Shifting from the self-centered thought to cherishing others
Shifting from the self-centered thought to cherishing others
Venerable Thubten Semkye 
Don't Believe Everything You Think 
Jan 5, 2014 A series of talks based on Don’t Believe Everything You Think given at Sravasti Abbey’s monthly Sharing the Dharma Day starting in March 2013. The book is a commentary on The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas.
All suffering comes from the wish for your own happiness.
Perfect Buddhas are born from the thought to help others.
Therefore exchange your own happiness
For the suffering of others—
This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.
- Generating bodhicitta using the equalizing and exchanging self and others method
- Examining the self-centered thought an how it undermines happiness
- The benefits of cherishing others
- The taking and giving meditation
SDD 11: Shifting from the self-centered thought to cherishing others (download)
Venerable Thubten Semkye
Ven. Semkye was the Abbey's first lay resident, coming to help Venerable Chodron with the gardens and land management in the spring of 2004. She became the Abbey's third nun in 2007 and received bhikshuni ordination in Taiwan in 2010. She met Venerable Chodron at the Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle in 1996. She took refuge in 1999. When the land was acquired for the Abbey in 2003, Ven. Semye coordinated volunteers for the initial move-in and early remodeling. A founder of Friends of Sravasti Abbey, she accepted the position of chairperson to provide the Four Requisites for the monastic community. Realizing that was a difficult task to do from 350 miles away, she moved to the Abbey in spring of 2004. Although she didn't originally see ordination in her future, after the 2006 Chenrezig retreat when she spent half of her meditation time reflecting on death and impermanence, Ven. Semkye realized that ordaining would be the wisest, most compassionate use of her life. View pictures of her ordination. Ven. Semkye draws on her extensive experience in landscaping and horticulture to manage the Abbey's forests and gardens. She oversees "Offering Volunteer Service Weekends" during which volunteers help with construction, gardening, and forest stewardship.
