The Pocket Pema Chodron (Shambhala Pocket Classics)

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The Path of the Bodhisattva Warrior; Wherever we are, we can train as a warrior. The practices of meditation, loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity are our tools. With the help of these practices, we can uncover the soft spot of bodhichitta, the tenderness of the awakened heart. We will find that tenderness in sorrow and in gratitude. We will find it behind the hardness of rage and in the shakiness of fear. A portable collection of short inspirational readings by “one of the world's wisest women”—the American Buddhist teacher and author of When Things Fall Apart ( O, the Oprah Magazine) Pema tells us that we already have everything we need and are “one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.” I Love Pema Chadron. I really can't put my finger on it but whenever I read her I feel inspired to be a better person. She talks openly and honestly about how she fails at times to live you to the whole zen thing but she never makes you feel like you are an asshole if you are struggling to get to a higher plane of existence I guess is how I would put it.

Ani Pema served as the director of the Karma Dzong, in Boulder, CO, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave her explicit instructions on establishing this monastery for western monks and nuns. You know that moment when you realize that you don’t even know what you don’t know? After reading Pema Chodron’s words, I was awakened to the fact that I was right there, on the edge of some exciting new discovery—I just had to unfold into that space where the unknown lived. Ani Pema first met her root guru, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Trungpa, and it was with him that she ultimately made her most profound connection, studying with him from 1974 until his death in 1987. At the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, she received the full bikshuni ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong. Her view on things will really make you think. For example, I feel like I am generally a great person at this point in my life. I try and be all zen and stuff and look for the good in people and all of that. Yet reading some of her teachings, I realize how far I have to go. I think I am ALMOST enlightened then BAM I look up and it is miles and miles away. She’s one of the most influential voices in contemporary spirituality, the writer whose books are passed from friend to friend."

Whether we are violent, depressed, addicted or jealous, or even hate ourselves, these are good places to start – just where we are. It helps to remember that our spiritual practice is not about accomplishing anything—not about winning or losing—but about ceasing to struggle and relaxing as it is.”

We have two alternatives: either we question our beliefs - or we don't. Either we accept our fixed versions of reality- or we begin to challenge them. In Buddha's opinion, to train in staying open and curious - to train in dissolving our assumptions and beliefs - is the best use of our human lives.” A collection of short inspirational readings by “one of the world’s wisest women”– O, the Oprah Magazine. You want it your own way. You’d just like to have a little peace; you’d like to have a little happiness, you know, just “gimme a break!” But the more you think that way, the more you try to get life to come out so that it will always suit you, the more your fear of other people and what’s outside your room grows.” The key is to be here, fully connected with the moment, paying attention to the details of ordinary life.” pema chödrön's writing is the perfect thing to read in these little pieces - it's dense with insight even as it's simple and easily grasped, & after i started reading it i felt my attention shifting in interesting ways.Difficulty is inevitable. We cannot escape the reality of death, and there are also the realities of “aging, of illness, of not getting what we want, and of getting what we don’t want”. Pema seems very focused on suffering and becoming okay with it. In many ways, there's a lot of great advice. I just personally felt she focused a bit too much on getting your mental state right with suffering, as opposed to actually working towards fixing the aspects of your life that cause you to suffer. I think there's a push and pull. On the one hand, you need mental resilience and acceptance to live through the pain life puts your through, but on the other hand, I think it's incredibly important to take life by the reins and change the things that make you unhappy. Pema seems much more focused on the first, and not at all focused on the second. She is a very privileged woman who's been able to travel the world and study with monks around the globe. There isn't anything wrong with that, but sometimes I feel like she doesn't really get what life is like for a lot of people. LIFE’S work is to wake up, to let the things that enter into your life wake you up rather than put you to sleep. The only way to do this is to open, be curious, and develop some sense of sympathy for everything that comes along, to get to know its nature and let it teach you what it will.” I admire her forthrightness, her ability to distill Buddhist thought into bite-sized morsels and above all, the sense of humor that is evident from behind her words.

Meditation takes us just as we are, with our confusion and our sanity. This complete acceptance of ourselves as we are is called maitri, or unconditional friendliness, a simple, direct relationship with the way we are.” Two years ago I didn’t know much about Pema Chodron. It wasn’t until I started to write for elephant journal that I started falling in love with so many snippets of Shambhala wisdom. And clearly you appreciate mindfulness with a sense of humor and integrity! Why not join the Elephant community, become an Elephriend? Every day we could think about the aggression in the world, in New York, Los Angeles, Darfur, Iraq, everywhere.

Pema first met her root guru, the teacher with whom she had the most profound connection, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972, and she studied closely with him until his death in 1987.