Deciding to become a monastic
Deciding to become a monastic
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Exploring Monastic Life 2008 
Aug 31, 2008 A talk given during Sravasti Abbey’s annual Exploring Monastic Life program in 2008.
- Discussion with EML participants on numerous issues including experiences with careers
- What it really means to be useful and help someone
- The ideas of justice and fairness in the framework of karma
- Transforming the mind and applying the antidote with compassion
- The motivation to ordain
- Coming to the decision to ordain based on the lamrim meditations
- Abbey monastics share their motivations for ordination
- Questions and answers
- Lessening someone’s negative karma
- Insanity and breaking precepts
- Ahimsa: Word for Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Gandhi’s quality in Dharma
- Why are there more Western senior women in robes than men?
- How do you distinguish whether you see monastic life as a career or not?
- Signs that you’re ready to ordain
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.
