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FIRST NUN TO ORDAIN AT SRAVASTI ABBEY
BY DAN BLACK

This artical first appeared in the Northwest Dharma News

Before October 2, Jan Howell was a serious Buddhist student. After a ceremony in which her head was shaved and she was given maroon robes, she entered a new stage in her spiritual life. She became the first nun to ordain at Sravasti Abbey.

Jan, who is now called Venerable Thubten Tarpa, spoke about taking novice vows, the ceremony and how the abbey fits into her spiritual journey.

Ordaining at the abbey was a gradual process, Ven. Tarpa said, beaming a few days after the event.

She volunteered at the Sakya Monastery in the 1990s and took classes at the Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle, where abbess Venerable Chodron taught for nearly 10 years. After Ven. Chodron founded the abbey near Newport, Wash. in 2003, Jan was a frequent visitor, making the trip 10 times from Seattle, where she worked as a physical therapist.

Jan sought a new job in Eastern Washington to be closer to the abbey. After visiting a potential employer, came a decisive moment.

“I’ve always worked, earned my own income,” she said.

And looking at a great new job, “I remember thinking ‘this is a false sense of security.’”

She decided to move to the abbey —without a job. She then lived at the abbey for 18 months, volunteering, studying and meditating.

“The biggest thing that got me here,” she said, “is realizing what a precious opportunity this is.”

Her days at the abbey include meditation in the morning and evening, administrative work, studying the Dharma, and hearing the teachings.

“I believe in the power of precepts,” she said, adding that “I think they have an effect.”

“I have a belief that taking these vows, with these ethics, really helps us with concentration and wisdom,” she said.

“I feel like I need to try to think about more than this life. If this (monastic life) affords me the chance, then I ought to take it.”

Even after taking her vows of celibacy and devotion, Ven. Tarpa said she looks back with some sense of surprise.

She was always interested in philosophy and religion, and was inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

“But I was a poor religious candidate,” she said, adding that “I was a little closed, judgemental.”

Ven. Chodron said Jan was a good candidate for the monastic life.

“She didn’t run away,” she said, adding “she used the Dharma tools and learned.”

Nuns from New Mexico and Seattle came to help conduct the ordination.

“It brought me back to my own ordination,” nearly 30 years ago, Ven. Chodron said.

“How I felt then — a tremendous sense of gratitude”for the tradition and the ceremony, which has remained the same since the time of the Buddha and his original monks and nuns.

“Here’s this person who really wants to get out of Samsara and you’re giving them the tools.”

Ven. Tarpa said she is confident with her continued spiritual development. She will continue to live, study and meditate at the abbey.

For more descriptions about the ordination and the abbey, check www.sravastiabbey.org.

 
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