I was the first person to enter the library room filled with chairs. I was excited for this speech of a

Female Buddhist Nun, Venerable Tenzin Chogkyi.

While waiting, I was able to finish and to send out my newsletter. And then I had the time to wait even more. The room was filling out. Mostly older people, women in general. I’ve noticed only a few older gentleman among the room filled with women.
I was getting more and more curious. Who is she? How does she look? How does she speak? I’ve never met a Buddhist monk, not to mention a female Buddhist nun.

When she entered the room, I couldn’t stop looking at her. Over 6 foot tall, shaved bold, in robes. A little hunched, like she wanted to make herself a little smaller, less standing out of the crowd.

She had a very gentle voice, but with this permanent smile, it seemed like. She had a wonderful sense of humor. She made the whole room laugh quite a lot while talking about her journey to become a buddhist nun.

And I’ll tell you that, she has a quite the story.

A daughter of scientists who were as far from religion as you can think. Hard core hippy teenager who started her journey with meditation at age 15 (after having to go through 2 weeks of abstinence from smoking pot).  LOL

After getting a master degree in biochemistry and working in the field for quite sometime, she bought one way ticked to India. On her way to the mountains, to see Dalai Lama, he passed her in his car, leaving for 4 month tour of Europe.

She also spoke about Simple Life. How not having to care of the “looks” and “stuff” made her become free. Feel free. And it just reminded me about something Elizabeth Gilbert once said: “Enlightenment almost always tastes like freedom”, which I think it’s a paraphrase of what once Buddha said.

She also spoke about this one mistake most people do. They often think about the meaning of life, and they want to seek the answer to this question. When the real question is:

“How can people make their own lives meaningful“.

How can you make your life meaningful. How can I?

And I’ll leave you with that!

Ewa