Welcome to Episodes 09-13 of the Vibe with Venerable series, where we talk “live” to Buddhist masters together. Full listing of all Vibe with Venerable episodes here.
TL;DR
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Episodes 09-13. What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Join Venerable Thubten Chodron and other Sravasti Abbey monastics for a month-long exploration of what love is, what it is not, and why we might want to cultivate this mental state not just for our own well-being but also extend it to all living beings.
Each Venerable speaker will share their unique perspective on the immeasurable quality of love, and we encourage you to attend all sessions if you can.
Episode 09, with Venerable Thubten Chodron
1 June 2025 (Sunday), 5pm US Pacific Time, 8pm US Eastern
2 June 2025 (Monday), 1am London, 8am Singapore, 10am Sydney (Timezone convertor) [Register below]
Episode 10, with Venerable Thubten Lamsel
8 June 2025 (Sunday), 5pm US Pacific Time, 8pm US Eastern
9 June 2025 (Monday), 1am London, 8am Singapore, 10am Sydney (Timezone convertor) [Register below]
Episode 11, with Venerable Thubten Damcho
15 June 2025 (Sunday), 5pm US Pacific Time, 8pm US Eastern
16 June 2025 (Monday), 1am London, 8am Singapore, 10am Sydney (Timezone convertor) [Register below]
Episode 12, with Venerable Thubten Gyatso
22 June 2025 (Sunday), 5pm US Pacific Time, 8pm US Eastern
23 June 2025 (Monday), 1am London, 8am Singapore, 10am Sydney (Timezone convertor) [Register below]
Episode 13, with Venerable Thubten Chonyi
29 June 2025 (Sunday), 5pm US Pacific Time, 8pm US Eastern
30 June 2025 (Monday), 1am London, 8am Singapore, 10am Sydney (Timezone convertor) [Register below]
Registration Information
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About the Teachers
Bhikshuni Venerable Thubten Chodron, Founder & Abbess, Sravasti Abbey
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Establishing Sravasti Abbey fulfills a long-held dream for Venerable Thubten Chodron (Venerable 德林 De Lin in Chinese): to train Western ordained sangha in the Buddha’s teachings. Her vision includes doing prayers and practices in English and using technology to spread the Dharma. She brings her core values of gender equality, social engagement, and care for the environment to the Abbey community.
A native of the U.S., Ven. Chodron, is particularly qualified to teach Western monastics. She trained in Asia for many years, receiving novice ordination from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in 1977 and full ordination in Taiwan in 1986. Her teachers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Lama Thubten Yeshe and many others.
In addition to founding Sravasti Abbey, Ven. Chodron is a well-known author and teacher. She has published many books on Buddhist philosophy and meditation, including ten volumes in The Library of Wisdom and Compassion, co-authored with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with whom she has studied for nearly fifty years.
Venerable Thubten Lamsel, Bhikshuni, Sravasti Abbey
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Ven. Thubten Lamsel began studying the Dharma in 2011 at The Dhargyey Buddhist Centre in Dunedin, New Zealand. When she began exploring the possibility of ordination in 2014, a friend referred her to the Preparing for Ordination booklet by Venerable Thubten Chodron.
Soon after, Ven. Lamsel made contact with the Abbey, tuning in weekly for the livestreamed teachings and offering service from afar. In 2016 she visited for the month-long Winter Retreat. Feeling like she had found the supportive monastic environment she had been looking for, under the close guidance of her spiritual mentor, she requested to come back for training. Returning in January 2017, Ven. Lamsel took anagarika precepts on March 31st. In the most fantastic circumstances, she was able to take her sramaneri and shikshamana vows during the Living Vinaya in the West course on February 4, 2018.
She received bhikshuni ordination at Fo En Si Temple in Taiwan in March 2024. At the Abbey her duties include facilitating the broadcasting and archival of live teachings, prison outreach, event management, and helping in the library. When opportunities arise, she enjoys offering meditation workshops and introductory classes on Buddhism in the local community and online.
Venerable Thubten Damcho, Bhikshuni, Sravasti Abbey
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Singaporean by birth, Ven. Thubten Damcho met the Dharma in the U.S. through the Buddhist Students’ Group at Princeton University, from which she graduated in 2006. On her return to Singapore, she took refuge at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery where she served as a Sunday school teacher. Struck by the aspiration to ordain, she attended a novitiate retreat in the Theravada tradition in 2007. After meeting Ven. Chodron in Singapore in 2008, Ven. Damcho was further inspired to pursue a monastic life.
After attending the Exploring Monastic Life Program, Ven. Damcho quickly moved to the Abbey to train as an anagarika in December 2012. She was ordained on October 2, 2013. Ven. Damcho received her full ordination at Miao Fa Temple in Taiwan in 2016. Venerable Damcho’s monastic life is rich and varied. She serves as assistant to Sravasti Abbey’s founder, author and well-known Buddhist teacher Venerable Thubten Chodron, and translates Chinese texts into English.
She has given Dharma talks in the U.S., India, Singapore and Brazil, and was the Chinese-English interpreter at a full ordination program in Taiwan in 2019 and 2024. After learning Tibetan through Maitripa College in 2017, she has translated short sutras from Tibetan to English for 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Venerable Thubten Gyatso, Sramanera, Sravasti Abbey
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Ven. Thubten Gyatso grew up near the beautiful white-sand beaches of northwest Florida. He first encountered Buddhism in 2005 with The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Ven. Gyatso deepened his practice by volunteering at Dharma College in Berkeley as the registrar for eight months. He continued with the same Nyingma Mandala organization by taking a volunteer position as an English teacher in Sarnath, India with the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute for three years. While living, eating, and practicing together with monks, he was able to deepen his commitment to the Dharma and train his mind to benefit all beings. A Goenka Vipassana retreat in Lumbini, Nepal had a profound impact by showing the calm, joy, and clarity of a focused mind.
He decided that the monastic life was the most conducive to benefiting others, and started looking for a monastery to ordain. He arrived at the Abbey in September 2021 after the Exploring Monastic Life course online, and recognized that Sravasti Abbey had all the conditions necessary for spiritual growth. His request for ordination was approved, and on May 20th, 2023, he ordained and became Ven. Thubten Gyatso.
Some of his opportunities for service at the Abbey include administration, infrastructure, and Dharma dissemination with the prison outreach team. He’s looking forward to one day joining the bhikshu sangha and attending the very first bhikshu posadha at Sravasti Abbey.
Venerable Thubten Chonyi, Bhikshuni, Sravasti Abbey
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Ven. Chonyi met Abbey founder and abbess Venerable Thubten Chodron in the mid-1990s, taking refuge with her at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle in 1997. After completing a three-month Vajrasattva retreat, she made a deep commitment to study and practice the Dharma as a lay student.
She moved to North Idaho in 2002. Venerable Chodron and the Abbey fortuitously became her neighbor the next year. She was a founder of Friends of Sravasti Abbey and a frequent Abbey visitor before realizing her extraordinarily precious circumstances. She moved to the Abbey in June 2007, took sramanerika and sikasamana precepts in May 2008, and received full ordination at Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan in 2011.
At the Abbey, Ven. Chonyi is mainly involved with publicity and inviting generosity. She occasionally shares Buddha’s teachings at the Abbey, online, and at Buddhist centers in the US and abroad.
Donation
This series is freely offered by Buddhism.net.
If you’d like, you may make a donation directly to Sravasi Abbey here.
We thank you for dāna, the practice of cultivating generosity.
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