RALEIGH, N.C. — The Venerable Lhundub Tendron wasn't always a Buddhist nun. For most of her life, she wasn't even a Buddhist.

She was Leslie Inman, a New Orleans native living in Charlotte, N.C., who was separated from her husband and searching, not very consciously, for inner peace.

She found it in a meditation group that taught her the fundamentals of mindfulness according to the technique developed by the famous Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.

But there was no conversion moment. She wasn't struck by lightning. Nor did she knowingly reject a previous religious path.

She just started noticing things.

One day on her daily walk, she noticed a beautiful sunset and realized she probably would have missed it in years past. In the next days she noticed a new building or a new flower.

Eventually, she said, "not a day went by when I didn't notice something."

Before she knew it, she was following the path of the Buddha — considered by followers to be a person who is awake.

This month, Buddhists were disparaged by Fox News commentator Brit Hume when he suggested that golfer Tiger Woods reject the Buddhism of his mother and turn to Christianity if he wants to find forgiveness and redemption. Many people, including Tendron, are finding forgiveness and redemption in Buddhism rather than Christianity.

Taking vows

In the Buddhist tradition, taking vows means giving up the life one once had and devoting oneself to studying dharma, or the faith's teachings. While laypeople take vows promising to refrain from killing, stealing and lying, monks and nuns take additional vows to refrain from sex, too.

As a sign of their commitment, monks and nuns shave their heads and, in the Tibetan tradition, wear crimson robes. They also receive a new name to reflect their new identity. Lhundub means "effortless." Tendron means "teaching lamp."

Tendron, 54, likes to think of her name as an aspirational prayer: May I understand the teachings so well I can shine a light on others.

As the spiritual program director, Tendron teaches classes, answers questions and helps run Raleigh, N.C.'s Kadampa Center for the Practice of Tibetan Buddhism.

The spiritual life

Tendron wasn't always spiritual. When she moved to Raleigh at age 24, religion simply wasn't a part of her life. She completed her bachelor's degree in English at North Carolina State University, married, moved to Charlotte and got a master's degree in health education.

When her marriage broke up, she became acutely aware that she didn't like who she had become.

"I was very self-centered," Tendron said. "I was sarcastic, argumentative, angry. I wanted to change that."

After returning to Raleigh in the early 1990s, she went on a four-day retreat on the subject of compassion and felt for the first time that Buddhism made perfect sense.

The endless chatter going on in her head, in which she kept rehashing things she felt were wrong, became more noticeable, and for the first time, she set her mind to tuning it out. Suddenly, she felt much more peaceful.

By 1998, she was seriously considering becoming a nun. In 2002, she was ordained in Madison, Wis., by a monk in the Tibetan lineage, Geshe Sopa Rinpoche.

Returning to North Carolina

The following year, she entered the Chenrezig Institute in Queensland, Australia, where Tibetan Buddhist nuns live, work and study. After completing a five-year program, she was asked to return to the Kadampa Center in 2008 to work alongside its monk, Geshe Gelek.

Among Tendron's cautionary words: Check in with your body for signs of tension. Pause. Pay attention. Take a deep breath. When necessary, shut up.

"I thought it was incredibly kind of her to meet us where we were," said Karen Edwards of Carrboro, N.C., a member. "She's an incredible role model of transformation."