Our return guest today on Treasure Mountain Podcast is Bhante Akaliko who is an Australian monk in the Theravada forest tradition. He is the spiritual director of Little Dust and founder of the Rainbodhi LGBTQIA+ Buddhist Community. Bhante Akāliko is also the spiritual advisor of Central West Buddhists and a chaplain at Western Sydney University. He sits on the boards of the Buddhist Council of NSW and the Federation of Australian Buddhist Councils.
Bhante Akaliko’s inspired project that we will be discussing today is Rainbodhi.
Rainbodhi is a spiritual friendship group for LGBTQIA+ Buddhists and an advocate for more inclusion and diversity in the broader Buddhist community. They offer meditation, Dhamma discussion and social events in a safe, supportive environment. Rainbodhi welcome everyone regardless of race, gender, sexuality, or ability. Rainbodhi is a non-sectarian Buddhist group, welcoming people from all faiths or with no faith. And all their events are free.
The Rainbodhi name combines two words; rainbow representing our diverse community and bodhi the Buddhist concept of Enlightenment. And it’s Rainbodhi that we will be discussing with Bhante Akaliko in this interview. So join us as we seek for the treasure within…
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Links from this episode:
Rainbodhi
About Bhante Akaliko
Treasure Mountain Podcast links:
Treasure Mountain Podcast
Treasure Mountain on Facebook
Everyday Dhamma Network
Thank you for listening to the Treasure Mountain Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with you friends. If you'd like to support me to produce this type of content in future, you can support my work by offering a tip or becoming a Supporter or Member of Treasure Mountain Podcast via the Ko-fi payment applet.

Our guest today on Treasure Mountain is Ian Green, who is Chairman of the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion Ltd and Founder of the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace. Along with his wife Judy, he has been a Buddhist for over 40 years and a vegetarian for over 25 years.
Ian’s connection to Buddhism began with a visit to India in 1971. He has had the good fortune to meet many Buddhist teachers including Geshe Loden, Zasep Tulku, Lama Thubten Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ayya Khema. In 1979 Ian completed the month long course at Kopan Monastery, in Kathmandu. Ian has continued his studies under many Buddhist masters to this day.
In the 1980 Ian’s father, Ed Green offered 50 acres of land to set up a Buddhist centre near Bendigo. This original 50 acres was later added to with further land from Ian’s mother and himself so that the Buddhist Centre in Bendigo is now 200 acres (85 hectares).
Ian was founding Director of Atisha Centre, he has served as board members of Tara Institute and Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition Inc. He is currently Chairman of the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion Ltd and Founder of the Jade Buddha for Universal peace.
Ian has received various awards for his international work for peace and is a recipient of the Order of Australia Medal.
It is the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion that is Ian Green’s Inspired Project that we are going to focus on in this episode, and as you’ll find out in this interview, and what its real meaning and purpose is.
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Links from this episode:
The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion
Treasure Mountain Podcast links:
Treasure Mountain Podcast
Treasure Mountain on Facebook
Everyday Dhamma Network
Thank you for listening to the Treasure Mountain Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with you friends. If you'd like to support me to produce this type of content in future, you can support my work by offering a tip via the Ko-fi payment applet.

Our guest today on Treasure Mountain is John Waite who was born in post WW2 United Kingdom and brought up to be fiercely independent. From a young age he was searching for a better way to live in the world and was influenced by the simultaneously political and spiritual principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Travelling to India in the 1970s he was touched by the kindness of the Indian people despite their modest means. A chance meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala was a turning point on his spiritual journey. Later Joh would go on a two-week meditation retreat in Queensland an was pleasantly surprised when every thorny question and challenge to the teacher was warmly received and returned with wise, well-considered answers. This led him to commit himself to the path of practice. He was influenced deeply by Lama Zopa’s emphasis and example of being of service to others. John put this philosophy into practice enthusiastically as a volunteer fire fighter, ambulance medic, trade union steward and later as the Director of Hayagriva Buddhist Centre in Perth for 17 years helping to bring many great Buddhist teachers to Australia and supporting his local community of practice.
John is an old friend of mine and we worked together to found the Buddhist Council of Western Australia around 2005, and we also participated in getting the Federation of Australian Buddhist Councils off the ground around the same time. Not only did I appreciate his calm and steady presence in the work we were doing to bring the various Buddhist groups together for a common cause, but also his insistence that all the Buddhist traditions have the same heart of dharma at their core. I think his attitude was prescient as we enter into this post-sectarian Buddhist renaissance in the twenty-first century.
And that’s why I wanted to interview him on the podcast. In one sense this interview is John Waite’s Spirit Story, about his path into practice, but on the other it’s telling a broader story about Buddhism as it moves into the West, specifically into Australia, and where it may be heading in future. I’m so glad you’ve joined us as we seek for the Dharma within…
Links from this episode:
Hayagriva Buddhist Centre
Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition
Treasure Mountain Podcast links:
Treasure Mountain Podcast
Treasure Mountain on Facebook
Everyday Dhamma Network
Thank you for listening to the Treasure Mountain Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with you friends. If you'd like to support me to produce this type of content in future, you can support my work by offering a tip or becoming a Supporter or Member of Treasure Mountain Podcast via the Ko-fi payment applet.
 

One of the most impactful traditions of Buddhism in the modern world is one that isn’t very good at publicity - but is very dedicated to practice. Despite it’s strict adherence to the principles of monastic discipline and the principles of Buddhist ethics, like for instance never selling the teachings, it has gained a huge grass roots following in many Western countries where people are drawn to its plain, simple honesty and dedication to the original principles of set out by the Buddha. I’m referring to the Thai Forest Tradition, and to help us understand the origins and practices of the Thai Forest Tradition I have as our guest, Steven Towler, who, at the age of 19 left his home in the UK to travel to Thailand to ordain as a bhikkhu in 1972. This was a time in which the Thai Forest Tradition was in full bloom, and the first Westerners were travelling to Thailand to practice and even ordain. Steven ordained at Wat Bovornives with Phra Khantipalo, and we on to have many great teachers, including the renowned meditation master Ajahn Thate. He’s still dedicated to the Thai Forest Tradition and practicing to this day, and he has translated several Dhamma books from Thai to English for the benefit of the community. He’s kindly joined us on the Treasure Mountain Podcast to offer his knowledge and insights into this tradition that continues to grow in popularity to this day.
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Links from this episode:
Talks by Steven Towler
Treasure Mountain Podcast links:
Treasure Mountain Podcast
Treasure Mountain on Facebook
Everyday Dhamma Network
Thank you for listening to the Treasure Mountain Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with you friends. If you'd like to support me to produce this type of content in future, you can support my work by offering a tip or becoming a Supporter or Member of Treasure Mountain Podcast via the Ko-fi payment applet.
 

Our guest today on Treasure Mountain Podcast is Bhante Akaliko. Akāliko Bhikkhu is an Australian monk in the Theravada forest tradition. He is the spiritual director of Little Dust and founder of the Rainbodhi LGBTQIA+ Buddhist Community. Bhante Akāliko is also the spiritual advisor of Central West Buddhists and a chaplain at Western Sydney University. He sits on the boards of the Buddhist Council of NSW and the Federation of Australian Buddhist Councils.
Bhante Akāliko went forth as a monastic in 2016 and received full ordination with Ajahn Brahm at Bodhinyana monastery in 2017. He lived for several years with Bhante Sujato at the Monastery at the End of the World in Sydney and now lives as a wandering monk. He is now working on setting up the Little Dust Buddhist Community.
Little Dust connects communities across Australia to the Buddha’s teachings. It is aiming to create Dhamma and meditation events for Buddhists from diverse cultural backgrounds, as well as new Buddhists and the Buddh-ish. Little Dust aims to make Buddhism available to everyone, especially in regional and country areas where access to the Dhamma is limited.
So in this episode of Treasure Mountain Podcast we’re going to look at the work of Little Dust in working to develop communities of practice in outback Australia, but also to address the broader question of what to do to develop practice of Buddhism as both and individual and as small groups and communities to support one another in the dhamma.
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Links from this episode:
Little Dust Buddhist Community
About Bhante Akaliko
Treasure Mountain Podcast links:
Treasure Mountain Podcast
Treasure Mountain on Facebook
Everyday Dhamma Network
Thank you for listening to the Treasure Mountain Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with you friends. If you'd like to support me to produce this type of content in future, you can support my work by offering a tip or becoming a Supporter or Member of Treasure Mountain Podcast via the Ko-fi payment applet.
 

From time immemorial we have looked up to heroes for guidance and as models of how to live an excellent life: people with virtues such as courage, patience, kindness and wisdom. But who are our heroes today? We live in an age of celebrity and social media influencers. But are celebrities and social media influencers our heroes?
To answer these questions and more, we have with us our return guest, Ayya Santussika from the Karuna Buddhist Vihara in northern California to discuss the topic of heroes versus celebrities in the age of social media.
And I think she is well qualified to speak on this topic having attained BS and MS degrees in computer science and worked as a software designer and developer for fifteen years in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ayya Santussika is well familiar with computers and the internet. But on the other hand, her search for deeper meaning and ways to be of service led her to train as an interfaith minister in a four-year seminary program that culminated in a Masters of Divinity degree. Later her quest led her to ordaining as a Buddhist nun, and Ayya Santussika has been a bhikkhuni since 2012. And she has kindly offered her time to reflect upon our current fascination with the rich and famous, and what this says about where we are at in a present culture, as well as search for nobler human qualities.
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Links from this episode:
Ayya Santussika's biography
Karuna Buddhist Vihara
Link to the Vimangsaka Sutta (The Inquirer) referred to in this episode.
Treasure Mountain Podcast links:
Treasure Mountain Podcast - https://www.everydaydhamma.net/show/treasure-mountain-podcast/
Treasure Mountain facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/TreasureMountainPodcast
Thank you for listening to the Treasure Mountain Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with you friends. If you'd like to support me to produce this type of content in future, you can support my work by offering a tip or becoming a Supporter or Member of TMP via the Ko-fi payment applet.

On this episode of Sage Advice we have as our guest, Ajahn Hasapanna of Dhammasara Monastery in Western Australia. Ajahn Hasapanna was born in Ipoh, Malaysia in 1960. During her days as a lay person she and her family generously supported Ajahn Sujato when he was practicing in Ipoh. The main influence in Ajahn Hasapanna’s spiritual development is the monastic lifestyle of the forest tradition. When Ajahn Hasapanna had developed enough courage and inspiration to become a nun, Ajahn Sujato pointed her towards joining Dhammasara Nuns Monastery.
She joined Dhammasara in 2002, beginning her monastic training as an Anagarika (a trainee nun). She then ordained as a Ten Precept Nun with Ajahn Vayama as her teacher. She subsequently ordained as a bhikkhuni in 2009 with Ayya Tathaaloka as her preceptor in a ceremony at Bodhinyana Monastery, WA, Australia.
Currently, Ajahn Hasapanna is the Abbot of Dhammasara Nuns Monastery and the Assistant Spiritual Director of The Buddhist Society of WA (Inc). She is heavily involved in teaching and training nuns, anagarikas and lay people. She is the main teacher to 18 monastic trainees at Dhammasara.
In this episode we are going to ask Ajahn Hasapanna the big one: how we can have everything and be happy! Yes, that’s right it is possible to have it all and be happy!
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Links from this episode:
Ajahn Hasapanna's teachings
Dhammasara Monastery
Treasure Mountain Podcast links:
Treasure Mountain Podcast - https://www.treasuremountain.stream/
Treasure Mountain Website - https://www.everydaydhamma.net/show/treasure-mountain-podcast/
Treasure Mountain facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/TreasureMountainPodcast

Ajahn Brahmali is the guest on this episode to talk about how and why Secular Buddhism misrepresents the original teachings of the Buddha. This discussion goes in to some depth about the importance of understanding the place of karma and rebirth in the Buddha's teachings, and how our views impact upon the way that we act, including upon our practice. There is also discussion about the role of mindfulness in Secular Buddhism, and how mindfulness is a good thing, but also, how we cannot practice Buddhism fully without other important factors of the Eightfold Path.
Links from this episode:
Events coming up with Ajahn Brahmali (including his upcoming tours)
Support the Buddhist Society of Western Australia
Treasure Mountain Podcast links:
Treasure Mountain Podcast - https://www.treasuremountain.stream/
Treasure Mountain Website - https://www.everydaydhamma.net/show/treasure-mountain-podcast/
Treasure Mountain facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/TreasureMountainPodcast