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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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Venerable Chodron sitting at her computer, smiling.
Three Principal Aspects of the Path

Precious human rebirth

How we can use our precious human life to advance ourselves on the Dharma path.

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Bronze statue of Kuan Yin appearing as Samantabhadra on an elephant.
Prayers and Practices

Extraordinary aspiration: The seven-limb practice

A powerful practice from the King of Prayers that can be done daily to purify…

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A bundle of 100 dollar bills.
Three Principal Aspects of the Path

The eight worldly concerns

How to work with mental obstacles that keep us from practicing the Dharma.

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Venerable Samten with eyes closed while two nuns shave her head.
Three Principal Aspects of the Path

Renunciation

We are stuck in cyclic existence. Through the teachings, we see the problems of cyclic…

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Bronze statue of Kuan Yin appearing as Samantabhadra on an elephant.
Prayers and Practices

Introduction to the seven-limb practice

Seven ways to purify the mind and to accumulate merit, the purpose and ways of…

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Venerable Chodron bowing to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Three Principal Aspects of the Path

The preliminaries

How the Buddhist teachings plant in our minds the seed of the realizations that will…

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Venerable Chodron teaching.
Three Principal Aspects of the Path

Introduction

How we can most effectively listen to and study Dharma teachings.

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Buddhist monastics of different traditions sitting in a discussion group.
Interfaith Dialogue

Interfaith philosophies

Clarifying the various Buddhist views on what the present and future lives mean.

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Group of monastics from various religions standing under a tree.
Interfaith Dialogue

The second Gethsemani Encounter

Thoughts on different theological views of religious institutions.

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Thangka con la imagen de Lama Tsongkhapa.
Three Principal Aspects of the Path

The Three Principal Aspects of the Path

Verses on the essence of the path to awakening by Je Tsongkhapa, the founder of…

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Man and woman meditating outside.
Cultivating the Four Immeasurables

Metta (loving-kindness) meditation

Learn about metta meditation, a method of cultivating goodwill. This practice of wishing happiness for…

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A statute of a standing buddha and the background is the face of a smiling buddha.
Four Truths for the Aryas

The four noble truths

A brief description of the four noble truths and why the Buddha taught them the…

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