About
Bhikkhu Sanathavihari is a Theravāda monk ordained in the Sri Lankan tradition. He is based at Sarathchandra Buddhist Center in North Hollywood, California, where he studied under the late Bhante Madawela Punnaji. He founded Casa De Bhavana, an outreach project focused on teaching Buddhism to Spanish-speaking communities. Sanathavihari is co-author of Buddhism in 10 Steps and holds degrees in Religion and Counseling Psychology. He is a former U.S. Air Force veteran and is currently enrolled in the Buddhist Chaplaincy program at Upaya Zen Center.
Teaching focus
Sanathavihari's core teaching draws on mindfulness of breathing, noting practice, body sweeping. The frame is early Buddhist teachings rooted in the Pali canon, but the language stays plain. Sanathavihari doesn't lecture from height. The talks tend to think alongside whatever's actually present in the room. Recurring themes include sila, samadhi, and the four foundations of mindfulness. None of those get presented as abstract ideas. They're worked into the body, into ethics, into how a practitioner shows up in family life or at work, so that the dharma stops feeling like a separate compartment. There's a real care for beginners in Sanathavihari's teaching. Instructions get repeated, jargon gets translated, and people new to sitting aren't asked to pretend they know what samadhi feels like. Format-wise, Sanathavihari teaches in online, in-person, and the tone moves easily between guided sittings, dharma talks, and Q&A. Questions tend to get answered the way they were asked, without being reframed into something cleaner. That alone tells you a lot about how the room feels.
Background
Bhikkhu Sanathavihari is a Theravāda monk ordained in the Sri Lankan tradition. He is based at Sarathchandra Buddhist Center in North Hollywood, California, where he studied under the late Bhante Madawela Punnaji. He founded Casa De Bhavana, an outreach project focused on teaching Buddhism to Spanish-speaking communities. Sanathavihari is co-author of Buddhism in 10 Steps and holds degrees in Religion and Counseling Psychology. He is a former U.S. Air Force veteran and is currently enrolled in the Buddhist Chaplaincy program at Upaya Zen Center. Sanathavihari Bhikkhu is a Mexican-American Theravāda monk at the Sarathchandra Buddhist Center in North Hollywood, a Sri Lankan center. He is a student of the late Dr. Bhante Madawela Punnaji, and the founder of Casa De Bhavana, an outreach project to bring the Dhamma to the Spanish-speaking world. He is also the co-author of Buddhism in 10 Steps. Bhante is a U.S. Air Force veteran who served in the Air Force for nine years and was deployed three times. He was ordained as a novice at the age of 30 in 2015 at Sarathchandra Buddhist Center in North Hollywood, California. In 2018, he received his higher ordination at Maharagama Bhikkhu Training Center (Maharagama Dharmayathanaya) in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Bhante has a B.A. in Religion and an M.S. in Counseling Psychology (Marriage Family Therapy). Bhante is currently enrolled in the Buddhist Chaplaincy program at Upaya Zen Center. Sanathavihari teaches across several communities, including Insight Meditation Center, Insight Retreat Center. That work sits within early Buddhist teachings rooted in the Pali canon, and the recurring concerns of Sanathavihari's teaching, ethical foundation, steady attention, and the slow softening of habitual reactivity, echo the older texts without sounding distant from a 21st-century practitioner's life. What stands out across Sanathavihari's talks isn't a single technique but a steadying tone. Practice is treated as something built slowly, in ordinary life, with care. There's room for the difficulties practitioners actually bring into the room, grief, restlessness, the body's complaints, family obligations, and the encouragement is consistent without being pushy.
Lineage
Sanathavihari teaches within early Buddhist teachings rooted in the Pali canon. Current affiliations include Insight Meditation Center, Insight Retreat Center. The lineage shows up less in titles than in the way Sanathavihari talks about practice, with steady reference to the older Buddhist vocabulary while keeping the door open for people who've never read a sutra. Whether that framing lands as monastic or lay depends on the specific talk, but the consistent thread is care for the form without letting the form become the point.
What to expect
Sitting with Sanathavihari, you can expect grounded instruction in mindfulness of breathing, with space to ask questions and bring whatever's actually showing up in your practice. Online sessions tend to keep the same shape, shorter sits, a talk, and time for Q&A, in a format that's accessible from home. The teaching voice is steady. Sanathavihari won't push you past your edge, and there's a clear preference for slow, sustainable practice over breakthrough chasing. Bring a notebook if you like, or don't. Either way, you'll be met where you are.
