Pema Chödrön reveals the time-tested Buddhist antidote to suffering—and shows how to apply it in your own life. The simple and elegant meditation practice known as tonglen, she teaches, is the perfect medicine for “ordinary people like ourselves.” Through tonglen, we can use life’s difficulties as a way to befriend ourselves, accept the past we have rejected, and widen our circle of compassion. Excerpted from the DVD Good Medicine. Learn more: store.soundstrue.com
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
that is awesome has me smiling, I wish I could have trained under trungpa
what a treasure! western, candid, down to earth and clearly well trained!
Well said…it is the most difficult thing to do, but the critical first step…be quiet and listen…
Transformative negativity as a dharma
Excellent
Clearly they are laughing because they identify with Pema.
Pema’s words helped me realize at a really low point in life that i was not crazy. Before her books I didnt understand Samsara or Ego and how much havoc i allow them to create, truly a blessing -
Pema’s teachings can touch many lives, if you just be quiet and listen… She is a breath of fresh air. She exhibits warmth, honesty, integrity, a wise smart woman.
Wonderful talk!
grateful for Pema.
I hope to find this amount of strength in my lifetime.
Life is “rife with abuse and typical human frailties.” There is no place, save maybe a tiny patch of Deer Park once upon a time, where we completely transcend our humanness; it’s what we have to work with. That’s fine. This life stuff is a tricky business. Trungpa Rinpoche was a practitioner of Crazy Wisdom and, despite all of your and my disbelief, it worked! Pema, Naropa University… who knew?! Maybe Trungpa Rinpoche knew; could be. I don’t know.
I can’t believe all the negativity I am reading from people’s comments. This is so base. Take what you can from her offerings – it is there for you to take. There is no need to battle it out on here with others. Her offerings are all with good intent. I think she is very gifted, so eloquent, insightful and kind. What I hear comes from her heart and it lifts me up. Thank you Pema.
I value what you are saying. She is recognizing her own shadows and integrating them into her wholeness of being. This is something people who achieve a certain level of consciousness are willing to do.
Perhaps she is simply different than him and her teachings are a reflection of her own challenges and her unique path.
I would love to go the Monastery, does anybodo knows how to communicate with them, i am writing from Chile, far away so I have to prepare it with anticipation, thanks….
I thought Trungpa threw himself into a decadent Western lifestyle when he came over here in order to experience how Buddhism might be better received and adapted here. It may just be a positive spin on his story, I dunno.
But if anyone’s concerned that Trungpa destroyed himself, consider that wonderful Pema was his student, and her lifestyle wasn’t crazy. She didn’t follow his extravagance, she respected him otherwise, and she uses some of his teachings with her own. Is she “better” than him?
I love her!!!
She’s just telling the truth. By your name truthformeandyou, it seems you would value that. She hated her husband. She told the truth as it was for her at the time. Grow up.
People who write comments about Trungpa are speaking from a VERY limited viewpoint. You didn’t know trungpa and had no idea what he was doing – so put your judgements aside
interesting how she went from a husband who had a sexual addiction to a teacher who had one. From one person who violates trust to another.
Her teacher, and founder of their organization, chogyam trungpa rinpoche, died of drug addiction and alcoholism. He was extremely arrogant in his approach to students, behaving like a king, dressed in military outfits, and often sleeping with students. His next in line, died of aids, and it was proven that he knew he had aids when he infected a student who died from aids also. western Buddhism ihas much to offer but it has been rife with abuse and typical human frailties.
both truth and you stand on their own strong legs….and you have seen the truth thru the lies, and released your false karma and negative dharma thru being detached from them, and denying their hold on you…
I have read all of her books, she’s amazing!
I love her… Namaste
In the buddhist tradition there are no shoulds, as in a mental labeling of situations as a good or a bad. It is taught that by labeling materials or situations that happen in your life as good or bad, you derive a sense of identity from them, which is ultimately fictional, based on the illusion of time, and in the end will cause only suffering. Instead of ” Should” and Should not” there are choices, and they happen every second of every moment of every day that you are alive.