The Core of Buddhist Practice: The Three Higher Trainings | Vibe with Venerables featuring Sravasti Abbey

Overview & Higher Training in Ethical Conduct

Higher Training in Concentration

Higher Training in Wisdom

Venerable Thubten Chodron

Venerable Thubten Chodron (德林 — De Lin) is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun, author, and abbess of Sravasti Abbey in Washington state. Ordained in the 1970s and fully ordained in 1986, she trained for many years with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other leading Tibetan masters. She is renowned for her warm, clear, and practical teachings that make the Buddha’s path accessible in daily life, and has written many books, including the Library of Wisdom and Compassion series co-authored with the Dalai Lama.

Venerable Thubten Lamsel

Venerable Thubten Lamsel first encountered the Dharma in 2011 at Dhargyey Buddhist Centre in Dunedin, New Zealand. Drawn to ordination, she connected with Sravasti Abbey through Venerable Thubten Chodron’s Preparing for Ordination booklet and began following teachings online. After a transformative Winter Retreat visit in 2016, she returned in 2017, took anagarika precepts, and later received sramaneri and shikshamana vows during the Living Vinaya in the West course in 2018. A former public health researcher and health promoter, she now serves at the Abbey on the video team, supports outreach to inmates, and joyfully contributes in the kitchen.

Venerable Thubten Samten

Venerable Samten met Venerable Thubten Chodron in 1996 at a Dharma talk at Dharma Friendship Foundation, a teaching that stayed with her and inspired years of retreat and study in India, Nepal, and Sravasti Abbey. She ordained in 2010, received full bhikshuni vows in Taiwan in 2012 as the Abbey’s sixth fully ordained nun, and now offers service by supporting online courses, thanking donors, caring for the land, managing the database, and photographing Abbey life. Before ordaining, she worked as a music teacher, mime artist, and founding member of Alberta’s first taiko drumming group.

Venerable Thubten Monlam

Venerable Thubten Monlam began her Dharma journey in 2014 at a new Dharma center in her hometown of Carbondale, Colorado, where teachings on love and compassion deeply moved her. A retreat on Chenrezig led her to Venerable Thubten Chodron’s book Cultivating a Kind Heart and eventually to visiting Sravasti Abbey, where her connection to the Dharma and community deepened. While directing a youth-focused community radio nonprofit, she continued to practice, moved to the Abbey in 2021, took siksamana ordination, and received full bhikshuni vows in Taiwan in 2024. At Sravasti Abbey she serves on the community care team, assists in the kitchen, and helps edit Dharma materials, joyfully cultivating the bodhisattva aspiration to benefit all beings with growing openness, kindness, and compassion.

Venerable Tenzin Tsepal

Venerable Tenzin Tsepal was introduced to meditation as a teenager in the 1970s and later practiced in the Vipassana tradition while working in healthcare in Seattle and Yakima. In 1995 she met Venerable Thubten Chodron at Dharma Friendship Foundation, volunteered at the Life As A Western Buddhist Nun conference in India, and completed a transformative three‑month Vajrasattva retreat.

She received novice ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2001, then studied and taught extensively at Chenrezig Institute in Australia as an FPMT teacher. After joining Sravasti Abbey’s 2016 Winter Retreat, she entered the community later that year and undertook shiksamana training, continuing a life dedicated to practice, study, and service.

Venerable Thubten Damcho

Venerable Damcho (Ruby Xuequn Pan) first met the Dharma as a student at Princeton University and later took refuge at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery in Singapore, where she also taught Sunday School. Drawn to monastic life, she attended retreats in Asia and met Venerable Thubten Chodron, eventually visiting Sravasti Abbey in 2010 and later returning to train as an anagarika. After working in Singapore’s civil service as a teacher and policy analyst, she ordained in 2013 and now serves as the Abbey’s video manager, coordinates Venerable Chodron’s schedule and website, helps with book editing and publicity, and supports caring for the forest and vegetable garden.