It's a long way from the streets of St Kilda

But that is the path travelled by Tencho as she transformed herself from junkie living on the streets to Buddhist nun leading meditation classes.

Venerable Tencho revealed her past to the Gazette in the hope that it could give heart to others who are living on the edge and want to change.

Her wild life began at the age of 11, when her mother died, and she began to experiment with alcohol and drugs.

She was thrown out of school at 15 for selling marijuana to classmates and got a job with Victorian Railways, working on interstate trips.

"We were always taking uppers because of the shift work," she said. "One day a colleague introduced me to heroin. I was 17."

Her addictive personality kicked in and within three years she was "unemployable", living the desperate life of a junkie - "one step ahead of the police and one step behind the drug dealer".

She slept in doss houses, women's refuges and squats, sometimes in parks or doorways. She also engaged in petty theft to fund her habit and spent several short-term stints in prison.

That was her life for 20 years until she became involved with a prison theatre company formed in Fairlea Women's Prison in Victoria, "the only place we were called by our names and treated as human beings".

She found using the creative arts helped her explore her own and her fellow prisoners' shared stories of pain, abuse, addiction and fear.

By 1997, at the age of 38 and in jail again, she finally realised she couldn't continue the lifestyle.

"[A member of the theatre group] told me of a Buddhist centre outside Bendigo that I could stay in. I got in touch and they took a risk and gave me a three-month trial period living there."

It was the beginning of a new life. Later that year she attended a retreat in Tibet and three weeks later was ordained as a nun.

"It hadn't been on my list of things to do in life, to become a Buddhist nun," she said. "I freaked out, wondering what the hell I had done ... wondering if I had jumped into something unrealistically. What did a nun do? Did I have to be demure and holy?"

She tried that approach, but it wasn't her. Over time, and with help and guidance, she developed "more positive or constructive policies", gradually becoming "a bit kinder, wiser and more balanced".

She studied for some time at a nunnery in Queensland then six years ago moved to the Kunsang Yeshe Retreat Centre in Medlow Bath where she leads meditations and teaches Buddhist concepts and philosophies.

Tencho is now trying to raise funds to set up an arts studio in the Mountains, aimed particularly at young people.

"There are areas of high unemployment, pockets of low education and substance abuse here," she said.

"I want to offer hope that change is possible.

"My relationship with the world is utterly different now on all levels and that's quite a blessing."

A fundraising art auction will be held this Sunday, May 24, in the old Katoomba Library.

Many prominent local and national artists have donated works and there will also be a silent auction, raffles and music.

The event starts at 2pm with the main auction due to start at 2.45.

See www.kunsangyeshe.com.au.