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.

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Qualities of a Spiritual Teacher

What it means to see the guru as the Buddha

More about why we can get confused with Tantra teachings and teachers and loose faith.

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Qualities of a Spiritual Teacher

Confusion within tantra

Continuing to share about teachers who use their power inappropriately and why that could happen.

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Qualities of a Spiritual Teacher

How to tell if a Buddhist teacher has the right qual...

Venerable Thubten Chodron responds to some distressed students who were following a teacher who abused…

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Gomchen Lamrim

The ten paths of nonvirtue today

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

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Buddhist Reasoning and Debate

Practicing the Dharma

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

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Buddhist Reasoning and Debate

The three higher trainings

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

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Responding to Prejudice

Overcoming fear and preconceptions

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

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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.

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Exploring Monastic Life 2017

Cutting bonds and going forth

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

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Exploring Monastic Life 2017

Renouncing worldly life

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

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