His Holiness the Dalai Lama recently met with a large group of Tibetan nuns, following a one-month intensive debate session.
The gathering of nuns was an initiative of the Tibetan Nun Project, which is making educational opportunities previously available only to monks open to nuns as well. The project has made great progress since its establishment in 1987. Many of the nuns who fled Tibet arrived in India and Nepal with little to no formal education, some even illiterate; in 2013, an unprecedented 27 nuns sat for the Geshema exam, the equivalent of a Ph.D. in Tibetan Buddhism.
The Dalai Lama, when meeting with the nuns, called on them to take leadership roles:
“The Dharma [Buddhist teaching] is at a critical juncture. You might think that it would be good to spend the rest of your life as a hermit, but we also need qualified people to teach others. Once you complete your studies we need some of you nuns to teach. Until now you have relied on monks to teach you, but in future it will be very important that there are also nuns to teach nuns.”
Click here for the full story at Huffington Post. You can learn more about the Tibetan Nuns Project, including how to sponsor a nun, at its website.
