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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Travels

Teachings in Mexico

Venerable Thubten Chodron shares her experiences teaching in Mexico and reflects on how we all…

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A man standing in a prison highly grill window.
Prison Dharma

Prison outreach in Mexico

Buddhist principles that are transforming prison outreach are taught to leaders in a Mexican correctional…

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Seven-point Mind Training

The commitments of mind training

What it means to be impartial about the objects of mind training and to stand…

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Stages of the Path in the Guru Puja

Attachment to samadhi

The importance of seeing all realms of cyclic existence, even the upper realms, as unsatisfactory.

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Stages of the Path in the Guru Puja

The dukkha of uncertainty

The types of dukkha (unsatisfactoriness) that are pervasive in all the realms of samsara.

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Cover of Taming the Mind.
Taming the Mind

Practical guidelines for good living

What taking refuge, formally or informally, means in Buddhism and the guidelines one uses after…

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Stages of the Path in the Guru Puja

The eight disadvantages of cyclic existence

The sufferings of separation from what we like and being under the control of afflictions…

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Stages of the Path in the Guru Puja

Birth, aging, and sickness

Looking at birth, aging, and sickness, in a more realistic way, contemplating them in order…

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Stages of the Path in the Guru Puja

Our Buddha potential

The potential to become a fully enlightened Buddha resides in every one of us.

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Seven-point Mind Training

The measure of a trained mind

Honestly looking at our minds to see how it reacts to hardships and the difference…

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Stages of the Path in the Guru Puja

Getting what we don’t want

Looking at the first two of the eight sufferings of human beings and using them…

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