Venerable Thubten Chodron
at Kurukulla Center
March 28 - April 1, 2014

We are delighted to welcome Venerable Thubten Chodron, an acclaimed senior Western Buddhist nun, who will be teaching Monday, March 28th through Tuesday, April 1st. Please join us!

Ven Chodron, is a fully ordained Buddhist nun -- a bhikshuni -- who inspires people around the world with her wise and compassionate explanations of the teachings of the Buddha. Seeing the importance and necessity of a monastery for Westerners training in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Venerable founded Sravasti Abbey, a Buddhist monastic community in Washington state, dedicated to creating peace in the world, where she resides as abbess.

Emphasizing the practical application of Buddha's teachings in our daily lives, Venerable Chodron 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.

Ven. Chodron's books include Open Heart, Clear Mind, Taming the Mind, Buddhism for Beginners, Working with Anger, Guided Meditations on the Stages of the Path (with CD), Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig, How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator. To learn more about Ven. Chodron, listen to audio clips, read interviews and watch videos please click here.

We hope you can join us for any or all of teachings. All welcome.

Kurukulla Center offers these teachings freely while acknowledging we have many expenses to be covered. We are grateful for your donations. As well, there will be opportunity to make an offering directly to Venerable Chodron. Thank you.

Please email Marianne with questions: spc@kurukulla.org.

The Heart Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom
Friday March 28th 7:00-9:00pm

Tonight Venerable Chodron will open her series of teachings with looking at the Heart Sutra. We recite the Heart Sutra before all our teachings at the Center and many students commit it to heart, as it is short to memorize and powerful to recite. Ven Chodron will explain how the entire bodhisattva path is outlined in this beautiful short text and will enumerate the five bodhisattva paths that culminate in becoming a manifest and complete Buddha. She'll set the stage on Vulture Mountain where the Perfection of Wisdom was taught, providing a historical context for the Heart Sutra teaching.

The Three Poisons: Ridding Oneself of Disturbing Emotions
Saturday March 29th 10:00am-4:00pm

We are all, whether we're aware of it or not, slaves to the three poisons minds: ignorance, desire and hatred/anger. What are they? How do they function? And what is the way out of the vicious cycle they create? Drawing on chapter six of the text Four Hundred Stanzas by the great Indian master Aryadeva, Ven Chodron will teach on how to abandon disturbing emotions. When we do this, we are then able to abandon the afflictions and obstacles that get in the way of doing the Bodhisattva's deeds. This is a two-part series that will provide us with a deep understanding of the three poisons and the means for their release.

Aryadeva was the heart disciple of Nagarjuna, establishing the Mahayana tradition and, in particular, the Madhyamaka tenets. Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas was written to explain how, according to Nagarjuna, the practice of the stages of yogic deeds enables those with Mahayana motivation to wake up and free themselves from the clouds of ignorance that prevent us from being of true and lasting benefit to all sentient beings. The Four Hundred Stanzas is one of the fundamental works of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. Ven Chodron will discuss dependent arising, and its power as a tool for clearing away ignorance and for understanding the meaning of reality -- emptiness. She will also discuss the twelve ways to train to free ourselves from being the cart-horse of desire; the benefits of patience and fortitude in freeing ourselves from the yoke of anger; and how to use specific antidotes to manage afflictions when the manifest so we can and eliminate them at the root.

The Three Poisons: Ridding Oneself of Disturbing Emotions
Sunday March 30th 2:00-4:00pm

We are all, whether we're aware of it or not, slaves to the three poisons minds: ignorance, desire and hatred/anger. What are they? How do they function? And what is the way out of the vicious cycle they create? Drawing on chapter six of the text Four Hundred Stanzas by the great Indian master Aryadeva, Ven Chodron will teach on how to abandon disturbing emotions. When we do this, we are then able to abandon the afflictions and obstacles that get in the way of doing the Bodhisattva's deeds. This is a two-part series that will provide us with a deep understanding of the three poisons and the means for their release.

Aryadeva was the heart disciple of Nagarjuna, establishing the Mahayana tradition and, in particular, the Madhyamaka tenets. Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas was written to explain how, according to Nagarjuna, the practice of the stages of yogic deeds enables those with Mahayana motivation to wake up and free themselves from the clouds of ignorance that prevent us from being of true and lasting benefit to all sentient beings. The Four Hundred Stanzas is one of the fundamental works of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. Ven Chodron will discuss dependent arising, and its power as a tool for clearing away ignorance and for understanding the meaning of reality -- emptiness. She will also discuss the twelve ways to train to free ourselves from being the cart-horse of desire; the benefits of patience and fortitude in freeing ourselves from the yoke of anger; and how to use specific antidotes to manage afflictions when the manifest so we can and eliminate them at the root.

Accepting Change: Understanding the Four Seals
Monday March 31st 7:00-9:00pm

We often find ourselves struggling with change in our life: a new job, changing relationships, births, deaths -- changes both "good" and "bad." We can easily see that impermanence is always with us, yet why is it we often find it hard to accept? With this two-part series, we will develop a deeper understanding of the nature of this impermanence, and learn how to find a deep happiness, joy and peace in the face of ever-present change. Ven. Chodron explains how the mind keeps us in cyclic existence and yet if we understand the true nature of "I," "me," and "mine" and its relationship to change, we can be free from anxiety, sadness and fear.

Accepting Change: Understanding the Four Seals
Tuesday April 1st 7:00-9:00pm

We often find ourselves struggling with change in our life: a new job, changing relationships, births, deaths - changes both "good" and "bad." We can easily see that impermanence is always with us, yet why is it we often find it hard to accept? With this two-part series, we will develop a deeper understanding of the nature of this impermanence, and learn how to find a deep happiness, joy and peace in the face of ever-present change. Ven. Chodron explains how the mind keeps us in cyclic existence and yet if we understand the true nature of "I," "me," and "mine" and its relationship to change, we can be free from anxiety, sadness and fear.