Everyday Buddhism 118 - The End of Suffering with Ani Lodro Palmo

It's a pleasure to share a conversation with Ani Lodro Palmo, an ordained Tibetan Buddhist nun and Director of the Vajra Vidya Monastery in Crestone, Colorado; and a spiritual teacher and author with more than three decades of monastic experience.

Ani has devoted her life to spiritual practice and shares her understanding of the Dharma as an author of the books, All That Appears & Exists: The Buddha's Teachings to Awaken the Heart and Turn Suffering Into Joy and her most recent, The End of Suffering: Finding Love, Self-Compassion, and Awakening in a Chaotic World.

As a recognized teacher of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and meditation, Ani Lodro's insights are deeply rooted in the unbroken lineage of Buddhist wisdom, through the Karma Kagyu lineage of The Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche.

Although Ani has decades of monastic experience within Tibetan Buddhism, she teaches how the frustrations and dissatisfaction of our everyday lives can be understood and transcended through wisdom and compassion. She writes and speaks in an accessible way, with the gentle encouragement of a friend that is helpful to both new seekers and seasoned practitioners alike.

Her teachings are available through retreats, online sessions, and publications.

In the conversation we talked about a wide range things, including:

How we tend to misunderstanding what suffering is.

Gurus and reincarnation as a part of Tibetan Buddhism, but not a necessary part.

The Four Noble Truths as a path to awakening.

Taking the mystique from karma, as Ani writes: "transforming [it] from an enigmatic doctrine into a practical guide for conscious existence…. rooted in intention and behavior."

Her teaching of the "7 Simple Truths to End Suffering":

(1) Thoughts are nothing, they are no things;