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.

Read Full Bio

View Posts

Gomchen Lamrim

The ten paths of nonvirtue today

How modern practitioners can understand the complexity of our modern context within the framework of…

View Post
Buddhist Reasoning and Debate

Practicing the Dharma

Finishing Chapter Three, with advice for how to incorporate the Buddha's teachings into our lives…

View Post
Buddhist Reasoning and Debate

The three higher trainings

Teaching Chapter Three, focusing on the three higher trainings of ethical conduct, meditative stabilization and…

View Post
Responding to Prejudice

Overcoming fear and preconceptions

A motivation to work with the fear and misleading preconceptions that arise in the face…

View Post
Group of nuns in Taiwan during bhikshuni ordination ceremony.
Full Ordination for Nuns

Brief history of bhiksunis

Venerable Chodron provides a short history of the issues surrounding ordination for women.

View Post
Exploring Monastic Life 2017

Cutting bonds and going forth

Venerable Thubten Chodron finishes the ordination ceremony text, and concludes this set of teachings with…

View Post
Exploring Monastic Life 2017

Renouncing worldly life

Advice on severing attachment to this body, loved ones and worldly life so we can…

View Post
Exploring Monastic Life 2017

Sravasti Abbey values

The Sravasti Abbey values, which help guide the development of monastic minds at the Abbey.

View Post
Exploring Monastic Life 2017

Western monastics

How to overcome obstacles to receiving precepts, and the situation of Western monastics in the…

View Post
Exploring Monastic Life 2017

Taking ethical restraints

The importance of purification before ordination and the actual taking of ethical restraints.

View Post