Meditation on anger is not effective for social change
Venerable Thubten Samten 
Working with Anger 
Oct 12, 2025 A guided meditation led at Sravasti Abbey’s monthly Sharing the Dharma Day. You can also view the complete video of the session including the teaching on "Anger or forgiveness".
- Guided relaxation
- Setting an altruistic motivation
- Silent meditation on the breath
- Guided analytic meditation
- Anger is not a positive motivator for social change or to deal with injustice
- Think of ways you validated your anger in the past
- When you are under the sway of anger how do you speak to others?
- Look at role models who address injustice in nonviolent ways
- When we come from a place of calm and compassion we can act more positively
Meditation: Anger is not a positive motivator for social change (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.
