Seattle: Making Mindfulness Meaningful
Venerable Thubten Damcho 
Jul 11, 2023 
2 hours
In Person
Making Mindfulness Meaningful
October 27, 7:30 pm to 9 pm Pacific Time
Hosted by Dharma Friendship Foundation
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness of Mindfulness (Body, Feeling, Mind, Phenomena) continues to be one of the central practices for all Buddhist traditions since Shakyamuni Buddha spoke the Satipatthana Sutra over 2,000 years ago. In modern times, particularly in America, the practice of mindfulness has become immensely popular, though often mixed with secular motivations, leading to confusion regarding the deeper purpose of mindfulness meditation in the Buddhist context. Dharma Friendship Foundation is delighted to host a special visit with Venerable Thubten Chodron for an evening of meditation and discussion on this topic which opens the door to liberation and enlightenment and is a foundational practice in both the Theravada and Mahayana traditions.
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.