Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc.
  presents
  Maintaining Hope
  Without Denying Reality
  by Venerables Thubten Chonyi & Thubten Dekyi
  Tuesday, Nov 10, 2026 • 7:00 pm
 
 

In a world marked by uncertainty, loss, and constant change, it can be difficult to remain hopeful without overlooking life’s challenges. Buddhist teachings offer a path that embraces reality with honesty while cultivating the inner strength to meet it with wisdom, compassion, and courage.

 

In this inspiring talk, Tibetan Buddhist nuns from Sravasti Abbey will explore how hope arises not from wishful thinking or avoiding difficulties, but from transforming the way we relate to them. Drawing on the Buddha’s teachings and their own years of monastic training and contemplative practice, they will discuss how understanding impermanence, cultivating compassion, and training the mind can help us face adversity with resilience and an open heart.
 
Participants will discover how Buddhist practice can support greater emotional balance, meaningful action, and a deep sense of hope that remains steady even in the midst of life’s inevitable challenges. Open to people of all backgrounds and levels of experience, this talk offers practical wisdom for navigating an ever-changing world with confidence, clarity, and compassion.
 
 
  Venerable Thubten Chonyi met Abbey founder and abbess Venerable Thubten Chodron in the mid-1990s, taking refuge with her at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle in 1997. After completing a three-month Vajrasattva retreat, she made a deep commitment to study and practice the Dharma as a lay student.
  She moved to North Idaho in 2002. Venerable Chodron and the Abbey fortuitously became her neighbor the next year. She was a founder of Friends of Sravasti Abbey and a frequent Abbey visitor before realizing her extraordinarily precious circumstances. She moved to the Abbey in June 2007, took sramanerika and sikasamana precepts in May 2008, and received full ordination at Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan in 2011.
  Ven. Chonyi’s formal education was in theatre, and she worked for many years as a performer, publicist, fundraiser, and producer in the performing arts. She was a Reiki teacher and practitioner for nineteen years, co-operating Reiki Healing Arts in Seattle and Coeur d’Alene. She also served as Managing Editor for Reiki Magazine International.
  At the Abbey, Ven. Chonyi is mainly involved with publicity and inviting generosity. She also shares Buddha’s teachings at the Abbey, online, and at Buddhist centers in the US and abroad. Here’s a playlist of her talks on YouTube.
 
  Venerable Thubten Dekyi grew up in Olympia, WA and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resource Management and Wildlife Ecology from Washington State University.
  For several years she led a seasonal life working in many places throughout the Northwest doing stream, plant, and wildlife surveys and skiing in the winter. She has been interested in Buddhism since she was 16 but never had a teacher or Dharma center until 2006. While living in Sandpoint, ID, she saw a flier that a Buddhist nun, Venerable Thubten Chodron, was teaching nearby in Newport, WA.
  Being greatly inspired by Venerable Chodron and the residents at Sravasti Abbey, the future Ven. Dekyi attended retreats and offered service while continuing to live less than an hour away in Sandpoint.
  Wanting to do something more with life than be a ski bum and seasonal wildlife technician, she served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia from 2012 to 2014. To pay off student loans and to fulfill her dream of becoming a Wildlife Biologist, she then worked for the US Forest Service in Newport, Oregon. This was a funny twist of coincidence since deep down she knew she wanted to live at the Abbey in Newport, WA.
  After joining in a one-month Vajrasattva retreat at the Abbey in 2019, she decided to take the leap and move to the Abbey, which she did in October 2019. She trained as an anagarika for 11 months, and then received novice ordination on October 7, 2020.
  At the Abbey, Ven. Dekyi continues to use her knowledge and passion of natural resource management to help restore the health of the Abbey’s forest, to reduce risk from wildfire, and to improve wildlife habitat. She is also learning to help with the Infrastructure Team with tasks that include unplugging sinks, driving the tractor in the winter for snow plowing, and all sorts of other fun and random tasks.
  She received bhikshini ordination at Fo En Si Temple in Taiwan in March 2024.
See a playlist of her Dharma talks.
     
     
     
Sugg. donation:   $15 (Note: no one will be turned away due to lack of funds)
     
Location:   In-Person at Drepung Loseling Monastery - Meditation Hall
    1781 Dresden Drive • Brookhaven, GA 30319
 
 
 
Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc.
1781 Dresden Drive • Atlanta, GA 30319