our founder
Lineage & Ordination
Venerable Clear Grace Dayananda received novice ordination in 2018 as Sister True Moon of Clear Grace under Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in the Plum Village Vietnamese Zen tradition, entering the Liễu Quán Dharma Line (8th generation) and the Lâm Tế Dhyāna (Linji) School (42nd generation).
She later received higher ordination (upasampadān) in 2020 with the Embracing Simplicity Contemplative Order under her preceptors, the late Bhante U Pannadipa Thero and her recently transitioned master, Maha Theri Dr. Pannavati Karuna. Through this transmission she inherits a rich multi-lineage inheritance, Theravāda lineages from Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Burma, alongside Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna streams, including Vajrayāna empowerments, Sōtō Zen, and Vietnamese Zen.
She was transmitted the Dharma name Dayananda, meaning One Whose Delight is Mercy.
In this way, Venerable Dayananda embodies the confluence of many rivers of Dharma as she stands in a multi-lineage inheritance.
Bio
Venerable Clear Grace Dayananda is a Black queer Buddhist monk, founder and Spiritual Director of Sangha House NOLA, a Buddhist temple and community care organization in New Orleans’ 7th Ward. She started practicing as a renunciant in 2015.
Born in California and raised in the Church of God in Christ, Venerable Dayananda found profound liberation within the Buddha’s teachings, which became her greatest source of transformation for healing from injustices of all kinds. She shares these truths to help others unlearn deeply embedded beliefs that have kept them from experiencing liberation in daily life.
In 2022, Venerable Dayananda embarked on a two-year pilgrimage across the United States in the Great Aspiration, a mobile monastery created from a converted van. Through her nonprofit Traveling Nunk, she brought Dharma teachings and compassionate presence to communities harmed by systemic oppression. For this work, she received the 2024 Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award and has been featured in Lion’s Roar and Tricycle.
In 2023, Venerable Dayananda founded Sangha House NOLA in New Orleans’ 7th Ward, a radical creative expression of Dharma. Accessible through relatability, Sangha House embraces the land and its peoples as the container that is the foundation of our practice. Through culturally rooted practices and ancestral wisdom, this rare Dharma gem opens doors previously closed by distance, cost, or the inability to bring one’s full self into spiritual space.
Sangha House lives as invitation, ehipasiko, come and see for yourself, embodying boundless love in action and liberation in practice. Through revolutionary love and culturally grounded practice, transformation and healing become possible right here in our own neighborhoods, building beloved community on and off the cushion.
Her spiritual path is deeply inspired by the engaged Buddhism of the Most Venerable Thích Nhất Hạnh and her recently transitioned preceptor, Maha Theri Venerable Paññāvati Karuna, whose teachings and fearless compassion continue to guide her path.
Traveling Nunk
Traveling Nunk is the root of Sangha House NOLA, both our nonprofit foundation and the lived vow of embodying the Dharma in the world. Born through The Great Aspiration, a pilgrimage and mobile monastery that carried Venerable Dayananda across the country, it embodies the courage to do what is hard to do and the boundless love that gives rise to liberation. This initiation gave rise to Sangha House NOLA and its Beloved Community.
Consultation
Venerable Dayananda guides a courageous turn inward toward self-discovery, compassionate understanding, and reconciliation. She makes the liberating teachings of the Buddha tangible, accessible, and deeply relatable, offering a transformative path through life’s challenges, especially within a world shaped by discrimination and systemic suffering.
This work welcomes all who feel called to look deeply and take the next step toward liberation, transformation, and healing.
Invite Venerable
Venerable Clear Grace Dayananda is available to share teachings through Dharma talks, retreats, ceremonies, and community gatherings. With over two decades of experience, she has accompanied people across generations and settings, from schools and universities to hospitals, correctional facilities, workplaces, and neighborhood circles. In every space, she offers wisdom, clarity, and steady presence, meeting people directly where they are.
LIVING THE VOW
Sangha House NOLA rests on the vow of monastic practice, lived in relationship with the Beloved Community. Guided by Venerable Clear Grace Dayananda, our vision unfolds as boundless love in action, liberation in practice, and the living out of the teachings of the Dharma.