My Vow to a Nun

I showed up to the teachings with Benjamin for New Zealand, but he ended up trading spots with a young nun, named Tenzin Drolma, who was sitting behind him. She is a Nepali native, and like the class of monks at the Dechung Monastery I had the honor of visiting, she speaks English quite well.

It turns out we have a lot in common.

At age 28, Tenzin would have been born around the time I first started exploring Buddhist and eastern philosophies in 1994. Just like me, she was in college studying journalism and mass communication, when the allure of the materialistic world gave way to her desire to pursue a deeper spiritual knowledge. She took her vow to the Buddhist faith a little more seriously than I did when I was in college, moving to Dharamshala and joining a Buddhist convent.

She has had private audiences with the Dalai Lama on several occasions and diligently took notes in Tibetan as he delivered not only his lesson, but the question and answer session as well.

Near the end of the presentation, we had a discussion and she urged me to seek a teacher or guru. To date, my laissez faire nature has said it will happen when it happens, but she encouraged me to try – to devote my efforts and concentration to the task of finding someone who can help me along the spiritual path. I told her I would try.

After asking about my future travel plans and learning that I intend to visit Lumbini, she asked that I make a promise. She gave me a few rupees and asked that I remember her and offer a devotion at the site of the Buddha’s birthplace asking for the liberation from suffering of all sentient beings.

I made a vow that day to that little Bodhisattva that I intend to keep.

She scurried off into the crowd with her friend and was gone just as quickly as the Green Tara at the pooja of the week prior.