Product Description

Pema Chodron reveals the vast potential for happiness, wisdom and courage even in the most painful circumstances. Pema Chodron teaches that there is a fundamental opportunity for happiness right within our reach, yet we usually miss it -- ironically, while we are caught up in attempt to escape pain and suffering. This accessible guide to compassionate living shows us how we can use painful emotions to cultivate wisdom, compassion and courage, ways of communication that lead to openness and true intimacy with others, practices for reversing our negative habitual patterns, methods for working with chaotic situations and ways to cultivate compassionate, energetic social action Recently profiled in Oprah's O magazine, Pema Chodron is a spiritual teacher for anyone -- whether they have a spiritual path or not. Her heartfelt advice and wisdom (developed in her 20 years of practice as a Tibetan Buddhist nun as well as her years previously as a normal 'housewife and mother') give her a wide appeal. This advice strikes just the right note, offering us comfort and challenging us to live deeply and contribute to creating a more loving world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9830 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Review
"Pema's deep experience and her fresh way of looking at things are like mountain water -- clear and deep.' Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. 'As one of Pema Chodron's grateful students, I have been learning the most pressing and necessary lesson of all: how to keep opening wider my own heart.' Alice Walker 'It is a lively and accessible take on ancient techniques for transforming terror and pain into joy and compassion.' O, the Oprah Winfrey magazine

Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
‘Pema’s deep experience and her fresh way of looking at things are like mountain water – clear and deep.’

About the Author
Pema Chodron is an American Buddhist nun and one of the foremost students of Chogyam Trungpa, the renowned Tibetan meditation master. She is the author of The Wisdom of No Escape, Start Where You Are, The Places that Scare You and the best-selling When Things Fall Apart. She is the resident teacher at Gampo Abbey, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the first Tibetan monastery in North America established for Westerners.

Customer Reviews

A life changing book that I read time and time again
I bought this book eighteen months ago when I was struggling with life. Pema Chodron's compassion, experience and wisdom provided immediate comfort, transformed my outlook on life and started me on the road to learning more about meditation and later Buddhism. I often re-read chapters and have sent several copies to friends who have found it equally rewarding. The cassette tape version provides a useful alternative method of 'reading' the same book and complements the hardcopy version. A 'must have' for anyone in a hard place.

Difficult but true...
I read this book because I was interested in improving my personal patience. At first I found it difficult to get into the book; it felt like I was walking through treacle. I decided to slow down and really give the chapters some thought and it started to make sense. It doesn't hit you with a "wham" rather you suddenly find yourself doing something or in my case not doing something - losing my temper or arguing over a trivial matter.

It really helped me to focus on the "now" and not on the past or the future. I AM NOT religious in any shape or form but Buddhism practices and the associated way of life has always intrigued me. I will read more about this fascinating subject.

Buy this book, take your time and really digest the contents. I am certain that it will help improve you in some way.

A delight to read
I found this book lying around a house I've recently moved from. I don't know who bought it or what it was doing there, but the timing for finding it couldn't be better. I was having a bit of a hard time, and life was generally pants. I picked up the book as the title intrigued me, and to be honest, it was the best medicine I could have hoped for. No matter who you are, or where you come from, there's is guaranteed to be something to relate to in here. I personally read so much that rang true, it made me feel glad to be part of this world.

I read the book a while ago, and will definately be buying it for myself, it's enlightening to read, no words can describe how wonderful it is.