YouTube: Engaging in the Bodhisattva's Deeds
Venerable Thubten Damcho 
Mar 10, 2023 
2 hours
General, In Person, Online, Weekly
Streamed on YouTube weekly Saturdays at 9 am Pacific Time
Join Venerable Thubten Chodron for live teachings on Shantideva’s classic text Engaging in the Bodhisattva's Deeds. A text that the residents of Sravasti Abbey read annually on Christmas Day, this is a book that provides a road map to awakening you’ll keep coming back to. The Dalai Lama famously attributed any realization of compassion and bodhicitta he has to this text.
Who it’s for:
Engaging in a Bodhisattva’s Deeds is a text that lends itself to both new and seasoned Dharma practitioners. It covers the entire span of practices necessary to progress on the path to full awakening, in an easy to read format with stark imagery and reasonings to inspire and transform the mind.
About the author:
Shantideva lived in 8th century ancient India, was born into a royal family and set to assume the throne after his father. However, motivated to be of greatest benefit to all sentient beings, Shantideva left the royal life and entered monastic life at the renowned Nalanda Monastery.
Venerable Thubten Damcho
Ven. Damcho (Ruby Xuequn Pan) met the Dharma through the Buddhist Students’ Group at Princeton University. After graduating in 2006, she returned to Singapore and took refuge at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See (KMSPKS) Monastery in 2007, where she served as a Sunday School teacher. Struck by the aspiration to ordain, she attended a novitiate retreat in the Theravada tradition in 2007, and attended an 8-Precepts retreat in Bodhgaya and a Nyung Ne retreat in Kathmandu in 2008. Inspired after meeting Ven. Chodron in Singapore in 2008 and attending the one-month course at Kopan Monastery in 2009, Ven. Damcho visited Sravasti Abbey for 2 weeks in 2010. She was shocked to discover that monastics did not live in blissful retreat, but worked extremely hard! Confused about her aspirations, she took refuge in her job in the Singapore civil service, where she served as a high school English teacher and a public policy analyst. Offering service as Ven. Chodron’s attendant in Indonesia in 2012 was a wake-up call. After attending the Exploring Monastic Life Program, Ven. Damcho quickly moved to the Abbey to train as an Anagarika in December 2012. She ordained on October 2, 2013 and is the Abbey’s current video manager. Ven. Damcho also manages Ven. Chodron’s schedule and website, helps with editing and publicity for Venerable’s books, and supports the care of the forest and vegetable garden.