Pema Chödrön Biodata
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Pema Chödrön biodata http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pema_Ch%C3%B6dr%C3%B6n Pema Chödrön (born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown) is a notable American figure in Tibetan Buddhism. A disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, she is an ordained nun, [1] author, and teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage Trungpa founded. A prolific author, she has conducted workshops, seminars, and meditation retreats in Europe, Australia, and throughout North America. She is resident and teacher of Gampo Abbey, a monastery on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.[2] Pema Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936 in New York City. She attended Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, and grew up on a farm in the countryside with an older brother and sister.[3] She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and worked as an elementary school teacher in California and New Mexico before her conversion to Buddhism. Following a second divorce, Chödrön began to study with Lama Chime Rinpoche in the French Alps. She became a Buddhist nun in 1974 while studying with him in London.[4] She is a fully ordained bhikṣuṇī in a combination of the Mulasarvastivadin and Dharmaguptaka lineages of vinaya, having received full ordination in Hong Kong in 1981 at the behest of the sixteenth Karmapa. She was probably the first American woman to become fully ordained.[5] She has been instrumental in trying to reestablish full ordination for nuns in the Mulasarvastivadin order, to which all Tibetan Buddhist monastics have traditionally belonged; various conferences have been convened to study the matter. Chödrön first met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1972 and, at the urging of Chime Rinpoche, took him as her root guru. She studied with him from 1974 until his death in 1987.[6][7] Trungpa's son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, appointed Chödrön an acharya (senior teacher) shortly after assuming leadership of his father's Shambhala lineage in 1992. Trungpa appointed Chödrön director of the Boulder Shambhala Center (then Boulder Dharmadhatu) in Colorado in the early 1980s.[8] It was during this period that she became ill with chronic fatigue syndrome. Chödrön moved to Gampo Abbey in 1984 and became its director in 1986.[2] There she published her first two books. Her health gradually improved, she claims, with the help of a homeopath and careful attention to diet. In late 2005, Chödrön published No Time to Lose, a commentary on Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. She published Practicing Peace in Times of War in 2006. Present[edit] Pema Chödrön is a member of The Committee of Western Bhikshunis, which was formed in 2005.[9] She is currently studying with the Venerable Lama Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, and spends seven months of each year in solitary retreat under his direction in Crestone, Colorado.[10] Chödrön continues to teach the traditional Yarne (Tib. rainy season; Sanskrit: Vassāvāsa[11]) retreat for monastics at Gampo Abbey each winter. In recent years, she has spent the summers teaching on the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life in Berkeley. A central theme of her teachings is shenpa,[12][13][14] the Tibetan word for "attachment", which she interprets as anger, low self-esteem, or addiction in response to an insult by another person.[13] Somebody says a mean word to you and then something in you tightens — that's the shenpa. Then it starts to spiral into low self-esteem, or blaming them, or anger at them, denigrating yourself. And maybe if you have strong addictions, you just go right for your addiction to cover over the bad feeling that arose when that person said that mean word to you. This is a mean word that gets you, hooks you. Another mean word may not affect you but we're talking about where it touches that sore place — that's a shenpa. Someone criticizes you — they criticize your work, they criticize your appearance, they criticize your child — and, shenpa: almost co-arising. [15] Personal life[edit] Chödrön has two children and three grandchildren, all of whom live in the San Francisco Bay Area except her granddaughter, who resides in Boulder, Colorado.[16] Bibliography[edit] Pema Chödrön giving talk from her book "No Time to Lose" Books The Wisdom of No Escape And The Path of Loving-Kindness. Shambhala Publications, 1991. ISBN 1-57062-872-6 Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living. Shambhala Publications, 1994. ISBN 0-87773-880-7 Awakening Loving-Kindness (abridged version of The Wisdom of No Escape). Shambhala Publications, 1996. ISBN 1-57062-259-0 When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times. Element Books, 1996. ISBN 1-57062-969-2 Tonglen: The Path of Transformation. Vajradhatu Publications, 2001. ISBN 1-57062- 409-7 The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times Shambhala Publications, 2002. ISBN 1-57062-409-7 Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion. Shambhala Publications, 2003. ISBN 1-59030-078-5 No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva. Shambhala Publications, 2005. ISBN 1-59030-135-8 Practicing Peace in Times of War: A Buddhist Perspective Shambhala Publications, September 2006. ISBN 1-59030-401-2 Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves From Old Habits and Fears. Shambhala Publications, 2010 Reprint. ISBN 1-59030-843-3 Audio Unconditional Confidence: Instructions for Meeting Any Experience with Trust and Courage. Sounds True, Inc, 2009. ISBN 1-59179-746-2 Getting Unstuck: Breaking Your Habitual Patterns & Encountering Naked Reality. Sounds True, Inc, 2006. ISBN 1-59179-238-X Awakening Compassion: Meditation Practice For Difficult Times. Sounds True, Inc, 1995. ISBN 1-56455-314-0 Noble Heart: A Self-Guided Retreat on Befriending Your Obstacles. Sounds True, Inc, 1998. ISBN 1-56455-576-3 Good Medicine: How to Turn Pain into Compassion With Tonglen Meditation. Sounds True, Inc, 2001. ISBN 1-56455-846-0. Alice Walker and Pema Chōdrōn in Conversation: On the Meaning of Suffering and the Mystery of Joy. Sounds True, Inc, 1999. ISBN 1-56455-670-0 Pure Meditation: The Tibetan Buddhist Practice of Inner Peace. Sounds True, Inc, 2000. ISBN 1-56455-811-8 Seven Points of Mind Training: Shenpa Teachings. 2006. Don't Bite the Hook: Finding Freedom from Anger, Resentment, and Other Destructive Emotions. Shambhala Audio, 2007. ISBN 1-59030-434-9 How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind. Sounds True, Inc, 2007. ISBN 1-59179-794-2 Natural Awareness: Guided Meditations & Teachings for Welcoming All Experience. Sounds True, Inc, 2011. ISBN 978-1-60407-435-2 Compilations The Compassion Box - includes Start Where You Are, a set of 59 slogan cards with brief commentaries, and a CD of tonglen meditation instruction. Shambhala Publications, 2003. ISBN 1-59030-075-0 Quotes http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/8052.Pema_Ch_dr_n 1. “The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes. ” 2. 3. “If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” 4. 5. “…feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are.” 6. 7. “The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” 8. ― Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times 9. tags: courage, mindfulness, pain, self-assessment, self-awareness, truth 215 people liked it like 10.“People get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That's not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. To the degree that you didn't understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you're given this gift of teachings in the form of your life, to give you everything you need to open further.” 11.― Pema Chödrön 12.tags: buddhism, shambhala 207 people liked it like 13.“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth” 14.― Pema Chödrön 15.206 people liked it like 16.“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.” 17.― Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times 18.tags: compassion 203 people liked it like 19.“The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.” 20.― Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice For Difficult Times 21.195 people liked it like 22.“Life is glorious, but life is also wretched.