The Buddha’s life
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Exploring Monastic Life 2010 
Aug 13, 2010 A talk given during Sravasti Abbey's annual Exploring Monastic Life program in 2010.
- The story of how the Buddha Shakyamuni became the Buddha for this degenerate age
- The Buddha’s life from childhood to mendicant
- The four sights: a sick person, an aging person, a dead person, and a wandering mendicant
- “Ignoble search” and “noble search”
- Practicing under the teacher Alara Kalama and mastering his teachings
- Questions and answers
- When the Buddhas tried to get out of manifesting in our age were they already Buddhas?
- How did he know that he hadn’t reached the highest level?
- How do you not fall in the trap of being seduced by good feelings in high states of concentration?
- Once someone gets to the highest point of samsara why can’t they keep meditating and move up?
- Can you only attain the realization of emptiness in a human body?
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.
