'Rich Life' being explored at North Idaho College

How much is “enough?” Buddhist nun Venerable Thubten Chonyi explores “the qualities of a rich life” from a Buddhist perspective on Tuesday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the Student Union’s Lake Coeur d’Alene Room at North Idaho College. Sponsored by NIC Diversity Events and Coeur d’Alene Dharma Friends, the talk is free and open to the public. Donations to the Sravasti Abbey Buddhist monastery are also welcomed.

Venerable Chonyi draws on a comment from a Catholic nun (and soon to be saint) to examine the spiritual dimensions of wealth and poverty. Mother Teresa, who ministered to the poor of Calcutta, India, for nearly 40 years, observed, “The spiritual poverty of the West is greater than ours. You, in the West, have millions of people who suffer such terrible loneliness and emptiness. They know they need something more than money, yet they don’t know what it is.” Venerable Chonyi questions what is that “something” that drives our consumerism and investigates what it means to live a rich life, regardless of income.

A student of Buddhism for twenty years, Venerable Chonyi is among the first monastics ordained at Sravasti Abbey in Newport, Wash., a monastery in the Tibetan tradition founded by her teacher, Venerable Thubten Chodron.

Information: CdA Dharma Friends, cdadharmafriends.weebly.com or 208-667-3813