quality of duh­kha or unsatisfactoriness. Therefore unless we can gain insight into that truth, and understand what is really able to provide lasting happiness, and what is unable to provide happiness, the experience of dissatisfac­tion will persist.^{[8][web 4]}

Three patterns of dukkha[link]

Within the Buddhist tradition, dukkha is commonly explained according to three different patterns or levels or categories:^{[b][1][9][10][11][12][13][web 5][web 6][web 7][web 8]}

Dukkha of ordinary suffering

• Pali: dukkha-dukkha
• Also referred to as the suffering of suffering.
• Includes the sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, death, and coming across what is not desirable.
• This outer level of dukkha includes all of the obvious physical suffering or pain associated with giving birth, growing old, physical illness and the process of dying.

Dukkha produced by change

• Pali: viparinama-dukkha
• Also referred to as: suffering of change or suffering of impermanence.
• Includes two categories: trying to hold onto what is desirable, and not getting what you want.
• Buddhist author Chogyam Trungpa includes the category "not knowing what you want."
• Pema Chodron described this type of suffering as the suffering of trying to hold onto things that are always changing
• This inner level of dukkha includes the anxiety or stress of trying to hold onto things that are constantly changing.

Dukkha of conditioned states

• Pali sankhara-dukkha
• Also referred to as all-pervasive suffering
• This category is also identified as one of the "eight types of suffering".
• Pema Chodron describes this as the suffering of ego-clinging; the suffering of struggling with life as it is, as it presents itself to you; struggling against outer situations and yourself, your own emotions and thoughts, rather then just opening and allowing.
• This is a subtle form of suffering arising as a reaction to qualities of conditioned things, including the skandhas, the factors constituting the human mind.
• This is the deepest, most subtle level of dukkha; it includes "a basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all existence, all forms of life, due to the fact that all forms of life are changing, impermanent and without any inner core or substance."^{[web 9]}
• On this level, the term indicates a lack of satisfaction, a sense that things never measure up to our expectations or standards.

Eight types of dukkha[link]

The three patterns of dukkha described above can also be broken down into eight types:^{[14][web 10]}

• Suffering of birth: the discomfort of birth and experiencing the world for the first time; and the discomfort of relating to new demands or experiences.

• Suffering of old age: the discomfort involved in the process of aging and growing old; this can apply to psychological as well as physical discomfort of aging.

• Suffering of sickness: the discomfort of physical or psychological illness.

• Suffering of death: includes the pain of separation and not being able to continue on in your endeavors, as well as the physical discomfort of dying.

• Suffering of getting what you don't want: being unable to avoid difficult or painful situations.

• Suffering of not getting what you do want: this includes the pain of trying to hold onto what is desirable.

• All-pervasive suffering: a very subtle dissatisfaction that exists all the time; it arises as a reaction to the qualities of conditioned things (e.g. the impermanence of things).

Three marks of existence[link]

Dukkha is also listed among the three marks of existence. These are:

• Impermanence (anicca)
• Suffering (dukkha)
• Not-self (anatta).

In this context, dukkha denotes the experience that all formations (sankhara) are impermanent (anicca) - thus it explains the qualities which make the mind as fluctuating and impermanent entities. It is therefore also a gateway to anatta, not-self.

Developing insight into dukkha[link]

The Buddhist teachings emphasize the importance of practicing meditation in order to develop insight into dukkha. Contemporary Buddhist teacher Ajahn Brahm emphasizes this point using a simile that compares the experience of dukkha to being in prison, and compares meditation (Pali: jhana) to a tunnel that leads out of the prison:^[c]

Another simile [...] is that of the man who was born and raised in a prison and who has never set foot outside. All he knows is prison life. He would have no conception of the freedom that is beyond his world. And he would not understand that prison is suffering. If anybody suggested that his world was dukkha, he would disagree, for prison is the limit of his experience. But one day he might find the escape tunnel dug long ago that leads beyond the prison walls to the unimaginable and expansive world of real freedom. Only when he has entered that tunnel and escaped from his prison does he realize how much suffering prison actually was, and the end of that suffering, escaping from jail is happiness.

In this simile the prison is the body, the high prison walls are the five senses, and the relentless demanding prison guard is one's own will, the doer. The tunnel dug long ago, through which one escapes, is called jhana [meditation] (as at AN IX, 42). Only when one has experienced jhana does one realize that the five-sense world, even at its best, is really a five-walled prison, some parts of it is a little more comfortable but still a jail with everyone on death row! Only after deep jhana does one realize that "will" was the torturer, masquerading as freedom, but preventing one ever resting happily at peace. Only outside of prison can one gain the data that produces the deep insight that discovers the truth about dukkha.

In summary, without experience of jhana, one's knowledge of the world is too limited to fully understand dukkha, as required by the first noble truth, and proceed to enlightenment.^[15]

Contemporary Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa explains that meditation is designed to develop an understanding of dukkha:

Understanding suffering [dukkha] is very important. The practice of meditation is designed not to develop pleasure, but to understand the truth of suffering; and in order to understand the truth of suffering, one also has to understand the truth of awareness. When true awareness takes place, suffering does not exist. Through awareness, suffering is somewhat changed in its perspective. It is not necessarily that you do not suffer, but the haunting quality that fundamentally you are in trouble is removed. It is like removing a splinter. It might hurt, and you might still feel pain, but the basic cause of that pain, the ego, has been removed.^[16]

Similarly, the Anapanasati Sutta and Maha-satipatthana Sutta indicate that a person first needs to practice meditation to purify the mind of the five hindrances to wisdom before contemplating the Four Noble Truths, which begin with the nature of "dukkha" in life.

The need to develop insight into dukkha is also emphasized in Samyutta Nikaya #35, in which the Buddha says:

What ordinary folk call happiness, the enlightened ones call dukkha.

Contemporary scholar Micheal Carrithers also emphasizes the need to examine one's life. Carrithers asserts that insofar as it is dynamic, ever-changing, uncontrollable and not finally satisfactory, unexamined life is itself precisely dukkha.^[17] Carrithers also asserts that the question which underlay the Buddha's quest was "in what may I place lasting relevance?" He did not deny that there are satisfactions in experience: the exercise of vipassana assumes that the meditator sees instances of happiness clearly. Pain is to be seen as pain, and pleasure as pleasure. It is denied that happiness dependent on conditions will be secure and lasting.^[17]

Relation to the five skandhas[link]

According to the Buddhist tradition, the dukkha of conditioned states (saṃkhāra-dukkha) is related to clinging to the skandhas. Oxford scholar Noa Ronkin discusses the relation between the skandhas (Sanskrit; Pali: khandhas) and dukkha:

Her conclusion is that the associating of the five skandhas as a whole with dukkha indicates that experience is a combination of a straightforward cognitive process together with the psychological orientation that colours it in terms of unsatisfactoriness. Experience is thus both cognitive and affective, and cannot be separated from perception. As one's perception changes, so one's experience is different: we each have our own particular cognitions, perceptions and volitional activities in our own particular way and degree, and our own way of responding to and interpreting our experience is our very experience. In harmony with this line of thought, Gethin observes that the skandhas are presented as five aspects of the nature of conditioned existence from the point of view of the experiencing subject; five aspects of one's experience. Hence each khandha represents 'a complex class of phenomena that is continuously arising and falling away in response to processes of consciousness based on the six spheres of sense. They thus become the five upādānakhandhas, encompassing both grasping and all that is grasped.'^[18]

Within Buddhist literature[link]

Dukkha appears frequently in Buddhist texts. Jeffrey Po explains:

Dukkha is an extremely important concept and is central to understanding Buddhism in its entirety. It appears in the first of the Four Noble Truths and as one of the Three Characteristics of Existence. References to "dukkha" as one of life's situations abound in many of the suttas delivered by Lord Buddha Himself as well as in numerous Buddhist philosophical and psychological thoughts.^{[web 11]}

The Four Noble Truths deal with the nature of "dukkha" in life, what is the cause of "dukkha", the cessation (cure) for "dukkha", and the techniques to bring about the cessation of "dukkha".

The first noble truth is presented within the Buddha's first discourse, Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma (Dharmacakra Pravartana Sūtra), as follows:^{[web 12]}

"This is the noble truth of dukkha: birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, illness is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are dukkha; union with what is displeasing is dukkha; separation from what is pleasing is dukkha; not to get what one wants is dukkha; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are dukkha."^[19]

Texts like the Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta^{[web 13]} and Anuradha Sutta,^{[web 14]} show Buddha as insisting that the truths about dukkha and the way to end dukkha are the only ones he is teaching as far as attaining the ultimate goal of nirvana is concerned.

Within non-Buddhist literature[link]

Hinduism[link]

In Hindu literature, the earliest Upaniṣads — the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Chāndogya — are believed to predate or coincide with the advent of Buddhism.^[20] In these texts' verses, the Sanskrit word duḥkha (translated below as "suffering" and "distress") occurs only twice. In the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, it states (in English and Sanskrit):

In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad is written:

Thus, as in Buddhism, these texts emphasize the eradication of duḥkha as a desired and promised outcome; here duḥkha serves as an antipode to the ultimate Brahmanic goal of immortality (amṛtās). In addition, as in Buddhism, one overcomes duḥkha through the development of a transcendent understanding.^[25] Nonetheless, in these Brahmanic sacred texts, duḥkha is either identified as a general condition or as simply one of many undesirable states, not embodying the conceptual centrality assigned to it in Buddhist thought.

Panetics[link]

In 1986, the Journal of Humanistic Psychology published an article by Ralph G.H. Siu entitled Panetics—The Study of the Infliction of Suffering.^[26] In the abstract for the article, Sui proposed using the term dukkha as a quantitative measurement; he wrote:

After analyzing the unceasing mutual inflictions of suffering by practically everyone and the neglect of this pervasive and degenerating human deficiency by the academic community, I urge the immediate creation of a new and vigorous academic discipline, called panetics, to be devoted to the study of the infliction of suffering. The nature, scope, illustrative contents, and social value are outlined. The dukkha is proposed as a semiquantitative unit of suffering to assist in associated analytical operations.

Related publications include:

• Panetics: The study of the infliction of suffering. J. Humanistic Psychology 28(3), 6-22. 1988
• The humane chief of state and the Gross National Dukkhas (GND). Panetics 2(2), 1-5. 1993.
• Panetics Trilogy. The International Society for Panetics, 1994.
  • Vol. I, Less Suffering for Everybody. Ibid.
  • Vol. II, Panetics and Dukkhas. Ibid.
  • Vol. III, Seeds of Reflection, Panetic Word Clusters. Ibid

Etymology[link]

The early Western translators of Buddhist texts (prior to the 1970s) translated the Pali term dukkha as "suffering" and conveyed the impression that Buddhism was a pessimistic or world-denying philosophy. Later translators, however, including Walpola Rahula (What Buddha Taught, 1974) and nearly all contemporary translators, have emphasized that "suffering" is too limited a translation for the term dukkha, and have preferred to either leave the term untranslated or to clarify that translation with terms such as unease, anxiety, stress, dissatisfaction, disquietude, etc.^{[6][27][28][web 11]}

Rupert Gethin explains:

Rich in meaning and nuance, the word duḥkha is one of the basic terms of Buddhist and other Indian religious discourse. Literally ‘pain’ or ‘anguish’, in its religious and philosophical contexts duḥkha is, however, suggestive of an underlying sense of ‘unsatisfactoriness’ or ‘unease’ that must ultimately mar even our experience of happiness.^[1]

On the deepest level, dukkha suggests a basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all forms of life, due to the fact that all forms of life are impermanent and constantly changing. Dukkha indicates a lack of satisfaction, a sense that things never measure up to our expectations or standards.^{[29][web 9]}

Sargeant (2009: p. 303) explains the historical roots of duḥkha and its antonym sukha:

It is perhaps amusing to note the etymology of the words sukha (pleasure, comfort, bliss) and duḥkha (misery, unhappiness, pain). The ancient Aryans who brought the Sanskrit language to India were a nomadic, horse- and cattle-breeding people who travelled in horse- or ox-drawn vehicles. Su and dus are prefixes indicating good or bad. The word kha, in later Sanskrit meaning "sky," "ether," or "space," was originally the word for "hole," particularly an axle hole of one of the Aryan's vehicles. Thus sukha … meant, originally, "having a good axle hole," while duhkha meant "having a poor axle hole," leading to discomfort.^[30]

According to grammatical tradition, dukkha is derived from dus-kha "uneasy", but according to Monier-Williams more likely a Prakritized form of dus-stha "unsteady, disquieted".^[31] The Sanskrit prefix 'su' is used as an emphasis suggesting wholesome, high, evolved, desirable, strong and such.^{[web 15]}

Dukkha was translated as kǔ (苦 "bitterness; hardship; suffering; pain") in Chinese Buddhism, and this loanword is pronounced ku (苦) in Japanese Buddhism and ko (苦) in Korean Buddhism, and khổ in Vietnamese Buddhism. The Tibetan (phonetic) is dukngal. In Shan, it is [tuk˥kʰaː˥] and in Burmese, it is [doʊʔkʰa̰].

Alternate translations[link]

Translations used for dukkha in the context of the four noble truths are:

• A basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all existence (Bhikkhu Bodhi)
• Anguish
• Anxiety (Chogyam Trungpa: The Truth of Suffering, pp. 8-10)
• Affliction (Brazier)
• Dissatisfaction (Pema Chodron, Chogyam Trunpa)
• Discomfort
• Discontent
• Frustration
• Misery
• Sorrow
• Stress (Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Jon Kabat-Zin)
• Suffering (Thich Nhat Hanh, Ajahn Succito, Chogyam Trungpa, Rupert Gethin, et al.)
• Uneasiness (Chogyam Trungpa)
• Unease (Rupert Gethin)
• Unhappiness
• Unsatisfactoriness (Rupert Gethin)

See also[link]

• Four Noble Truths
• Nirodha
• Noble Eightfold Path
• Samudaya
• Suffering

Notes[link]

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Gethin 1998, p. 61.
2. ^ Goldstein 2002, p. 150.
3. ^ Gethin 1998, p. 62.
4. ^ Ajahn Sucitto 2010, p. 36.
5. ^ Ringu Tulku 2005, p. 23.
6. ^ ^{a b} Walpola Rahula 2007, loc. 525-541.
7. ^ Lama Surya Das 1997, loc.1300.
8. ^ Thich Nhat Hanh 1999, p. 11.
9. ^ ^{a b} Walpola Rahula 2007, loc. 590-592.
10. ^ Chogyam Trungpa 2009, p. 26-28.
11. ^ Sakyong Mipham 2003, p. 159-160.
12. ^ Ringu Tulku 2005, p. 24.
13. ^ Lama Surya Das 1997, p. 78-80.
14. ^ Chogyam Trungpa 2009, p. 16-26.
15. ^ Ajahn Brahm 2006.
16. ^ Chogyam Trungpa 2009, p. 34.
17. ^ ^{a b} Carrithers 1986, op cit., pp. 55-56..
18. ^ Ronkin 2005, p. 43.
19. ^ Bhikkhu Bodhi (translator) 2000, p. 1844.
20. ^ See, e.g., Patrick Olivelle (1996), Upaniṣads (Oxford: Oxford University Press), ISBN 978-0-19-283576-5, p. xxxvi: "The scholarly consensus, well-founded I think, is that the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Chāndogya are the two earliest Upaniṣads.... The two texts as we have them are, in all likelihood, pre-Buddhist; placing them in the seventh to sixth centuries BCE may be reasonable, give or take a century or so."
21. ^ BU 4.4.14, trans. Olivelle (1996), p. 66.
22. ^ BrhUp 4,4.14. Retrieved 28 December 2008 from "Georg-August-Universität Göttingen" at http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil/1_sanskr/1_veda/4_upa/brup___u.htm.
23. ^ CU 7.26.2, trans. Olivelle (1996), p. 166. Compare this statement to that in the Pali Canon's Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11) where sickness and death are formulaically identified as examplars of dukkha.
24. ^ ChUp 7,26.2. Retrieved 27 December 2008 from "Georg-August-Universität Göttingen" at http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil/1_sanskr/1_veda/4_upa/chup___u.htm.
25. ^ For a general discussion of the core Indian spiritual goal of developing transcendent "seeing," see, e.g., Hamilton, Sue (2000/2001), Indian Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford: Oxford U. Press), pp. 9-10, ISBN 978-0-19-285374-5.
26. ^ Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 28, No. 3, 6-22 (1988).
27. ^ Prebish 1993.
28. ^ Keown 2003.
29. ^ Walpola Rahula 2007, loc. 514-524.
30. ^ Sargeant 2009, p. 303.
31. ^ Monier-Williams 1899, 1964, p. 483.

Web references[link]

Sources[link]

External links[link]

Online commentaries:

• What Buddha Taught (free online version)

Other sources:

• The various meanings of the Pali term "Dukkha", edited by John T. Bullitt - Access to Insight
• On understanding the teaching of Dukkha by the Buddha, Kingsley Heendeniya
• Ku 苦 entry (use "guest" with no password for one-time login), Digital Dictionary of Buddhism
• International Society for Panetics

Ayya Khema
Religion	Theravada
Personal
Nationality	German & American
Born	(1923-08-25)August 25, 1923 Berlin, Germany
Died	November 21, 1997(1997-11-21) (aged 74)
Senior posting
Title	bikshuni dasa sil mata
Religious career
Teacher	Ven. Narada Maha Thera (first ordination) Ven. Hsing Yun (second ordination)

Ayya Khema (August 25, 1923 - November 2, 1997), a Buddhist teacher, was born as Ilse Kussel in Berlin, Germany, to Jewish parents. Khema escaped Nazis persecution during World War II. She eventually moved to the United States. After travelling in Asia she decided to become a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka in 1979. She was very active in providing opportunities for women to practice Buddhism, founding several centers around the world. In 1987 she co-ordinated the first ever International Conference of Buddhist Nuns. Khema wrote over two dozen books in English and German, including her autobiography: I Give You My Life.

Biography[link]

Ayya Khema was born in Berlin in 1923 to Jewish parents. In 1938, she escaped from Germany with two hundred other children and was taken to Glasgow, Scotland. Her parents went to China and, two years later Ayya Khema joined them in Shanghai. With the outbreak of the war, however, the family was put into a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp where her father died. She later married, had a son and a daughter, and now has four grandchildren.

Four years after the American liberation of the camp, Ayya Khema was able to emigrate to the United States. Between 1960 and 1964 she travelled with her husband and son throughout Asia, including the Himalayan countries, during which she learned meditation. Ten years later, she began to teach meditation throughout Europe and Australia. Her experiences led her to become a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka in 1979, when she was given the name of "Khema" (Ayya means Venerable) meaning safety and security. In Sri Lanka she met her teacher the Ven. Matara Sri Ñāṇanārāma of Nissarana Vanaya who inspired her to teach jhana meditation. As it was not possible at the time to organize an ordination ceremony for bhikkhunis in the Theravada tradition, Ayya Khema then received complete monastic ordination at the newly built Hsi Lai Temple, a Chinese Mahayana temple under the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order, in 1988.

Metta Vihara

She helped to establish Wat Buddha Dhamma, a forest monastery in the Theravada tradition, near Sydney, Australia, in 1978. In Colombo she set up the International Buddhist Women's Centre as a training centre for Sri Lankan nuns, and the Parappuduwa Nun's Island at Dodanduwa. (now closed). She was the spiritual director of Buddha-Haus in Germany, established in 1989 under her auspices.

In June 1997 "Metta Vihara", the first Buddhist forest monastery in Germany, was inaugurated by her, and the first ordinations in the German language took place there.

In 1987 she co-ordinated the first International Conference of Buddhist Nuns in the history of Buddhism, which resulted in the setting-up of Sakyadhita, a worldwide Buddhist women's organisation. H.H. the Dalai Lama was the keynote speaker at the conference. In May 1987, as an invited lecturer, she was the first ever Buddhist nun to address the United Nations in New York on the topic of Buddhism and World Peace.

Ayya Khema has written twenty-five books on meditation and the Buddha's teachings in English and German; her books have been translated into seven languages. In 1988, her book "Being Nobody, Going Nowhere" received the Christmas Humphreys Memorial Award.

Ayya Khema ordained Ven. Sister Sangamitta from Switzerland (now practising in Thailand), Ven. Sister Dhammadina (a graduate of Peradeniya University), Ven. Sister Vayama from Australia, and Ven. Sister Uttpalvanna of Galle, and her pupils in Sri Lanka.

Ayya Khema drew her last breath on November 2, 1997 at Buddha Haus, Uttenbühl (part of the village Oy-Mittelberg) in Germany after a brief illness.

Publications[link]

• Being Nobody, Going Nowhere, Meditations on the Buddhist Path, 1987
• When the Iron Eagle Flies, Buddhism for the West, 1991
• Who is myself?, A guide to Buddhist meditation, 1997
• Come and See for Yourself, The Buddhist Path to Happiness, 1998
• Be an Island, The Buddhist practice of Inner Peace, 1999
• Visible here and now,
• I Give You My Life, her autobiography,

See also[link]

• Ordination of women
• Buddhist monasticism
• Thai Forest Tradition
• Vihara

External links[link]

• Her biography : I give you my life
• Ayya Khema's writings
• Collection of about 400 of Ayya Khema's Dharma talks between 1988-1996