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Ayya Khema

Buddhist paths

Portrait of Ayya Khema

1993

Photo: nyana_ponika, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Teaching

The spiritual path, she says, is letting go, not achievement. In concentrated meditation one sees body and mind as changing processes, and the sense of a solid self, kept alive by identification and clinging, loosens. 2, 3

Who it is for

For people who want a clear, practical introduction to Buddhist meditation and to the teaching of non-self, in English or German.

Life and places
  • She was taken from Germany to Glasgow, Scotland, with two hundred other children; her parents went to China, and two years later she joined them in Shanghai. 4
  • In 1978 she helped to establish Wat Buddha-Dhamma, a forest monastery in the Theravada tradition near Sydney, Australia. 4
  • In Sri Lanka she set up the International Buddhist Women's Centre in Colombo, a training centre for Sri Lankan nuns, and the Parappuduwa Nuns' Island at Dodanduwa. 4

Where to start

  • Her autobiography appeared in German in 1997 as Ich schenke euch mein Leben and in English in 1998 as I Give You My Life. 5, 6
Public context
  • Born in Berlin in 1923 to Jewish parents, she fled Germany as a girl and was ordained as a nun in Sri Lanka in 1979. She founded the Buddha-Haus in the Allgäu (1989) and Metta Vihara, the first Buddhist forest monastery in Germany (1997), and died at the Buddha-Haus in November 1997. 1, 4

Works

  • Being Nobody, Going Nowhere

    Book · 1987 · Wisdom Publications

    A book of talks on meditation and the Buddhist path.

    openlibrary.org

  • Ich schenke euch mein Leben: Die außergewöhnliche Lebensgeschichte einer deutschen Buddhistin (I Give You My Life)

    Book · 1997 · Barth, Bern, Munich and Vienna

    Her autobiography, from her childhood in Berlin to her life as a Buddhist nun.

    d-nb.info

The short summaries are ours.

More works of Ayya Khema in the library

In their own words

Short passages in the words of Ayya Khema, each with its source. Where the quoted text is not in the language of this page, a translation follows and says whose it is.

  • The spiritual path is never one of achievement; it is always one of letting go. The more we let go, the more there is empty and open space for us to see reality.

    Meditating on No-Self: A Dhamma Talk · Paragraph beginning "If we really want to get rid of suffering" · accesstoinsight.org Recorded: Dhamma talk edited for Bodhi Leaves No. 95 (Buddhist Publication Society, 1984); editor not named.

  • Now the blame that is levied at us is not the problem. The problem is our reaction.

    Meditating on No-Self: A Dhamma Talk · Paragraph after the passage on praise and blame · accesstoinsight.org Recorded: Dhamma talk edited for Bodhi Leaves No. 95 (Buddhist Publication Society, 1984); editor not named.

  • It seems negative and depressing to be nobody and have nothing. We have to find out for ourselves that it is the most exhilarating and liberating feeling we can ever have.

    All of Us: Beset by Birth, Decay, and Death · Chapter V, 'War and Peace', fourth paragraph · accesstoinsight.org Recorded: Talk on Parappuduwa Nuns' Island, typed from tape by volunteers and published by Ayya Khema herself (preface dated 1 January 1987).
Sources
  1. Ayya Khema · Buddha House Biography by the centre she founded; honouring accessed 10 Oct 2026
  2. Meditating on No-Self · Access to Insight Her dhamma talk, edited for Bodhi Leaves No. 95 (Buddhist Publication Society, 1984); free distribution accessed 10 Oct 2026
  3. All of Us · Access to Insight Twelve of her talks on Parappuduwa Nuns' Island, self-published (preface 1987); free distribution with her permission accessed 10 Oct 2026
  4. Biographical Material on Ayya Khema · BuddhaNet Biography reproduced from a tribute by K.P.W. Gnanawathie (Ceylon Daily News, 12 February 1998); honouring accessed 10 Oct 2026
  5. Ich schenke euch mein Leben (Barth, 1997) · German National Library Library catalogue record accessed 10 Oct 2026
  6. I Give You My Life (Shambhala, 1998) · German National Library Library catalogue record accessed 10 Oct 2026

Compiled by us from the sources listed. Last checked 11 Oct 2026.

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This description is factual. It contains no recommendation, ranking or assurance. Statements about effects are those of the respective source.