A Conversation with Venerable Gendun

Venerable Gendun will preach on Sunday morning and lead us in a conversation about the sermon that afternoon. The sermon is about intercontemplative dialogue: a path between rejection and assimilation.
Description: The Dalai Lama once stated that all religious violence springs from a lack of experience with one’s own tradition. When practices and doctrines harden into identities, the other tends to get nullified through either rejection or assimilation. Where spiritual practice has transformed awareness in contrast, the heart opens, and a caring space unfolds in which the alterity of the other is welcomed for both its challenge and affirmation. The sermon will open the space for finding a way forward together.

Venerable Losang Gendun has dedicated nearly four decades to practicing Buddhism and has served as a Bhikshu (Buddhist monk) in the Tibetan tradition for the past 18 years. Prior to his ordination, he worked in diverse fields such as palliative care, technology, refugee organizations, and commercial management. His extensive training includes ten years of studying Buddhist philosophy and practice in monasteries across France, India, Nepal, and Myanmar. Additionally, he spent over four years in retreat, immersing himself in Tibetan sutra and tantra, as well as the Burmese Theravada Forest Tradition.
For the last 15 years, Ven. Gendun has been a dedicated teacher, sharing his knowledge of Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and meditation worldwide. He serves the aspirations of H.H. the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche as part of the FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition). Ven. Gendun is also a member of Mind & Life Europe, a multidisciplinary laboratory that brings together researchers and contemplative practitioners to explore the nature of experience.

Beyond his Buddhist affiliations, Ven. Gendun serves as an interreligious canon at the Peace Cathedral in Tbilisi, Georgia, and feels at home at a Mevlavi Sufi dargah in Istanbul. In 2023, he founded The Buddha Project, which engages in long-term guidance for Buddhist meditators, scientific research, art projects, and intercontemplative social engagement.