This year, the society has lived up to its new name – The Buddhist Soceity of Norway – by having activities in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Arendal and Venabu – and we will continue with Tromsø, Stavanger, Stockholm, Finland and India in 2024. We have worked towards building a Norwegian or Nordic network of friends and groups, and we see that DNBF is the prime mover, with new groups growing up where we have been.

We have also made the decision to establish a registered faith society in order to secure the soceity state support of NOK 1,400 per member per year. We want to be an independent society where we are completely free to make our own decisions, like promoting a focus on equal opportunities for all.

The retreat at Venabu was the society’s biggest event and success in 2023, where 45 people gathered for inspiration and practice for seven days, instructed by two equal monastics with full ordination – a bhikkhu and a bhikkhuni, one male and one female monastic. And the feedback afterwards was simple “YES – that’s how it should be!”.

Otherwise, we found it beneficial to be a larger committee with 8 people. This has resulted in a better division of labor and greater flexibility when different committee members have limited time at times.

Ajahn Nitho has been working on a mini house project, but has encountered many bureaucratic problems and challenges in finding a suitable plot of land, which can be used until a permanent property is purchased. That process will continue in 2024.

Here are some statistics for 2023 (with 2022 figures in brackets):

• We have arranged:
  • 7-day retreat at Venbu Fjellhotel, 45 participants
  • 9 day retreat at Troset, Trondheim
  • Weekend retreat in Trondheim
  • Weekend retreat in Arendal
  • Weekend retreat in Bergen
  • Weekend retreat in Oslo with Ajahn Brahmali
  • Mountain retreat on Hardangervidda
  • Weekend retreat with Jaran de los Santos Olsen
  • Weekend retreat with Ajahn Ajito/Sindre
• We have planned for 2024:
  • Large 8 day retreat at Venabu Fjellhotell in April 2024, with Venerable Canda and Ajahn Nitho, which is fully booked.
  • 7 day retreat in Finland with Ajahn Nitho
  • 7 day fall retreat with Ajahn Sujato
  • Weekend retreat in Stockholm, Stavanger, Tromsø, Oslo
  • Pilgrimage to India planned for December 2024
• 1100 people follow us on Facebook (800)
• 328 people receive our newsletter (215)
• The society has 90 members (50).
• the website had 38,000 page views (24,900) (accumulated all years 78,000)
• Ajahn Nitho has completed a private three-month retreat in the mountains, and has conducted weekly Thai language courses throughout the year.

In the constitution, the goal is: To promote the Buddhist teachings in theory and practice, with special emphasis on ethics, meditation and wisdom – and to establish a city center and a combined retreat center/hermitage. In 2024, we want the following focus:

• Continue with shorter and longer retreats – this is where the learning happens and the experiences come, and this is where we find people who stay with us and help the society move forward.
• We want to establish more regular activity in Oslo, and need to find a suitable location for this.
• The society is built on volunteerism, so we want to build a stronger volunteer culture in 2024.
• We’ve just started working with Innovation Norway and other financial organizations that can help promote the construction of centers around Oslo. This work will continue in 2024.

This has been one of the most fun and important things I’ve done in my life. To help establish a society for Buddhist practice based on the oldest texts after Buddha, as close to the way Buddha taught as possible, for people who are outside the cultural context of Buddhism in the East.

This position makes it easier to fulfill the Buddha’s wish for a fourfold assembly, consisting of laywomen and laymen, bhikkhunis and bhikkhus (nuns and monks). Buddha wanted a full-fledged practice for all who took ordination to a monastic life, and established an order of nuns and an order of monks. Fully ordained nuns, bhikkhunis, are once again being established in the West as a fundamental part of the framework the Buddha wanted for human practice, and this is done in full compliance with the Vinaya, the laws the Buddha laid down to guide monastic assemblies.

We in the Buddhist Society of Norway are delighted that our society’s spiritual guide in England, Venerable Canda, at the end of 2023 finally bought land to establish the first monastery there for bhikkhunis. With the help of Ajahn Brahm and the Buddhist Society of Western Australia, she was able to raise NOK 27 million for a major property outside Oxford. Now a lot of work awaits and the establishment of funds to construct buildings on the property. We are excited to see what happens next and wish Canda all the best. And a warm welcome to the retreat she will be teaching with us together with Ajahn Nitho, at Venabu in April.

As I now finish after the years that our constitution allow members to continuously serve, I am delighted that we are a true society, governed and run by our members, a grassroots movement! In our constitution, we have tried to the best of our ability to safeguard the society’s democracy. We do not want the society to be run by the same people year after year, but believe in the opportunities that lie in adding new members to the society’s committee who, with their thoughts and ideas, help us to develop and continue to be an society that exists primarily for its members and their wishes and needs for support and inspiration in their practice.

There would be no Buddhist Society of Norway without Ajahn Nitho. Without his wisdom, insight and ambition to create something unique in terms of Buddhism and practice in Norway, and eventually also in our neighboring countries, nothing would have happened.

Through these three years since we established the society, I have come to know Ajahn Nitho as very hard-working, with many good ideas for how we can reach more and more people with teaching and meditation. He has a really good grasp of meditation, Buddhist teachings and theory, websites, payment solutions, email setup, technical security solutions, finance, accounting, design, drone flying and much more. But first and foremost, he has shown me through these three years of getting to know him that he lives as he speaks. Ajahn meditates a lot and studies a lot. And as a first-time chairman, I’ve probably also given him challenges that could have led to unrest. But I’ve never seen Ajahn angry, never heard him agitated or annoyed. I’m very grateful for that, and it strengthens my belief that the practices we want to spread can produce very good results. And that we have a teacher who is well worth helping in his work to establish a retreat center and a well-functioning sangha in Norway.

Thank you for your support in the committee so far, I look forward to the continuation and I will stick around as best I can with volunteer work for the society in the future.

A warm welcome to the new board chair! Best of luck DNBF!

Kind regards Jon Endre Mørk

Yes, it’s a lot of work for me, but it’s going really well and we have a lot to learn. I am genuinely proud of what the committee and the society have achieved in 2023. We have spread our wings across Norway/Nordic countries, and we should stop there and work on consolidation – to establish ourselves well there – because we are still a young and smaller society.

The society’s committee is led by a two-person team/dyad who together have the right to formally sign for the society – the chairman and the spiritual leader. These two together represent the members and monastics. The world is impermanent – it changes all the time – and in order for the society not to become rigid, it is important to strike a balance between stability/longevity and new impulses/new energy. Therefore, the constitution define how long committee members can serve. I find it strange that Jon Endre Mørk – a co-founder of the society – now has to step down from the committee for a year. I would like him to return to the committee when he can, to help us further according to his own wishes and to be an advisor to the society.

I have learned to really listen to Jon Endre – in his life he has worked outwards towards society, the social, the cultural in Norway and has very good contact with society – while I have sat in a hut in the woods for 15 years and worked inwards. Jon Endre also has a good understanding of Buddhism, and has steered the society towards activities that support human development, practice and personal experience. It was an excellent and complementary dyad!

I had discussed with many people who could come in as the new chair – and we wanted to stand firm with our intention of equal opportunities – so we wanted a competent person, preferably a woman this time. In January, we found an exciting, competent candidate with a lot of energy and experience, with teaching background, network and understanding of the Buddhist community in Oslo – Elisabeth S Berner. So now it’s up to the members to elect committee members at the annual meeting in March.

I look forward to working with the new chair, the committee, local groups and members going forward!

Ajahn Nitho, Spiritual Director