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.
As a child, she is gifted with vivid intuition and a deep sensitivity; she experiences the world with an open heart and awareness. Her compassion for others and her natural curiosity about suffering and human existence led her to question, and seek understanding from an early age.
Her imaginative play often reflected ancient wisdom traditions. While exploring nature with neighborhood friends, she would play the role of a Peruvian curandera, with gathered plants and treasures from Mother Earth during family walks, speaking what she now recognizes as light language. To her friends, this was natural; all seemed to understand one another without an explanation.
The arts formed another sacred thread through her life. Classical dance, music, and creative expression became pathways to freedom, while long periods of solitude and contemplation nurtured a deep inner relationship with silence. Dance became her second language- a living, moving meditation experienced by profound joy, and freedom.
At the age of twelve, while volunteering at her local library, she discovered a book on Buddhism. Turning the pages seem like images and words her heart remembered. A magical moment: an affirmation inspiring her to follow her compass, and explore the spiritual path as a self taught seeker.
Her professional career as a classical dancer led her to live and travel in Greece, Brazil, Japan, and the United States. Though she returned to France, she felt a pull to return to the United Staes and settled there.
In 1997, a friend Dee introduced her to Vietnamese Zen master and martial artist, Venerable Thich Bao Thanh. The meeting became a turning point and soon after, she was initiated into the lineage of the Tat Bao Hyuen Mon tradition- Spirit Mountain Sect, of South Vietnam- took the Bodhisattva vows, and the Dharma name Bao Co, “Precious Key.”
In 2002 alongside Master Bao Thanh, she co-founded Spirit Mountain Temple, for a small Vietnamese community: a humble cow barn sitting on a thirty-three-acre property in the rural town of Buckeystown, Maryland.
In 2003, Ven. Bao Co moved inside the barn, receiving full monastic ordination, and again a few months later at the Mahabodhi Temple, India, the Buddha’s Enlightenment
For ten years, she lived in total simplicity, alongside her master, without electricity, running water, or heat. This life of renunciation and deep inner transformation, earned her the affectionate title of “The Forest Nun” among fellow monastics. She received the sacred responsibility of carrying forward the key of the lineage, through mind-to mind transmission from root grandmaster, Ven. Thich Bao Trung, through her master Ven. Thich Bao Thanh.
As the abbess of Xa Loi Temple, in Maryland USA, 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 boundless potential, freedom and joy.
Since June 2024, Ven. Bao Co expands her outreach internationally, offering live and online teachings via Zoom, retreats, one-on-one mentoring, Men’s Lab “Exhale” and group programs.
