The Pocket Pema Chodron (Shambhala Pocket Classics)

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She attended Miss Porter's School in Connecticut and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She taught as an elementary school teacher for many years in both New Mexico and California. Pema has two children and three grandchildren. Inspiring Buddhist teachings on promoting peace within our own lives—and throughout the greater world—by examining how we respond to conflict in our thoughts and actions

The root of aggression and suffering is ignorance. We ignore our kinship with others. “One reason we train as warrior-bodhisattvas is to recognize our interconnectedness – to grow in understanding that when we harm another, we are harming ourselves.” While in her mid-thirties, Ani Pema traveled to the French Alps and encountered Lama Chime Rinpoche, with whom she studied for several years. She became a novice nun in 1974 while studying with Lama Chime in London. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa came to Scotland at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him. In cultivating loving-kindness, we train first to be honest, loving and compassionate toward ourselves.” Everything that occurs is actually the path itself. We can use everything as the means for waking up.Yet I don't feel like she is talking down to me like I get the feeling with some Christian authors. I feel like she is merely pointing out a way up. Like she is clearing the path for me so to speak. As we train in opening our hearts, “we gradually feel more joy, the joy that comes from a growing appreciation of our basic goodness”. Whether we are violent, depressed, addicted or jealous, or even hate ourselves, these are good places to start – just where we are. What is different about her writings is that she writes not as though she is enlightened but a person just like us with everyday problems and negative feelings. When we feel” depressed, lonely, betrayed, or any unwanted feelings, this is an important moment on the spiritual path. This is when real transformation can take place.”

Pema tells us that we already have everything we need and are “one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.” The above will give you an impression of Pema’s teachings. This little book is well worth reading, but I admit I prefer to read the full versions of her books. Life is both glorious and wretched. Wretchedness softens us up considerably. "Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person.” 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.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”. I’ve reviewed a couple of Pema’s previous books. The present book is a compendium of small extracts from her various works.

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) The key is to be here, fully connected with the moment, paying attention to the details of ordinary life.” With war and violence flaring all over the world, many of us are left feeling vulnerable and utterly helpless. In this book Pema Chödrön draws on Buddhist teachings to explore the origins of aggression, hatred, and war, explaining that they lie nowhere but within our own hearts and minds. She goes on to explain that the way in which we as individuals respond to challenges in our everyday lives can either perpetuate a culture of violence or create a new culture of compassion. Pema first met her root guru, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Rinpoche, 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.Loving-kindness, or maitri, doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. “The point is not to try to change ourselves. --- it’s about befriending who we are already.” We must allow ourselves to feel what we feel and not push it away. This means accepting every aspect of ourselves, even the parts we don’t like.

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.

A collection of short inspirational readings by “one of the world’s wisest women”– O, the Oprah Magazine. 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. 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)