Irish 1st Westerner to become Buddhist monk

First Western Buddhist monk: Irish U Dhammaloka (Wisdom Quarterly)

Methinks me should be a monk

The Dharma Bum was the first Westerner to be ordained as a Buddhist monk. He chose Theravada Buddhism in Burma (Myanmar), where he was given the name Venerable U Dhammaloka. ("U," pronounced "ooh," is not a name but an honorific title used for monks and mature or men in senior positions in Burma). He was from Dublin, Ireland but -- wandering like a Dharma Bum, he first traveled to California then onto Asia, landing in faraway Mandalay, where he took robe and bowl and made a lot of trouble for the Christian colonial British exploiting India.

Irish documentary about pioneer U Dhammaloka

The Dharma Bum is a feature-length, partially animated documentary film that tells the tantalizing true story of Dubliner Laurence Carroll, who became Venerable U Dhammaloka.

• Any relation to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland? Of course not, because "Lewis Carroll" is the nom de plume (pen name) for Irish-connected Oxford don Dodgson, the author of classic literature for little Alice Liddell.

Dharma Bum Temple, San Diego

Laurence Carroll was born in Dublin in 1856 and spent his early life as an alcoholic hobo drifter bumming his way across the United States of America.
 

This freethinking, un-Catholic, un-Christian, atheist activist worked the shipping route from San Francisco, California, to Japan.

• Dharma Bum Buddhist Temple, Southern California
• The Dharma Bums by Irish American Buddhist and Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac:

Irish American Buddhist J. Kerouac

Irish American Zen Buddhist and Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac's literary prestige has been growing since 1969. Several previously unseen works of his have been published posthumously. He is recognized for his spontaneous stream of consciousness style of prose. The themes his work covers are mysticism, religion, Buddhism, childhood, poetry and literature, the San Francisco Bay Area (where Irish Dharma Bum U Dhammaloka and British Buddhist Alan Watts came for inspiration) and the New York City of the 1940s and '50s, and life. Kerouac became an underground celebrity and, with other Beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he was not a hippie and mostly remained uninterested in politics [8]. His legacy has lasted generations, greatly influencing many of the cultural icons of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, and the Doors.

• Buddhism in the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)

Dharma Bum Temple Main Hall with guest speaker Ven. Robina Courtin

How Buddhism came to Britain

In Britain, the earliest Buddhist influences came from the Theravada Buddhist traditions of Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. Interest in them was primarily scholarly to begin with; a Western tradition of study grew up that resulted in the foundation of the Pali Text Society in 1881 founded by T. W. Rhys Davids, which undertook the significant task of translating the Pāli language canon of the Theravada tradition into English. The start of interest in Buddhism as a path-of-practice had been pioneered by the founders of the new syncretic religion Theosophy, namely, the Russian Madame Blavatsky and the American Colonel Olcott. In 1880, they became the first Westerner Buddhists in that they asked to receive the Three Refuges (the Going for Guidance to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) and the Five Precepts as a formal act of conversion in an ancient ceremony by which one traditionally accepts and becomes a nominal "Buddhist." Burma (now called Myanmar) and Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) were well established Theravada Buddhist countries and colonies of the British Empire. Both colonies were majority Theravada Buddhist. Immigration from the two colonies to the UK would have happened. During the 19th to early 20th centuries, lascar sailors (people from Asia who worked in British ships) came and settled in the UK. Some of the lascars came from the seafaring communities of Burma and Sri Lanka [17]. More

The Dharma Bum found himself on the beach, hungover and homeless, after being kicked off the vessel for drunk and disorderly conduct.

He eventually made his way to Theravada Buddhist Burma, where he was helped by compassionate local Buddhist monks.

After five years as a monastic apprentice, he became the first Western man to ever don the saffron robes of a Theravada Buddhist monk.

• Carroll was not the only amazing Irish-American Buddhist monastic: There was also Zen Buddhist "saint" (bodhisattva) Maura Soshin O'Halloran
• American Buddhist Journal: POEM: "Finnegan's Awake"

Irish Zen Bodhisattva Soshin O'Halloran

Irish-American female Zen Buddhist saint (bodhisattva) in Japan: Soshin O'Halloran

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Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind

*Maura "Soshin" O'Halloran (May 24, 1955–Oct. 22, 1982) was an Irish Zen Buddhist nun [1]. She is known for her book Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, which was posthumously published by her family.

She is also famous for being one of the "first of few Western women allowed to practice in a traditional Japanese Zen monastery" [2].

BIOGRAPHY

Hojo Takatoki Harakiri-Yagura, Tōshō-ji Temple

Soshin (Maura O'Halloran) was born in Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, USA in 1955. Her parents moved her to Ireland when she was four years old [3, 4]. Her father was originally from County Kerry, whereas her mother was a native of Maine [4]. In Ireland, young O'Halloran was educated in Loreto College, Foxrock in Dublin and later attended Trinity College Dublin, where she graduated with a joint degree in mathematical economics/statistics and sociology [3]. Shortly after her graduation, [karma and the pull of past lives being what they are] O'Halloran ventured to Japan, where she studied to become a Zen monastic at Tōshō-ji in Tokyo and at Kannon-ji in Iwate Prefecture [3] ("Kannon" being a name for the Virgin Mary of Buddhism, the Goddess of Compassion Kwan Yin). More

An Irish Girl

Irish Zen Buddhist nun Soshin

The snow begins across the mountains

Covers the rice fields

Down below a woman awakens

Her breath is frozen in the early morning

Out on the freezing streets

With bell and bowl she goes

People come to see the face

People come to feel the light

Of an Irish Girl

Everything in the world is new

Everybody I tell wants to know you

Soshin… Soshin…

She washes noodles by the open window

Wet and soft between her fingers

The air of spring blows on her face

And the moment is eternal

Maura sits in the dark womb-like stillness

She’s thinking ‘How can I die or cease to be?

I am eternal, I am Roshi!’

Everything in the world is new

Everybody I tell wants to know you

Soshin… Soshin…

She may not change a blade of grass

Nor light the flame for souls to see

But in this silent Easter morning

She has found a friend in me

Adapted from the expanded edition of Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, Wisdom Publications, with permission (Lion’s Roar)

• Remembering "Irish Zen Saint" Maura O'Halloran | Lion’s Roar

Ven. U Dhammaloka: First Westerner to ordain as a Buddhist monk

I'm glad I became a Buddhist and did so much to spread freethinking against the British Empire.

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The Dharma Bum (documentary)

(Belfast Buddhist, 4/1/16) Venerable Dhammaloka was ordained in Theravada Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) prior to 1900, making him one of the very earliest attested Western Buddhist monks. He was a celebrity preacher, vigorous polemicist, free thinker, and prolific editor in Burma and Singapore between 1900 and his conviction for sedition and appeal in 1910–1911. Drawing on Western atheist writings, he publicly challenged the role of imperial Christian missionaries and by implication the British Empire. His Irish name was Laurence Carroll or Larry O'Rourke or Willam Colvin from Cork and Munster.

UK-occupied Northern Ireland

They gave him the new Buddhist name U Dhammaloka,** and that is just the beginning of the story!

• [**In Burmese U (pronounced "oo") is an honorific that signifies "sir," Dhamma is the Pali spelling of "Dharma," loka means "world." Interestingly, aloka means "light" or "bright whiteness" -- so his name, if pronounced with a long a, signifies suggests "Dharma Light or even White Dharma."]

U Dhammaloka was erased from history. His existence lay dormant for over 100 years. Why? The reasons are explored in the film.

Teach those Brits not to mess with the Celts

This Irishman caused quite a stir in his life, as he singlehandedly took on the might of the Christian British Empire in colonial Burma.

• [George Orwell was also decrying British colonial crimes against humanity in Burma and England for which he wrote Nineteen-Eighty-Four, and he wrote about the city monks of Burma -- eviscerating the layabouts -- in an essay "Shooting an Elephant"].

In the film we discover why he was under constant police surveillance and ultimately had to fake his own death as he transformed himself from an alcoholic bum to the original Dharma Bum. More

• The Dharma Bum - a documentary - Home | Facebook
• Goodbye Columbus, hello St. Brendan | Irish America

The Legend of the 6th Century Irish monk who may have sailed so America (grunge.com)

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Happy St. Paddy's Day?

Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

The Patrician Roman Patriarch Patty?

As we celebrate Saint Paddy's Day today, one has to wonder why British Protestant Patrick gets so much credit from the Imperial Catholic Church.

• Is it Druid Genocide Day or St. Patrick's Day?

Saint Patrick (Gaelic Pádraig, Latin Patricius, "father of the people") was a 5th-century Romano-British anti-pagan, Christian missionary, and patriarch named bishop of Ireland by an outside entity.

Known as the "Apostle of Ireland," he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints being Brigid of Kildare and Columba. Patrick was never formally canonized [2], having lived before the current laws of the Catholic Church on these matters.

• Is St Patrick's Day a celebration of genocide? (Quora)
• Why pagans don’t celebrate St. Paddy’s Day
• Druid Genocide (Ireland's Folklore and Traditions)
• The 6th century Irish monk who sailed to America (grunge.com)
• Study: “Woke” attitudes linked to anxiety, depression, and a lack of happiness

We may have been better off as pagans.

Nevertheless, he is venerated as a "saint" in the Catholic Church, which also venerates the Buddha as a Catholic saint (St. Josaphat), the Lutheran Church, the Church of Ireland (part of the Anglican Communion), and in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is regarded as equal-to-the-apostles and Enlightener of Ireland [3, 4].

He was a slave in Ireland for years, escaped back to England then seems to have returned to extract his revenge as a patriarch to impose Roman church law on the Emerald Isle.

Patrick is credited with forcing Christianity on Ireland, converting a pagan society in the process, despite evidence of an earlier Christian presence [7].

We defend Catholicism b/c the British don't like it

In Patrick's autobiography, Confessio, when he was 16, he was captured at home in Britain by Irish pirates and taken as a slave to Ireland. He writes that he lived here for six years herding animals before escaping and returning to his England.

After becoming a cleric, he returned to spread Christianity in northern and western Ireland. In later life, he served as a bishop, but little is known about where he worked.

By the 7th century, he had already become the "patron saint of Ireland." His feast day is observed on March 17th, the date of his death not his birth. It is celebrated in Ireland and among the worldwide Irish diaspora as a cultural holiday celebrating all things Irish.

It is hardly as a religious observance nowadays, but in the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation, even if pagans mourn the genocide he wrought upon the island.

Good John Riley's flag of the Mexican regiment

The Irish are so much like the Mexicans in this regard, taken over and thoroughly saturated by the Holy Roman Empire, as if the Church liberated the people when it enslaved them and still tries to rule every aspect of their lives and exact tribute for Rome.

So much is this connection felt that there are Los Patricios ("The Patricks" not Patricians), who were US mercenaries ordered to fight Mexico, but when they understood the fight, led by John Riley, they took the side of Mexico and fought against the US, as anyone who champions the underdog might well have done. More

• Who wrote the Vulgate?
• TheDharmaBum.eu, Dana.IO/thedharmabum; Irishman U Dhammaloka (aka Laurence Carroll); Lion's Roar; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit originally published March 17, 2024
  

Pre-Buddhist Thai-Burmese Spirit Worlds

(GO Asia) Thailand and Burma's secret Spirit World | culture and spirituality documentary (AMP)

• What are Burma's and Thailand's "Nats" (Spirits)?
• The "Nat" spirits of Burma (gomyanmartours.com)

Pantheon of animist "Nat" spirits on altar

A spirit house is a shrine to the protective spirit of a place that is found in the Southeast Asian Buddhist countries of Thailand (Siam), Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia (Khmer Kingdom), Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. They are normally in the form of small, roofed structure mounted on a pillar or a dais. They can range in size from small platforms to houses large enough for people to enter. Spirit houses are intended to provide a shelter for spirits that could cause problems for the people if not appeased. More

• Before monks, there were wizards: weizza or weikza (shamans, ceremonial alchemists to deal with the nats the way Shinto priests deal with the kami in pre-Buddhist Japan)
• A night with the wizards of Burma (aljazeera.com)
• Spirit houses in Southeast Asia (nl.pinterest.com)

What is a nat or "spirit" in SE Asia?

Venerate me and I will help you from beyond.

The nats (နတ်) are spirits, deities, god-like ancestors, poltergeists, unseen (invisible) beings venerated in Burma (aka Myanmar) and neighboring Southeast Asian Buddhist countries in conjunction with Theravada Buddhism.

Nats are divided between the 37 Great Nats, who were given that status by King Anawrahta when he formalized the official list of nats. Most of the 37 Great Nats were human beings who met violent deaths [1].

There are two types of nats in Burmese belief, nat sein (နတ်စိမ်း), which are humans who were deified after their deaths, and all other nats, which are spirits of nature (like the kami of Japan, elementals, spirits of water, trees, etc.)

Much like sainthood, nats can be designated for a variety of reasons, including those only known in certain regions in Burma. Nat worship is less common in urban areas than in rural areas and is practiced among ethnic minorities of Burma as well as in mainstream Bamar society.

However, it is among the Theravada Buddhist Bamar that the most highly developed form of ceremony and ritual is seen [2]. More: Nat (deity)

Folk Magic, Mahayana Buddhism, and Chinese Taoist syncretism

(Benebell Wen) Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism in Asian Folk Magic and Religion explained

• Why do Bangladeshis look fully different from Burmese people even though they are neighbors?

Real life in 'sinful' Buddhist Cambodia

Near Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam

(World Lens) Real life Cambodia : The world's most sinful Buddhist country: The real country most visitors miss | Travel documentary

• Buddhism in Cambodia

This former U.S.-ruined Asian colony known as the Khmer Republic was illegally bombed by the U.S. in a massive genocidal campaign during the U.S. War on Vietnam in Operation Menu and Operation Freedom Deal. Neighboring Buddhist Laos was also bombed along with Vietnam as it suffered CIA subterfuge in Laos as The Company (the CIA) destabilized the impoverished the poor post-colonial nation with the Laotian Civil War.

• Angkor Wat: The world's largest temple
• Massive Angkor city-state, Siem Reap
• Vat Phou, Laos
• Wat Athvea ancient neighboring site

Zionist CIA loves secret wars in Asia and world

Why the imperial Americans saw fit to follow on France's colonialism with a genocide during the U.S. War on Vietnam only the U.S. government and CIA know. Three innocent Buddhist countries had to be ethnically cleansed and horrifically abused to make the world safe for American disaster capitalism and the threat of equitable improvements in the name of socialism or the dreaded C-word communism.

Growing up Vietnamese in Deep South | Rosie Tran

Vipassana: liberation through insight

Is vipassana really Buddhist? The truth about the world's most popular meditation

(Buddha's Wisdom) 🔍 IS VIPASSANA REALLY BUDDHIST? THE HIDDEN STORY BEHIND THE WORLD'S MOST PRACTICED KIND OF INSIGHT MEDITATION

Millions of people have practiced Buddhist vipassana meditation, but very few know what the word vipassanā originally meant, or how the modern movement transformed one of Buddhism's oldest insights into a global meditation phenomenon.

• The powerful, practical, and effective Pa Auk Sayadaw system to Buddhist liberation (stream entry and nirvana in this very life) by scholar-monk practitioner at Pa-Auk Forest Monastery (in Burma and around the world), the most Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw (aka Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa)
• What it’s like to spend a week at Pa-Auk Tawya Forest Monastery in Burma (Myanmar) | Meditation Magazine
• The American Monk student of Pa Auk Sayadaw

What is insight (vipassana) meditation actually for? This word doesn't mean "meditation" at all. And the practice millions know from Goenka's free 10-day silent retreats was born not in the Buddha's proto-India, but in [George Orwell's] colonial Burma, the day an empire stopped protecting the Theravada Dhamma.

This is the true story of insight meditation: what vipassanā really means, how it nearly vanished, and how a monk, a farmer, an accountant, and a businessman carried it to the modern world.

📿 DISCOVER:

• The original meaning of vipassanā and why it never simply meant "meditation"
• How the fall of the Burmese kingdom sparked the modern Vipassana Movement
• Why meditation was rare even among Buddhist monastics for nearly 1,000 years
• Why many Buddhist teachers say today's vipassana is both ancient and surprisingly modern
• The unlikely relay that saved insight practice: from Buddhist monk Ledi Sayadaw to a rice farmer to S.N. Goenka's flight home in 1969
• What today's vipassana retreats, the mindfulness movement, and scientific research gained... and what may have been left behind.

🙏 If this changed what viewers thought meditation was, subscribe. The next episode uncovers the other half the world forgot: the deep stillness of jhana ("meditative absorption" as samma-samadhi or "right stillness," "coherent unification of mind") the Buddha paired with insight.

📱 Join community:

• Instagram: buddhaswizdom    
• Facebook: buddhaswizdom  
• X: x.com/BuddhasWizdom
• Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5ndnBU5...
• TikTok: buddhas.wisdom

☕ Support channel:

• buymeacoffee.com/buddhaswisdom
• paypal.me/buddhaswisdom

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:

• 00:00 Day 4 — inside the silence
• 01:54 What vipassanā really means
• 04:33 The ice cube — what seeing actually means
• 09:43 The king is gone — Mandalay, 1885
• 15:09 The farmer, the accountant, and the businessman
• 18:48 How vipassanā conquered the West
• 23:28 The homecoming

#vipassana #vipassanameditation #insightmeditation #buddhism #meditation #buddhistwisdom #mindfulness #theravada #buddhisthistory #goenka #Buddha

📚 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING: (affiliate links)

• Primary Buddhist Texts
• Saṃyutta Nikāya (SN 22.59) — Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta ("The Discourse on Not-Self")
• Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta ("The Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse," Majjhima Nikāya, MN 10)
• Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta ("The Greater Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse," Dīgha Nikāya, DN 22)
• Ānāpānasati Sutta ("Discourse on Mindfulness of In-and-Out Breathing," Majjhima Nikāya, MN 118)
• Selected passages from the Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification) by Buddhaghosa

Historical and Scholarly Resources

• Erik Braun — The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw amzn.to/4h8DnaQ
• Robert Sharf on meditation in monastic history; Robert Buswell on the lapse of vipassanā practice
• Bhikkhu Anālayo — works on Satipaṭṭhāna and early Buddhist meditation amzn.to/4bDh1KT
• Rupert Gethin — The Foundations of Buddhism amzn.to/4wGpXr3
• Bhikkhu Bodhi — translations of the Pāli canon amzn.to/4w4iJNB
• Prof. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. — writings on modern Buddhism
• Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche — teachings on Tibetan Buddhist meditation and lhaktong (vipaśyanā)
• Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Zen) — teachings on mindfulness, concentration, and insight amzn.to/4w6ILjx

Modern Scientific References

• Jon Kabat-Zinn — Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) amzn.to/4yooPKg
• Research on mindfulness, attention regulation, stress reduction, and contemplative neuroscience

#vipassana How this was made: Made with AI. Sounds or visuals were altered or fully generated. Learn more

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• Half "Fancy Asia" and Half "Jungle Asia"

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Graphic content: Jiaoying Summers

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Disenchanted w/ mundane world: Beth Upton

• Beth Upton update: Wildflowers and Wanderings

Disenchantment with the Mundane World: Conversation with former Theravada Buddhist nun

Disenchantment: Untold Tales

(The Theory of Samsara) Jan. 8, 2026: In this in-depth conversation on Ultimate Meaning: The Theory of Samsara, I speak with British Buddhist meditation teacher Beth Upton, a former fully ordained Theravāda Buddhist nun (Sayalay Anuttara) in Burma who spent nearly ten years training under Pa Auk Sayadaw (Ven. Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa) in the Burmese forest meditation tradition.

 

She shares her journey from ordination at age 25, through years of rigorous monastic training in calm-and-insight (samatha-vipassanā), to her decision to disrobe and teach as a lay practitioner in the West.

Together, we explore some of the most misunderstood questions in contemporary Buddhism, including:

• 

  Let go until success then go teach the world.

  What truly leads someone to renounce samsaric life
• Disenchantment vs. curiosity on the path to liberation
• Whether Buddhist enlightenment is possible for lay Buddhist practitioners
• The lived meaning of renunciation beyond philosophy
• Tranquility versus insight (samatha vs. vipassanā) — and why “vipassanā” is often a misused term
• Ultimate reality, momentariness (moment-to-moment presence), and non-self
• Why deep meditation can feel fragile outside the context of monastic life
• The role of community, wise friends, and authentic teachers
• Commercialization of Dharma vs. teaching by donation
• Sectarianism between Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism
• Why liberation is not just for “other cultures” or monastics

Canadian interviewer Lama Choga

This dialogue is not about spiritual abstract beliefs or spiritual ideals, but about what actually works when confronting disappointment (dukkha, suffering), impermanence, and the [impersonal] realities of samsara in modern life.

Chapters/Timestamps

• 00:00 – Intro: Beth Upton and Path [to End] Samsara
• 02:18 – Why she chose ordination as a British Buddhist nun at age 25
• 05:10 – Meeting authentic Buddhist teachers and the power of sangha [community]
• 08:32 – Experimenting with life and early renunciation
• 12:45 – Discovering liberation as a real possibility
• 16:40 – Is enlightenment possible for lay practitioners?
• 19:55 – Stream entry, arahantship, and Theravāda views
• 24:10 – Did Beth Upton meet enlightened beings?
• 27:05 – Why she disrobed after 10 years as a forest nun
• 33:40 – Fragility of meditation outside monastic life
• 37:55 – Teaching the Dharma authentically in the West
• 41:50 – Disenchantment with samsara: knowing it in the bones
• 47:30 – Cycles of renunciation and returning to the world
• 52:15 – Creating long-term retreat communities in Europe
• 56:40 – Teaching by donation rather than selling the Dharma
• 1:01:30 – Can deep meditation be practiced while working?
• 1:06:55 – Permanent retreatants and Western monastic models
• 1:10:40 – Environmental ethics in Buddhist practice
• 1:15:25 – Sectarianism: Southeast Asian Theravāda vs. Tibetan [Vajrayana] Buddhism
• 1:21:10 – Personal liberation vs. compassion for all beings
• 1:26:30 – Shamatha vs. vipassanā: clearing the confusion
• 1:33:10 – Ultimate reality and momentariness explained
• 1:39:45 – Causality, impermanence, and non-self
• 1:45:20 – Reflexive awareness and observing mind moments
• 1:52:10 – How to find wise friends and authentic teachers
• 1:57:30 – Final advice for Western practitioners
• 2:00:10 – Closing reflections and future conversations

Lama Choga and a Canadian Buddhist Sangha

If serious about meditation, renunciation, and understanding liberation beyond romantic [New Age] spirituality, this conversation offers rare clarity and lived insight.

🙏 Keep wise friends. Beth Upton's YouTube channel: @beth.upton.meditation

• Beth Upton's website: bethupton.com
• Previous videos about Beth Upton's backstory: About Me
• Episode 138: Trained as a Nun - Beth Upton
• Canadian Lama Choga: ultimatemeaning.org
• Meditációs elvonulások (Gánti Bence)
• Disenchantment: Untold Tales, Vol. 1 (book by Matt Groening)

How this was made: Auto-dubbed. Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. #DharmaTalk #Samsara #Buddhism #Theravada #Vipassana #MeditationPractice #Renunciation #Liberation #Enlightenment #BuddhistNun #PaAuk #NonSelf #FourNobleTruths #EightfoldPath #SpiritualPractice #Mindfulness #Jhanna #EasternPhilosophy #ultimatemeaning

• Host Lama Choga (The Theory of Samsara, Jan. 2026), guest Beth Upton; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly