Tenzin Angmo celebrated her last birthday on the streets of Chicago, sharing cupcakes and conversation with a group of homeless men. Clad in a gold and maroon robe, the petite woman moved with ease among the homeless population.
Alan Hester of Oak Park went along for the celebration.
“It was incredible watching these men sing `Happy Birthday’ to her,” said Hester, who was so impressed he returned on his own birthday to do the same. Occasionally he joins Angmo on monthly visits she makes into some of the roughest neighborhoods in the city. She brings along whatever she can lay her hands on — food, gloves, winter hats or maybe a coat.
“We all sit around together,” said Angmo, 34. “We eat and talk; they teach me so much” about dealing with the realities of life.
Hester has been studying meditation with Angmo for approximately one year. Angmo, you see, is an ordained Tibetan Buddhist nun. She is also an American dedicated to a life of teaching and service to others. She teaches meditation from her home in Lombard. Hester feels that she helped him through a particularly difficult period of his life.
“I was depressed and very stressed,” Hester said. “She helped me focus and re-orient myself. My outlook on life has improved tremendously. She has taught me how to carry meditation into my daily life.”
Occasionally Hester brings his 8-year-old son to the meditation sessions and he participates too. “She is wonderful with children, very natural.”
Ever since she was a child growing up in Hammond, Ind., Angmo has felt drawn to the monastic life. Part of a close-knit Baptist family, she attended a Baptist school and spent most of her evenings and weekends at chapel or at church-sponsored activities.
At 20, she attended the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, where she met a teacher of Zen Chinese Buddhism. The academics of college did not interest her, and eventually she dropped out to spend the next several years studying Buddhism in the Chicago area. Over the years, Angmo met teachers of many sects and found herself drawn to Tibetan Buddhism.
“Tibetan Buddhists practice compassion, and they are more open in theory,” Angmo said. “Also there are roles for females in Tibetan Buddhism, so I feel it is more applicable in today’s world.”
By 1996 she was seriously considering a monastic life and traveled to India to observe the first Buddhist Nun’s Conference. While in India, she was granted three audiences with the Dalai Lama — an unusual occurrence — and spent time with a hermit monk who lived in the Himalayas. Both were powerful experiences.
“My calling was very strong in me, and it was confirmed by the Dalai Lama and my teachers,” Angmo said. In March of 1996, she was ordained. Leaving behind her western name (her vows prevent her from ever mentioning that name) and clothing, she fully embraced the name Tenzin Angmo, bestowed upon her by the Dalai Lama.
A significant part of the ordination ceremony is the shaving of the head. Angmo had entered India with hair to her waist. “Years ago I did some modeling on L’Oreal hair color boxes,” Angmo said as she ran her hand along her auburn stubble, “but my hair never brought me joy.”
What brings her great joy is helping others. Her students range in age from 5 to 75 and include Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, Baptists and, recently, a Communist Chinese.
“Meditation can be practiced in many different ways, including from an interfaith perspective” involving those of many religious beliefs, Angmo said. She strives to help others find the essence of their birth religion. “To try to convert someone would be wrong; to proselytize would be a sin.”
Her meditation room is small; its pale yellow walls are adorned with framed photos of her teachers, including a large photo of the Dalai Lama, and, notably, a crucifix. “The crucifix represents several things to me,” Angmo said. “The vertical represents a connection with a higher being or god, and the horizontal represents spreading the light to all beings. Jesus is one of my teachers.”
Recently Angmo taught a meditation workshop at the Lake Street Church, an American Baptist church in Evanston. The pastor, Rev. Robert Thompson, said it was well received by his parishioners. “As global consciousness grows,” Thompson said, “so must our spirituality.”
Sarah Johnson, a resident of Northlake, goes to Lombard about once a week to study meditation. Occasionally she brings along her 11-year-old daughter. “It is very nice to have a woman as a teacher, especially a western woman,” Johnson said. “She can bridge the gap culturally between East and West.” Johnson began seeing Angmo after a particularly difficult time in her life. A break with a religious organization she had been involved with for 14 years left her without a social life or a support system.
“It was a very difficult time, the emotional aspect of trying to get oneself into some kind of balance,” Johnson said. “Angmo is very humble and totally non-judgmental.”
Angmo’s teaching is not limited to meditation. At the Buddhist Meditation Center in Hinsdale, she is teaching English to Thai monks and Dharma to Sunday School students. Dharma is the basis of Buddhism. “Dharma is the law of nature,” Angmo said. “It is cause and effect.”
She lectures or sponsors activities at many different churches, including the Universalist Unitarian Church in Oak Park, the Vietnamese Temple in Chicago and the Kenilworth Union Church in Kenilworth. Her goal is to help all people cultivate an inner spiritual life.
Natalie Silk of Lake in the Hills met Angmo at Womanspirit, a summer retreat held in Michigan that focuses on women and religion. Silk believes Angmo’s effect on people is monumental, though her tasks may appear small. “It’s not the big things she does; it’s the little things. She opens her home to people, she listens to them, she helps settle conflicts and upsets in their lives, she calms them.”
This sentiment is expressed over and over again by Angmo’s students. As Silk explained: “It’s the mustard seed that moves the mountain, not the bulldozer.”
