Dear Friends, 
Losar greetings and all good wishes for Tibetan New Year!
The end of February brings warmer weather to the Abbey and snow is melting. This followed the freezing weather in the rest of February, thanks to the polar vortex. But we were indoors for the most part, doing retreat. See photos here.
Retreat is a treasured time at the Abbey, giving us time to slow down and focus on studying and meditating on the Buddha’s teachings. We’re delighted that many people—including many who are incarcerated—have joined the Chenrezig Retreat from Afar.
We especially appreciate all of you who offer food and those who do the shopping and drive the icy roads to bring groceries to the Abbey!
Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron and the Sravasti Abbey Community
Winter Retreat Update
As winter retreat winds to a close, the community is making the most of the 5 meditation sessions every day (focused either on Chenrezig or Vajrasattva) and one study session. A few people use one of the meditation sessions to do ngondro (preliminary) practices such as prostrations, mandala offerings, and water bowl offerings.
We’ve especially enjoyed all the teachings we’ve received on both the method and wisdom sides of the path to Buddhahood. On the wisdom side, Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe finished teaching his book, The Rice Seedling Sutra: Buddha’s Teachings on Dependent Arising, and is now giving a commentary on the actual sutra text itself. Learning about the 12 links of dependent origination that describe our conditioned existence in samsara has provided much to contemplate during our meditation sessions with Chenrezig.
Meanwhile, Ven. Chodron has been expounding on emptiness—the flip side of dependent arising—using H.H. the Dalai Lama’s book, Essence of the Heart Sutra. Learning how this sutra explicitly teaches the ultimate reality of all phenomena while implicitly describing the bodhisattva path makes our daily recitation of the sutra much more meaningful. You can watch the teachings on the Gompa Tibetan Monastery Services website or wait till we post them on the Abbey’s YouTube channel.
On the method side of the path, Ven. Sangye Khadro has continued teaching Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle-Length Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. Our retreat corresponded with the chapters on the two methods for generating bodhicitta, and we’ve just started the section on the bodhisattva vow which explains how to practice bodhicitta in daily life.
And on Friday nights, Venerable Chodron continued teaching from Following in the Buddha’s Footsteps on the chapters about ethical conduct, the foundation of the entire path. We’ve learned about the various levels of precepts as well as the sangha community, which have deepened our appreciation for our chosen monastic path.
For a couple of weeks at the beginning of February, in the breaktimes some of us went to the Buddha Hall to align the bookshelves in the library, assemble chairs for the Media Room, store remaining materials, and clean the building. Our efforts were unexpectedly halted for reasons you can read below.
Buddha Hall Update
On Valentine’s Day, we got a “gift” from Murphy, the author of Murphy’s Law, when around 10:30 pm the fire alarm in the Buddha Hall went off, and the Fire Department soon arrived.
A fire suppression pipe in the men’s upstairs bathroom had frozen and consequently burst. Water flowed over about a half of the upper floor, gushed down the stairs, and flowed into about half the area downstairs. The library also had water running out of the light fixtures in the ceiling.
We initially tried to push some of the water outside, but the Fire Department advised us to shut off the power and leave the building because it was a safety hazard. The next morning, the contractor came as well as a company specializing in water damage and restoration.
There is significant and extensive water damage, and the insurance company has been notified. Thankfully none of the Dharma objects were harmed!
At present they’re removing some drywall to see how much water remains in the walls and ceiling, and fans are going 24/7 to dry out the building. Professionals will assess the extent of the damage, so we don’t yet have an idea of how long the repairs will take.
Tara Puja for Lunar New Year
For the past few years, our friends at FOSAS (Friends of Sravasti Abbey Singapore) have requested the Abbey for a Cittamani Tara Puja to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
This custom brings together international Abbey friends to make offerings to Arya Tara and share aspirations for peace and prosperity in the new year. See photos here.
The prosperity we aspire for is for our Dharma practice to flourish and bring peace in a chaotic world. May all the compassion and bodhicitta that Dharma practitioners cultivate prosper in this and all future lives! You can watch the Tara Puja here, which was livestreamed.
2024 Annual Report 
Our 2024 Annual Report, “Skies of Merit,” features Abbey activities and accomplishments over the past year.
Ven. Chodron’s introduction highlights the enormous efforts to prepare the Buddha Hall for occupancy, honors the passing of important teachers, and celebrates the completion of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion series co-authored with H.H. the Dalai Lama.
In addition to over 100 in-person and online teachings, talks, and retreats, five nuns became bhikshunis in 2024. We welcomed the first visit of Yangten Rinpoche, and received teachings from Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe.
Our prison Dharma program grew to include twice monthly visits to nearby Airway Heights Correctional Center, and we revived regular, in-person Dharma classes in Spokane and Newport. Amidst Buddha Hall construction, the community also engaged in an extensive fire mitigation effort and drilled a new well.
Click here to read more about all that happened in 2024 and rejoice in the ways your offerings help create peace in a chaotic world!
Online Teachings & Talks 
- Gompa Tibetan Monastery Services has started broadcasting Part 2 of Ven. Chodron’s teachings on the Heart Sutra. Register via their website through March 31 to watch the teachings. Part 1 of the teachings given in November 2024 are available to view in their library, as well as on the Abbey’s YouTube channel.
- Ven. Chodron offered a talk for the “Life Worth Living” course run by the Yale University’s Center for Faith and Culture. After sharing about her personal journey to Buddhism, she took questions on the meaning of duhkha, how to help people, and how to live a balanced life.
- Ven. Chodron offered an interview on applying the teachings on interdependence to everyday life for the 2025 edition of the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art’sSpiral magazine. Read the interview here.
- Korea’s Buddhist True Network broadcast two episodes featuring an interview with Ven. Chodron about how we practice at Sravasti Abbey as part of an ongoing series on the role of Buddhist meditation in modern society. Watch the first episode here about living in a Buddhist community, in addition to the second episode about working with anger that we featured in the February eNews.
Live International Teachings 
Ven. Sangye Khadro is in Singapore until March 25, giving teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, where she was resident teacher for 11 years, and at Buddhist Library. See the schedule and registration on the Abbey’s Events page.
Ven. Chodron is preparing for a month-long teaching tour in Europe in April, preceded by a stop at Shantideva Center, NYC. Some details are still in the works, so watch our website.
Here’s the general schedule. She begins at Institut Vajra Yogini in Marzens, France April 4-6, then heads to Switzerland for teachings in Geneva and Bern April 9-13. From there, she goes to the Maitreya Instituut centers in Amsterdam & Loenen, Netherlands April 16-20.
Ven. Chodron completes her trip in Germany April 22-28, giving teachings at Tibetan Center Hamburg and Semkye Ling Retreat Center, and a talk at the Miao Fa Center in Berlin. Venerable teaches in English. Most talks will have simultaneous translation in the appropriate languages. Check each center’s website for registration and translation info.
Tse Chen Ling Celebrates Women in Buddhism
Tse Chen Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies is hosting the year-long program Women of Wisdom: Celebrating the Living Legacy of Buddhist Women to celebrate its 35th anniversary.
The program will spotlight the history and impact of women in Buddhism and share the wisdom stewarded by a range of female lineage holders, teachers, scholars, monastics, and lay practitioners.
As part of the program, Ven. Sangye Khadro is teaching the second part of her class on Engaging in the Bodhisattva’s Deeds, and Ven. Chodron will give two talks on Preparing for Tantra in October. Visit the Tse Chen Ling website for the full schedule of talks and watch the video trailer for the series here.
Advocate for Universal Values by Using Compassion 
Religion Unplugged, a national online magazine, picked up Ven. Chonyi’s interfaith appeal in response to Bishop Mariann Budde’s address at the inaugural prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral in January.
Re-titled “Faith In The Dharma: Advocate For Universal Values By Using Compassion,” the piece is accompanied by a short video of Geshe Lhakdor from the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharmsala explaining H.H. the Dalai Lama’s view that values must be promoted on the basis of common sense backed by scientific evidence, not religion.
Ven. Chonyi’s essay was originally published on FāVS News.
More News 
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FāVS News published an interview with Ven. Chodron about the latest book that she co-authored with H.H. the Dalai Lama, Vajrayana and the Culmination of the Path, the 10th and final volume in the Library of Wisdom and Compassion series.
In the article, Ven. Chodron discusses the meetings she and the Dalai Lama would have every few years where she would be able to sit down with him and several Buddhist monks and ask questions that would aid her with the writing process. She explained the comfort she felt in being able to ask any kind of question without judgment and the clear and helpful answers the Dalai Lama gave.
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Open Heart, Clear Mind by Ven. Chodron is now available as an audio book! Learn more on the Shambhala Publications website.
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Ven. Sangye Khadro’s teaching on “The Keys to Happiness” given last year at Tekchen Choeling in Ontinyent, Spain is now available on their website.
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Read about how to practice and celebrate the Days of Miracles, now through March 14.
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Enjoy fun pictures of snow at the Abbey over the years in our “Flashback February” photo gallery.
Upcoming Events 
Here’s what’s happening in March:
Now – Mar 22: Chenrezig 2025 Winter Retreat from Afar, online
Mar 1-25: Singapore Teachings with Ven. Sangye Khadro, live in Singapore
March 5: A Peaceful Heart in a Complex World with Ven. Thubten Chodron, on Zoom for Tushita Meditation Centre
Mar 5, 12, 19 & 26: Engaging in the Bodhisattva’s Deeds Pt. 2, with Ven. Sangye Khadro, on Zoom for Tse Chen Ling
Mar 8 & 9: Seven-Point Mind Training Pt. 1, with Ven. Thubten Chodron, on Zoom and live at the Abbey, followed by Offering Service Saturday on Mar. 8
March 10: A Zillion Reasons to Love Sentient Beings with Ven. Sangye Khadro, on Zoom for Tushita Meditation Centre
Mar 15 & 16: Seven-Point Mind Training Pt. 2, with Ven. Thubten Chodron, on Zoom and live at the Abbey, followed by Offering Service Saturday on Mar. 15
March 16: Medicine Buddha Puja, with Abbey monastics on Zoom
March 23: Kathina & End-of-Retreat Celebration 2025, with the Abbey community, live and online
Mar 28-30: Shantideva Center teachings with Ven. Thubten Chodron, live in NYC
March 30: Bodhicitta: Jewel of the Mind with Ven. Thubten Lamsel, on Zoom for Chicago Buddhist Meditation Group
Plus weekly teachings online:
- Middle-Length Lamrim, with Ven. Sangye Khadro, streamed live, Thursdays at 8 am Pacific Time
- Following in the Buddha’s Footsteps, with Ven. Thubten Chodron, streamed live, Fridays at 5 pm Pacific Time
Check the Abbey’s Events Page for more talks, retreats & courses!