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Letting go of identities

Letting go of identities

Part of a series of talks based on the book Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness given at the Garrison Institute, New York. The weekend retreat was sponsored by the Shantideva Meditation Center.

  • How clinging to our identities cause ourselves and others to suffer
  • Overcoming bias and prejudice by meditating on equanimity and the lack of inherent existence
  • Why do we cherish ourselves more than others?
  • Role that our sense perception plays in creating bias in our mind
  • Importance of good communication and cooperation for survival of human society
  • We can change the world only by transforming our own mind
  • Analogies helping understand how self and phenomena appear to us

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.