VISITING ANUKAMPA GROVE
General Information
Anukampa Grove is a small and quiet monastic residence for fully ordained nuns (bhikkhunis) ~ the first of its kind in the UK! Due to its size and purpose, which is to provide up to four bhikkhunis a place to live and practice, it differs from a traditional Buddhist temple that is open to the public. This means that all visits are by pre-arrangement only and at the discretion of the resident bhikkhunis ~ no drop-in visitors are allowed.
As alms mendicants, bhikkhunis do not cook, handle money or drive, so our visitors are invited to participate in the monastic lifestyle by helping with cooking and providing transport. As a dear guest, you will take part in our shared routine which involves eating meals together and reflecting on the Buddha's teachings as they apply to our daily activities and meditation practice. We trust that you come with the intention to respect and benefit from the peaceful atmosphere at Anukampa Grove and hope that you will gain inspiration and confidence in your practice by spending time with spiritual friends! If you are bringing your car, please park in our driveway and not on the private roads nearby, in the spirit of care for the local environment.
A New Residence for Bhikkhunis – Anukampa Grove
We are delighted to share the news that after a long search, Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project have secured an ideal property on Boars Hill near the beautiful University city of Oxford, to be the first monastic residence for Theravada bhikkhunis in the UK. Here, it will be possible for bhikkhunis like Venerable Canda (and eventually up to four female monastics), to live a simple, quiet life devoted to their Buddhist practice, and for their monastic and lay friends to visit - what a blessing! We are incredibly grateful to our Buddhist friends and donors around the world who have enabled bhikkhunis to finally have a place to call home in England. We rejoice in your kindness and generosity and may our endeavours be of benefit and inspiration to you!
Four Ways To Be Involved
The monastic code (Vinaya) requires the ordained monastic Sangha to live in dependence upon lay (non-ordained) Buddhists for some of their practical needs. For instance, monastics cannot grow or prepare their own food and therefore must accept food that is freely offered by lay people. Motivated by deep faith in the ethical integrity of monastics who dedicate their life to Awakening, lay people are thus able to cultivate the virtue of generosity as a foundation for their own meditation practice, whilst benefiting from the wisdom and example of monastics who practice with sincerity.
1. Residential Stays
Whilst Anukampa Grove is primarily a residence for bhikkhunis, we have a couple of rooms for our lay Buddhist friends to come and practice with us as residential guests for a week or longer. We can accommodate female, male, transgender or non-binary people. A stay provides the opportunity to deepen your meditation practice and join in our monastic lifestyle and simple routine. All visits must be pre-arranged and approved by the resident bhikkhunis.
Our guests will practice and apply the whole Eightfold Noble Path in a quiet environment, supported by spiritual friends. A stay includes some light housekeeping chores such as cooking, cleaning and gardening, and offers ample time for solitary meditation practice in our peaceful meditation room. The bhikkhunis invite you to meditate with us twice a day and offer you the opportunity to join our twice-weekly online teachings and talk to us about your practice. Our visitors say that staying here deeply inspires their practice and they leave feeling a renewed aspiration to commit to living a life of harmlessness and to continue deepening their meditation practice.
Anukampa Grove also offers the possibility to explore whether monastic life could be beneficial for you. The path to ordination is progressive and would include visits and longer stays at different bhikkhuni communities, to see if a small community like ours or a larger place would be most suitable for you. Aspiring monastics must have participated in several retreats of at least a week in length, be in sound mental and physical health, and have an established daily practice that is well integrated into a stable lifestyle at home.
If you would like to visit, please email the resident community at team@anukampaproject.org
2. Visiting for Lunch and Giving Other Requisites
There are many ways to offer your support the community from afar to enrich your practice.
Generosity lies at the heart of the Buddhist Path and is the foundation for inner cultivation. The Buddha taught that the type of giving that yields most benefit is when gifts are offered with a serene, joyful heart for the purpose of beautifying and equipping the mind with stillness and wisdom (AN:8:31). We would very much like to give our supporters and Buddhist friends the wonderful opportunity to practice generosity (in Pali, dana), by offering meals and/or other requisites and household items to the resident bhikkhunis.
Below we offer six ideas for how you can participate in giving, whether you live locally or far away. To find out more, please email team@anukampaproject.org.
1. Come for a shared lunch! Offer a prepared hot dish for the bhikkhunis' main meal at 11:00. You can check the Lunch Dana Calendar to look for available dates, or write to team@anukampaproject.org to request an invitation to join for lunch or to get more information.
2. Invite the bhikkhunis for a meal at your home or at a restaurant.
3. Order shopping deliveries or vegetable boxes on a weekly roster. You may do this as a one-off or on a more regular basis.
4. Send Gift vouchers. This is particularly helpful for the resident bhikkhunis who cannot use money. Example stores include:
Tesco (supermarket)
Sainsburys (supermarket)
Costa and other cafes (helpful for when the bhikkhunis are travelling)
Dunelm (paint, varnish, cabinets, bedsheets, household items, etc)
John Lewis (all manner of things!)
Marks & Spencer (food, household items)
and other food, home, and hardware stores in the Oxford area.
5. Supply household items. The Needed Items List contains various items that Anukampa Grove and the resident bhikkhunis need.
It is also very helpful to invite the resident Sangha to let you know if there are specific items they need. Please let them know by writing to (team@anukampaproject.org) and include your approximate spending range and the time frame of your offer - for example, you may wish to offer £30 for use within the next 3 months.
6. Offer a lift or an Oyster card.
3. Offering Your Time to Help the Bhikkhuni Sangha Flourish
We deeply appreciate offers of time for specific types of help, as and when needed. You can also keep an eye on our newsletter for details of things you may be able to do from your home, to support us in our first aim of spreading the teachings and practices of Early Buddhism. Dhamma.
We also have two WhatsApp Groups for ad-hoc help, called Anukampa Food at the Ready (AFAR) and Anukampa Hands at the Ready (AHAR) that you are welcome to join, to receive updates about what the bhikkhunis need.
Please write team@anukampaproject.org with your interests, skills and availability, or to request to be added to either or both WhatsApp group(s).
4. Offer Funds via a Regular Standing Order
Standing orders are particularly helpful in allowing the Charity to plan ahead. If you are in a fortunate position to give more, that is great! We sincerely appreciate donations of any amount and invite you to rejoice in your generosity, knowing it is supporting us to spread the priceless Buddha's teachings around the world.
If you would like to set up a standing order please arrange it with your bank using the following details:
From the UK:
Account Name: Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project
Account Type: Please choose charity, organisation or business (NOT personal account).
Account Number: 91826271
Sort Code: 40-20-24, HSBC Bank plc.
From Overseas:
Account name: Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project
Account Number: 91826271
IBAN: GB97HBUK40202491826271
BIC: HBUKGB4112G (or HBUKGB4BXXX for Wise transfer).
Bank name and address:
HSBC Bank plc
54 High Street
Epsom, Surrey
KT19 8DS
United Kingdom.
Beneficiary address (NOT the bhikkhuni residence):
Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project
16 Blenheim Close
Shepreth
ROYSTON
SG8 6PT
United Kingdom.
Please note:
The Royston address is a registered address used for official, legal, and financial correspondence only. It is NOT the location of Anukampa Grove or Ven. Canda's residence. Please do not send any physical mail, gifts, or offerings intended for the Monastery or Ven. Canda to this address. If you would like to offer food items or other support please contact us here.
Beneficiary email address: finances@anukampaproject.org
If you would like a receipt or an acknowledgement of your transfer, please forward your contact details by email HERE.
For Donations of 10K or over it is essential to include your email contact details with the transaction.
Thank you for your inspiring generosity and patience!
Wise Transfers
To save fees and get better exchange rates, Wise is a great option. Wise uses the real exchange rate for sending money, which means cheap, fair and transparent international transfers with a low, upfront fee. You can use the referral link HERE. Please be sure to send UK/British Pound sterling (GBP), not other currency.
If you would like to donate using a credit card or via PayPal, please go to our donations page here.
We rejoice in your generosity and in your presence in our spiritual community!
"Bhikkhu(ni)s, in three cases one may be understood to have faith and confidence.
What three? When one desires to see those of virtuous behaviour;
when one desires to hear the good Dhamma;
and when one dwells at home with a mind devoid of the stain of miserliness,
freely generous, openhanded, delighting in relinquishment,
devoted to charity, delighting in giving and sharing.
In these three cases one may be understood to have faith and confidence."
(AN3:42)
“Bhikkhu(ni)s, if beings knew, as I know, the result of giving and sharing, they would not eat without having given, nor would they allow the stain of meanness to obsess them and take root in their minds. Even if it were their last morsel, their last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared it, if there were someone to share it with. But, bhikkhus, as beings do not know, as I know, the result of giving and sharing, they eat without having given, and the stain of meanness obsesses them and takes root in their minds.”
Iti.26 (Giving).
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