Life as a Monk
Big Change Possible

Ven. Thubten Lhundrup, a former music director and
radio announcer, takes the plunge into monkhood.

Atisha Centre in Bendigo, Australia, is blessed with a resident teacher, Geshe Konchok Tsering. Gen-la lives at the nearby Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, and as a resident monk, I have been blessed with the opportunity to spend much time talking with him. A year or two ago, when the conversation turned to karma and the direction people take in their lives, Gen-la said to me, “Ooh! Lhundru-la, big change possible.” This has come to be a catchcry for me as I look back on the way my life has changed.

Last year I was interviewed for a radio program that dealt with spiritual matters, and it was a bizarre experience. The studio was in a radio station that now has a news/talk format, but in the 1980s the building was home to Melbourne’s number one FM rock station. I worked at that FM station as a music director and announcer. So there I was, sitting in a studio that I had not been in since the early ’90s. This time, though, my role had changed considerably. I was sitting there in monk’s robes, talking about nirvana, the cessation of all suffering, not Nirvana, the rock group.

Quite a transformation had taken place – from the heady days of the ’80s music scene to life in a monastery as a Buddhist monk.

After I left radio full time, I tried other careers: real estate, computer consultancy, massage, courier driving, and finally, unemployment. I refer to these years as my wandering through the desert (I realize this is a Judeo-Christian image)! My radio career, which began in 1970, seemed like a long, crazy ride on a big wave, until I decided to jump off. I then had what I jokingly refer to these days as the longest nervous breakdown in history. In those years my relationship broke up, I lost all my money, and consequently, I experienced depression and a total lack of direction and enthusiasm.

With my radio career gone. I felt I had lost my identity, and it seemed there was nothing that would work for me in the way of a new career. Looking back, I can see that the causes and conditions were not in place for what I wanted to happen with my life, and I had a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that I did not have control over them. This is where the next stage of my story begins …

This article can be read in its entirety in Mandala