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.
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Venerable Thubten Semkye The six far-reaching practices
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Meditating on equanimity
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“Precious Garland” review: Quiz 8 questi...
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Gomchen Lamrim review: Karma
Venerable Thubten Semkye reviews the law of karma and its effects.
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Non-negotiables in Dharma practice
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The fruits of exploring monastic life
The gems of wisdom gained from participating in the Exploring Monastic Life program for many…
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Virtuous relaxation
How to imbue our daily life activities with a good motivation so that we are…
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Bringing the kathina ceremony to the West
What the kathina ceremony means to the Sravasti Abbey community.
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Gomchen Lamrim review: The importance of remembering...
A review of the drawbacks of not remembering death and the benefits of remembering death.…
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“Precious Garland” review: Quiz part 3 q...
Discussion of quiz part three questions 1-3 to review verses from Chapter 1. The two…
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Facing our faults
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Too precious to lose
A call for compassion for the young perpetrators of terrorist acts in France.
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