Clear Mountain Annual Almsgiving Celebration: Finding a Refuge

Saturday, June 28th, 9:30 am – 3 pm PDT at St. Mark’s Cathedral’s Bloedel Hall (enter through back of cathedral), 1245 10th Ave E. Those unable to attend in-person are also welcome to tune in via Zoom or YouTube livestream. To participate in chanting, use this online Chanting Book.

“Clear Mountain Almsgiving Celebration: Finding a Refuge” (Pah Bah–ผ้าป่า in thai) is a joyful tradition where the lay community offers food, cloth, and financial support to Buddhist monastics and their practice. It’s a beautiful opportunity that brings happiness and spiritual benefit to both the givers and the receivers.

This year, offerings will help Clear Mountain build a permanent home for the future monastery—a growing refuge for all.

Join us in this joyful celebration! Bring food to share at the potluck and take part in a day of generosity, community, and shared blessings!

Schedule
9:00 – 9:30 am: People arriving & settling in
9:30 – 10 am: Welcome, introduction, & guided meditation.
10 – 10:45 am: Dhamma talk by Luang Por Sona
10:45 am – 12:30 pm: Monastics receive food & chant blessing. All share a potluck meal
12:30 – 1 pm: Almsgiving Ceremony
1 – 2 pm: Dhamma talk by Ayyā Ānandabodhī & closing reflection
2 – 3 pm: Group photo, cleanup, & hobnobbing with new friends!

What to Bring
– A cushion to sit on if you want, though chairs will be available as well, and your love of practice!
– An optional potluck dish to share.

Donations
Almsgiving Ceremonies (or ผ้าป่า “Pah Bah” in Thai) are a beautiful and significant way to financially support the monastics and the founding of a monastery. Support gathered at this year’s ceremony will go towards Clear Mountain’s Land and Building Fund, and support the monastery’s future development. Those who wish to contribute to Clear Mountain’s future home by donating to the Land & Building Fund may do so by visiting www.friendsofclearmountain.org, the website of Clear Mountain’s steward organization. In your donation, feel free to note that your donation is made for the Almsgiving Ceremony.

Parking
Those driving may enter the campus at the north between the cathedral and the St. Nicholas Building – the location of the Gage Academy and Seattle Amistad School. They may then drive all the way to the back of the cathedral. Parking is free for Clear Mountain attendees even though signs in the lot indicate payment is required. If the lot is crowded, attendees may park at the Episcopal Diocese (1551 10th Ave E.) a block north of Saint Mark’s.  We encourage the use of public transportation when convenient, and the Seattle bus #49 stops at the corner of 10th Ave. and E Galer, just north of the meeting place.

Zoom Link
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82909114254?pwd=Sm1RVWxYdWp0aldibENoOHJscTQvQT09
Meeting ID: 829 0911 4254 / Passcode: 917562

Zoom Link for Remote Participants

Biographies

Luang Por Sona
Ajahn Soṇa is the founder and abbot of Birken Monastery. Born in Canada in 1954, Ajahn Soṇa’s background was as a classical guitarist. His encounter with Buddhist wisdom as a young man initiated a spiritual journey that led him to become a lay hermit in the Coast Mountain region of British Columbia for several years. He subsequently ordained as a Theravada monk in 1989 under Bhante Gunaratana at the Bhavana Society in West Virginia, where his first years of training took place. Ajahn. Soṇa further trained for another three plus years at monasteries in the Ajahn Chah tradition in northeast Thailand, especially Wat Pah Nanachat. Upon his return to Canada in 1994 he helped found the original Birken Forest Monastery near Pemberton, BC and, as its spiritual guide. Through several incarnations, he has since led Birken monastery, also known by its Pali name ‘Sītavana’, translated as ‘cool forest grove’, through to its current and final resting place in a secluded, fully off-grid forest location just south of Kamloops, B.C.

Ayyā Ānandabodhī
Ayya Anandabodhi was born and raised at the foot of the sacred Preseli Mountains in Wales, UK. They first encountered the Buddha’s teaching in her early teens while reading a book on Buddhism. Reading the Four Noble Truths was life-changing and from that moment they experienced a deep confidence in the Buddha’s insight, and a wish to understand his teachings more deeply. At the age of 24, Ayya Anandabodhi began monastic training at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in England. Seventeen years later, in 2009, they moved to the USA with a wish to create more opportunities for women monastics. In 2011 they took full Bhikkhuni Ordination, joining the worldwide revival of the Theravada Bhikkhuni Order. Ayya Anandabodhi’s practice and teaching are guided by early Buddhist scriptures, living in community, and through nature’s pure and immediate Dhamma. She is the founder of Pārāyana Vihara in Port Townsend, WA.

Ayyā Niyyānika
Ayya uses they/them pronouns. Ayya began monastic training in 2014 and spent eight years training in bhikkhunī communities at Dhammadharini and Aloka Vihara in California, USA. Ayya then traveled for a year in the West and Asia, giving them a broader view of our conditioned world and how Buddhists practice around the world. Now, Ayya is a part of Passaddhi Vihara in the Pacific Northwest, USA.

Ven. Kunga
Venerable Thubten Kunga grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, as the daughter of a Filipino immigrant and earned degrees in Sociology and Public Administration before working for the U.S. State Department and in community service roles. She encountered Buddhism in college but began practicing seriously in 2014, becoming involved with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington and the Guyhasamaja FPMT center. In 2016, she traveled to Nepal to teach English and took refuge at Kopan Monastery after discovering a deep sense of peace through meditation. She soon connected with Sravasti Abbey, where she became a long-term guest, received anagarika ordination in 2017, novice ordination in 2019, and found a spiritual home. In March 2024, she received full bhikshuni ordination at Fo En Si Temple in Taiwan.

Biographies (Resident Monastics)

Ajahn Kovilo
Ajahn Kovilo is an Ohio-born monk who, having been introduced to meditation through the Goenka tradition, first entered the monastery in 2006. After receiving full ordination from Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro at Abhayagiri Monastery in California in 2010, he spent the next decade training at monasteries in the Ajahn Chah tradition in America and Thailand. In 2020, after a year practicing at a Pa Auk Sayadaw monastery, Ajahn Kovilo enrolled at the Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) to study Pali and to better understand Mahāyāna practices. Having graduated from DRBU in 2024, Ajahn Kovilo has now joined the Clear Mountain community in person.

Ajahn Nisabho
After finishing college in 2012, Ajahn Nisabho left his native Washington to go forth as a Buddhist monk in Thailand. He received full ordination the following spring under Ajahn Anan, a senior disciple of renowned meditation master, Ajahn Chah, and spent the following years training in forest monasteries around the world with contemporary masters such as Ajahn Anan, Ajahn Pasanno, and Ajahn Jayasaro. Over these years, he came to believe the tradition represented a faithful embodiment of the original Buddhist path able to yield great fruit even amidst the complexities of modern life. In the summer of 2021, he returned to Seattle to plant the first seeds of Clear Mountain Monastery.