Biography
Venerable Bao Co grows up in France with her three siblings in the catholic faith. From an early age, she carried a profound inner knowing that life held a deeper truth beyond what was visible. As a young child, she sensed a greater purpose guiding her existence and felt called to understand the mystery and meaning of life.
Gifted with vivid intuition and a deep sensitivity, she experiences the world with an open heart and heightened awareness. Her compassion for others and her natural curiosity about suffering and human existence led her to question, explore, and seek understanding from an early age.
As a child, her imaginative play often reflected ancient wisdom traditions. While exploring nature with neighborhood friends, she would embody the role of a Peruvian curandera or Amazon healer, gathering plants and treasures from Mother Earth during family walks and speaking what she now recognizes as light language. To the children around her, this was entirely natural; all seemed to understand one another without explanation.
The arts formed another sacred thread through her life. Classical dance, music, and creative expression became gateways to transcendence, while long periods of solitude and contemplation nurtured a deep inner relationship with silence. Dance became her second language- a living meditation through which she experienced profound joy, presence and states of bliss. Her inner voice emerged as her most trusted companion and guide.
At the age of twelve, while volunteering at her local library, she discovered a book on Buddhism. Opening its pages was like encountering words her heart had always known. It was a transformative and deeply magical moment- an affirmation of the truths that had quietly lived within her since childhood. This revelation inspired her to follow her own inner compass and continue exporing the spiritual path as a self taught seeker.
Her professional career as a classical dancer led her to live and travel extensively through Greece, Brazil, Japan, and the United States. Though she returned to France, she felt a powerful calling to America and eventually settled there.
In 1997, a dear friend Dee introduced her to the Vietnamese Zen master and martial artist, Venerable Thich Bao Thanh. This meeting became a profound turning point in her life. Soon after she was initiated into the lineage of the Tat Bao Hyuen Mon tradition- Spirit Mountain Sect, of South Vietnam- took the Boddhisattva vows, and received the Dharma name Bao Co, meaning “Precious Key.”
In 2002, alongside Master Bao Thanh and a devoted community of friends, she co-founded Spirit Mountain Temple, on a humble thirty-three-acre property centered around a dilapidated cow barn. Over the years, through dedication, faith and the generosity of countless supporters, this sacred land blossomed into what it is now known as Xa Loi Temple, renamed in 2022. Her enduring aspiration has always been to bring compassion, healing, confidence, joy and peace to communities throughout the East Coast and beyond.
In 2005, Venerable Bao Co moved into the barn received full monastic ordination. A few months later, her ordination is reaffirmed at Mahabodhi Temple in India, one of Buddhism’s most sacred sites, the place of the Buddhas Enlightenment. For eight years, she lived in complete simplicity, alongside her master, without electricity, running water, or heat. This life of renunciation and profound detachment became crucible for deep inner transformation, earning her the affectionate title of “The Forest Nun” among fellow monastics.
Through years of devoted practice, she received the sacred responsibility of carrying forward her lineage. She was entrusted with mind-to mind transmission from root grandmaster, Thich Bao Trung, through her master, Thich Bao Thanh receiving the keys of the tradition and its living wisdom.
As Abbess of Xa Loi Temple, Ven. Bao Co dedicates her life sharing the universal teachings of the Buddha through meditation, direct- experience and raising consciousness. She offers teachings in English, French and Spanish, guiding international communities.
Respected as both a compassionate teacher and a courageous leader, she has become a cherished presence in multicultural and interfaith communities. Her approach embodies both softness and fierce wisdom, encouraging others to discover their own inner freedom.
Since June 2024, Ven. Bao Co has expanded her outreach internationally, offering live and online teachings, retreats, one-on-one mentoring, group programs.
Her life’s work continues to serve as an invitation to awaken to the boundless potential of the human heart.
