Review of Chapter Six: Verses 12-21
118 Engaging in the Bodhisattva’s Deeds
Venerable Thubten Kunga 
Shantideva Teachings at Sravasti Abbey 
Dec 17, 2022 Part of an ongoing series of teachings based on Shantideva’s classic text, Bodhisattvacharyavatara, often translated as Engaging in the Bodhisattva’s Deeds. Venerable Thubten Chodron also refers to the outline of the commentary by Gyaltsab Dharma Rinchen and the commentary by the Abbot Dragpa Gyaltsen.
- Verse 12 and 13: Learning to use suffering to fuel renunciation and compassion
- Verse 14: Establishing virtuous habits
- Verse 15 and 16: Patience in the face of suffering an hardship
- Verse 17: How the mind influences our experience of suffering
- Verse 18 and 19: Maintaining a lucid, steady mind when enduring suffering
- Verse 20: Vanquishing internal foes rather than external enemies
- Verse 21: Through suffering arrogance is dispelled and compassion arises
118 Engaging in the Bodhisattva’s Deeds: Review Chapter Six: Verses 12-21 (download)
Venerable Thubten Kunga
Venerable Kunga grew up bi-culturally as the daughter of a Filipino immigrant in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. She received a BA in Sociology from the University of Virginia and an MA from George Mason University in Public Administration before working for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Refugees, Population, and Migration for seven years. She also worked in a psychologist’s office and a community-building non-profit organization. Ven. Kunga met Buddhism in college during an anthropology course and knew it was the path she had been looking for, but did not begin seriously practicing until 2014. She was affiliated with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington and the Guyhasamaja FPMT center in Fairfax, VA. Realizing that the peace of mind experienced in meditation was the true happiness she was looking for, she traveled to Nepal in 2016 to teach English and took refuge at Kopan Monastery. Shortly thereafter she attended the Exploring Monastic Life retreat at Sravasti Abbey and felt she had found a new home, returning a few months later to stay as a long-term guest, followed by anagarika (trainee) ordination in July 2017 and novice ordination in May 2019.
