Foundations: Pema Chödrön

"As we train in unblocking our hearts, we'll find that every moment contains the free-flowing openness and warmth that characterize unlimited joy."

 Pema Chödrön (nee Deirdre Blomfield-Brown) was born in the United States and had what might be termed an average American life until the breakup of her marriage and a broken heart pushed her to the brink. She sought relief and found the Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa. Through his teaching she found great inspiration and release. She became the abbess of a monastery in Nova Scotia and, fortunately for the world, a renowned teacher.

"What keeps us unhappy and stuck in a limited view of reality is our tendency to seek pleasure and avoid pain, to seek security and avoid groundlessness, to seek comfort and avoid discomfort."

Pema has not yet written a book in which she explicitly lays out all of her philosophy in a linear fashion (though Start Where You Are probably comes closest). Rather, she publishes mainly works that are pithy segments of her teachings, based on the teachings of Trungpa and the Buddha. For me this is a very helpful, because it gives me the opportunity to take in a piece of information or a new concept and then stop to digest it. In my opinion the best of these is Comfortable With Uncertainty, a compilation of 108 teachings, each of which is a page or two long. These can be read as a daily inspiration to think in a way that goes counter to our usual way of thinking, which, as we know, leads to suffering.

"Resistance is the fundamental operating mechanism of what we call ego...resisting life causes suffering....We can use everything we do to help us to realize that we're part of the energy that creates everything. If we learn to sit still like a mountain in a hurricane, unprotected from the truth and vividness and the immediacy of simply being part of life, then we are not this separate being who has to have things turn out our way."

The core of Pema's teachings are three fundamental practices: meditation, tonglen, and lojong. We have discussed meditation quite a bit here. Tonglen has been mentioned in this blog before; this is the practice of sending and taking: we breathe in all that is negative and breathe out all that is positive. This goes against our usual habit of trying to cling to what we like and discard what we do not. It breeds a natural compassion in us because it increases our appreciation of what others suffer. It helps us to practice lovingkindness as we give what is the best and most joyful in our hearts outward to others rather than hoarding it for ourselves. Here is a wonderful, brief teaching on Tonglen by (who else?) Pema Chödrön.

"Tonglen takes courage to do, and interestingly enough, it also gives us a lot of courage, because we let it penetrate our armor. It's a practice that allows us to feel less burdened and less cramped, a practice that shows us how to love without conditions."

A brief teaching by Pema on lojong is here. Briefly, lojong is the use of one line slogans from the ancient teacher Atisha which help us to open our hearts and look at the world in a different way. An entire list of the lojong slogans is here, although many of them are impenetrable without insight from a teacher. Pema provides such guidance in her book Always Maintain a Joyful Mind. Some examples of lojong teachings:

Always meditate on whatever provokes resentment.

Don't be swayed by external circumstances.

If you can practice even when distracted, you are well trained.

Be grateful to everyone.

Whatever you meet unexpectedly, join with meditation.

This time, practice the main points.

Don't try to be the fastest.

Don't make gods into demons.

Overall, I consider Pema Chödrön one of the great Western teachers. Her writings and recorded teachings

strike a chord in me that no other teacher has been able to match. Though I do not practice in the Tibetan tradition, where universal spiritual values coincide I find that Pema has a greater insight, compassion, and wisdom than nearly anyone I have studied.

"This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted, and shaky--that's called liberation."

(This is part of an ongoing series detailing the sources of my inspiration. The list, which will be updated whenever I post a new one, is here).