Review of Chapter 7: Verses 156-175
Venerable Thubten Samten 
Aryadeva's 400 Stanzas 
Apr 3, 2014 The teachings on Chapter 7 of Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way explore the reasons and methods for giving up attachment to the fleeting pleasures of cyclic existence.
- The difficulty of being a proper listener of the Dharma, having interest and access to teachings on bodhicitta and emptiness
- The sufferings of a human rebirth
- Our ignorance cannot comprehend the continuity of our ignorance
- Seriousness of karma created under ignorance
- If we really saw and understood what cyclic existence is really about, we would go crazy
48 Aryadeva’s 400 Stanzas: Review, part 2 (download)
Venerable Thubten Samten
Venerable Samten met Venerable Chodron in 1996 when the future Venerable Chonyi took the future Ven. Samten to a Dharma talk at Dharma Friendship Foundation. The talk on the kindness of others and the way it was presented is deeply etched in her mind. Four Cloud Mountain retreats with Ven. Chodron, eight months in India and Nepal studying the Dharma, one month of offering service at Sravasti Abbey, and a two month retreat at Sravasti Abbey in 2008, fueled the fire to ordain. This took place August 26, 2010 (see photos). This was followed by full ordination in Taiwan in March, 2012 (see photos), becoming Sravasti Abbey's sixth bhikshuni. Right after finishing a Bachelor of Music degree, Ven. Samten moved to Edmonton to pursue training as a corporeal mime artist. Five years later, a return to university to obtain Bachelor of Education degree opened the door to teaching for the Edmonton Public School board as a music teacher. Concurrently, Ven. Samten became a founding member and performer with Kita No Taiko, Alberta's first Japanese drum group. Ven. Samten is responsible for thanking donors who make offerings online; assisting Venerable Tarpa with developing and facilitating the SAFE online learning courses; assisting with the forest thinning project; tracking down knapweed; maintaining the Abbey database and answering email questions; and photographing the amazing moments that are constantly happening at the Abbey.
