A portion of proceeds goes to donating Pema's books to underserved individuals and the organizations that help them. Learn more about the Pema Chödrön's Foundation's Book Initative.
DVDs
Smile at Fear: A Retreat with Pema Chödrön on Discovering Your Radiant Self-Confidence
By Pema Chödrön
| 2 DVDs (4 hours, 30 minutes) $29.95 |
| April, 2011ISBN 978-1-59030-951- |
We all have fears, but when we look closely at them, we discover that behind each fear resides a basic fear of ourselves. We're afraid to look at our habitual styles of thinking and behaving because we might not always like what we see. Ironically it is this fear of honest self-reflection that keeps us trapped in patterns of stress and discontentment. Here is a vision for moving beyond this most basic fear to discover the innate bravery, trust, and joy that reside at the core of our being.
In this recorded retreat, Pema Chödrön shares teachings inspired by the book Smile at Fear, which was written by her teacher Chögyam Trungpa. She and her teaching assistant, Carolyn Rose Gimian, also share practices they received from Trungpa Rinpoche for courageously meeting ourselves in the present moment, including:
• The Windhorse Practice: a three-step meditation on awakening confidence
• Spiritual Warrior training for meeting life with courage and compassion
• Meditation instruction for calming the mind and developing concentration
Good Medicine: How to Turn Pain into Compassion with Tonglen Meditation
By Pema Chödrön
| 2 DVDs (3 hours, 15 minutes), 1 Study guide (12 pages) $39.95 |
| March, 2006 ISBN-101-59179-309-2 ISBN-13978-1-59179-309-0 |
On Good Medicine, Pema 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. Skillfully distilled into a three-hour workshop, Good Medicine offers you a revolutionary practice that is already a 1,000 years old — and ready to awaken your heart right now.
Audio CDs
Awakening Love:
Teachings and Practices to Cultivate a Limitless Heart
By Pema Chödrön
| 8 CDs (9 hours, 8 minutes) $69.95 |
| March 2012, ISBN 978-1-60407-665-3 |
Awaken the Capacity to Love, the True Purpose of Our Lives
Have you ever wanted to love and connect with others more deeply … but felt that you could use a little help shedding the “emotional armor” and opening your heart?
With Awakening Love, Pema Chödrön invites you to start wherever you are, amid any and all of the challenges, frustrations, or fears you may be facing, and to use them as the starting place to awaken the natural and boundless capacity to give and receive love more fully.
This practice-centered program, recorded at Gampo Abbey, will teach you how to apply the insights of Buddhism’s Four Limitless Ones—lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity—to even your most difficult obstacles.
Your Obstacles to the Open Heart Are Your Most Valuable Allies
Many students confess to Pema Chödrön that they cannot think of even one person to love during heart-centered meditation practice. This is what she tells them:
“What if you could open to that frustration, just for a moment, to discover not just where love is free flowing … but where it’s not? That is how we all begin to uncover the soft spot within.”
Here, Pema Chödrön brings her unique blend of kitchen-table common sense, scholarship, and empathy to help you discover the eternal resilience and joy of your own tender, undefended, and genuine heart. Whether you’re in the midst of a challenging relationship, grief, or simply in need of heart-centered rejuvenation,Awakening Love provides you with the gentle step-by-step instructions needed to awaken the natural goodness within you.
Highlights
- The Four Qualities or Limitless Ones, the roots of suffering, and expanding the capacity to love
- Seeing where we’re blocked and bringing lovingkindness to our biases and fears
- Aspiration practice, “not faking it,” unblocking the flow of love, and benefactors
- Changing our attitude toward pain, working with anger, compassionate abiding, tonglen, and “making friends with the hard stuff”
- Meditations and practices for receiving unconditional love, resting in natural awareness, cultivating gratitude and sympathetic joy, opening to the world, and more
Natural Awareness:
Guided Meditations and Teachings for Welcoming All Experience
By Pema Chödrön
| 4 CDs (3 hours, 45 minutes) $29.95 |
| April, 2011 ISBN 978-1-60407-435-2 |
Return to Your True Home: The Realm of Natural Awareness
As a child, did you ever sit under a favorite tree, immersed in the wonder of a single, precious leaf? As our days grow more complex, teaches Pema Chödrön, these vibrant and wholehearted moments may begin to elude even seasoned meditators. But it doesn't have to be that way.
With Natural Awareness, this celebrated teacher guides us through Buddhism's Four Foundations of Mindfulness to bring us to a surprising destination: the effortless state of presence known as "non-meditation." It's a journey back to the unabashed presence and delight of the "Child Mind" that lies within all of us. Along the way, you'll learn how to:
- Work with the body, emotions, thoughts, and sense perceptions as your objects of focus
- Tune in to your natural cycles of attention and effortless "non-meditation" awareness
- Embrace the inevitable "meditator's struggle knot" (it means that your practice is working!)
- Open a heartful space with others to listen, speak, and connect more authentically
- Master a wealth of Ani Pema's favorite practices for riding life's emotional storms
"We've been training our minds for a lifetime to flee—to escape to anywhere but here." With this encouraging new offering, Pema Chödrön shows us how to stop running and come home to the abiding freedom waiting for us right here, right now.
Smile at Fear: Guided Meditations and Teachings for Welcoming All Experience
By Pema Chödrön
| 4 CDs (3 hours, 45 minutes) $29.95 |
| April, 2011 ISBN 978-1-59030-952-0 |
We all have fears, but when we look closely at them, we discover that behind each fear resides a basic fear of ourselves. We're afraid to look at our habitual styles of thinking and behaving because we might not always like what we see. Ironically it is this fear of honest self-reflection that keeps us trapped in patterns of stress and discontentment. Here is a vision for moving beyond this most basic fear to discover the innate bravery, trust, and joy that reside at the core of our being.
In this recorded retreat, Pema Chödrön shares teachings inspired by the book Smile at Fear, which was written by her teacher Chögyam Trungpa. She and her teaching assistant, Carolyn Rose Gimian, also share practices they received from Trungpa Rinpoche for courageously meeting ourselves in the present moment, including:
• The Windhorse Practice: a three-step meditation on awakening confidence
• Spiritual Warrior training for meeting life with courage and compassion
• Meditation instruction for calming the mind and developing concentration
Be Grateful to Everyone: An In-depth Guide to the Practice of Lojong
By Pema Chödrön
| 7 CDs $69.95 |
| Shambhala Audio March 8, 2011 Language: English ISBN-10: 1590307720 |
One of the best ways to bring meditation off the cushion and into everyday life is to practice lojong (or mind training). For centuries, Tibetans have used fifty-nine powerful mind-training slogans as a way to transform life's ordinary situations into opportunities for awakening. In this seven-CD program, Pema Chödrön presents her definitive audio teachings on lojong. She offers an overview of the practice and goes on to provide inspiring commentary on the slogans while paying special attention to how to apply them on the spot in our daily lives. The CDs include:
- Practical commentary to enhance our understanding of the lojong slogans
- Seven writing and reflection exercises to help us engage deeply with the slogans
- Meditation instructions to help us relax, let go, and uncover our uncaught-up mind
- On-the-spot methods to deepen our bodhichitta, our compassion for all beings
- Question-and-answer sessions that address some of the most common issues that arise in lojong practice
- Two guided meditations on tonglen—a compassion practice based on the understanding that the very thing that triggers suffering can become the foundation of happiness
Reviews of Be Grateful to Everyone
"Pema Chödrön enables us to look at ourselves clearly, to touch the soft spot of our hearts, and to dissolve the barriers that separate us from others."— Spirituality and Health
"Pema Chödrön is wonderfully articulate. Her compassion makes her reflections all the more compelling." —Audiofile
Unconditional Confidence: Instructions for Meeting Any Experience with Trust and Courage
By Pema Chödrön
| 2 CDs (2 hours) $19.95 |
| December 28, 2009 ISBN-10: 1591797462 ISBN-13: 978-1591797463 |
On Unconditional Confidence Pema offers two accessible sessions to help anyone find courage in times of challenge and change. Featuring a three-step method for learning to work with uncertainty and fear and an exclusive interview, this liberating program offers practical tools and teachings that explore:
- True confidence — and how to cultivate the trust that makes it possible
- "Shaky tenderness," the first step to developing strong and consistent bravery
- Practical steps to "leap into, smile at, and experience all of life" — even when fear is present
"For us to be of benefit to each other — in times of challenge or any other — we need to be able to tap into genuine confidence," teaches Pema. Unconditional Confidence offers timeless wisdom and inspiration for developing this courageous skill for whatever life presents us.
This Moment Is the Perfect Teacher: Ten Buddhist Teachings on Cultivating Inner Strength and Compassion
By Pema Chodron, Read by Pema Chodron
| 4 CDs, 4 1/2 hours, unabridged $29.95 |
| Shambhala Audio April 2008 ISBN 978-1-59030-493-8 |
Lojong is a powerful Tibetan Buddhist practice created especially for training the mind to work with the challenges of everyday living. It teaches our hearts to soften, reframes our attitude toward difficulty, and allows us to discover a wellspring of inner strength. In this recorded retreat, Pema introduces the lojong teachings and explains how we can apply them to any situation in our life — because, as Pema says, "every moment is an opportunity for awakening." In addition, Pema also leads a guided tonglen meditation, a practice aimed at developing courage and cultivating compassion for ourselves and others.
Review of This Moment Is the Perfect Teacher
"A delightful speaker. . . . Listeners of all faiths will appreciate these timely teachings." — Library Journal (starred review)
The Fearless Heart: The Practice of Living with Courage and Compassion
By Pema Chodron
| 5 CDs (5 hours) $39.95 |
| Shambhala Audio July 2010 ISBN 978-1-59030-739-7 |
Fear and guilt are two of the greatest challenges we face on the spiritual path — but there is a way to transform these painful feelings into courageous self-acceptance. Here Pema presents the five aphorisms for developing fearlessness that were given to Machig Lapdronma, one of Tibetan Buddhism's greatest female teachers. Pema comments on these aphorisms, holds question-and-answer sessions, and leads guided meditations to help us:
- overcome shame and guilt
- remain courageous in the face of pain
- transform our relationships with difficult people
- increase our feelings of generosity and compassion
- This program also includes a card with the five aphorisms and study.
Review of The Fearless Heart
"Excellent production. Chödrön has a remarkable knack for making spiritual practices simultaneously insightful and funny. Though her performance is live (complete with guided meditations and questions and answers), her explanations are astonishingly clear, direct, and provocative; indeed, their unguarded, unrehearsed quality makes them more attractive." — AudioFile
Pure Meditation: The Tibetan Buddhist Practice of Inner Peace
By Pema Chödrön
| 2 CDs (2 hours) $19.95 |
| November 2004 ISBN-10: 1591792622 ISBN-13: 978-1591792628 |
For thirteen hundred years, Tibetans have been practicing shamatha/vipashyana (peaceful dwelling/insight): a profound form of meditation that illuminates and purifies the obstacles to spiritual realization. Tibetan Buddhists today regard shamatha/vipashyana as both the fundamental and the most advanced spiritual practice of all. On Pure Meditation, Pema takes you step-by-step through this timeless and elegant meditative form. You will learn the posture that helps you relax your mind, how to use your own breath as a reminder to return to the present moment, and what to do with the many thoughts and emotions that arise during your meditation sessions. A straightforward, authoritative resource for students at all levels, Pure Meditation is a definitive guide to the authentic Tibetan Buddhist meditation that has brought its practitioners relaxation, peace of mind, and deeper awareness for hundreds of years.
The Pema Chödrön Audio Collection: Guidance for the Path to True Happiness
By Pema Chödrön
| 6 CD's (7 hours) $39.95 |
| April 12, 2005 ISBN-10: 1591791596 ISBN-13: 978-1591791591 |
For the first time, enjoy over seven hours of Ani Pema's trademark humor and a down-to-earth style in one collectors edition. Three of her most popular teachings are available in one boxed set. The Pema Chödrön Collection includes: Pure Meditation step-by-step instruction in Tibetan Buddhism's pinnacle practice for transformation and letting go. Good Medicine teachings in tonglen, an elegant meditation that allows us to use our troubles to befriend ourselves and widen our circle of compassion; and From Fear to Fearlessness offers an antidote to fear in the four noble aspirations maitri (lovingkindness), compassion, joy, and equanimity. Pema makes the Tibetan vajrayana tradition accessible in today's world with these combined teachings.
Review
"Chödrön demonstrates how effective the Buddhist point of view can be in bringing order into disordered lives." — Publishers Weekly
The Noble Heart: A Self-Guided Retreat on Befriending Your Obstacles
By Pema Chödrön
| 12 CD's (9.5 hours) Includes a 48-page study guide. $79.95 |
| November 2004 ISBN-10: 1591792304 ISBN-13: 978-1591792307 |
You can't get away from suffering. That's the good news, teaches Pema. For at the core of your most painful experiences, perhaps more than anywhere else, you will find the seeds of your awakening. On The Noble Heart, Pema shows you how vulnerability is your greatest spiritual resource on the path through life's difficulties. The noble heart, Ani Pema teaches, is one that sheds its armor, opening itself fearlessly to both heartache and delight. Using special meditations and traditional teachings, Pema Chödrön leads you, step-by-step, toward a full realization of your true strength, the strength that can come only through embracing the pain of your own experience. The Noble Heart was recorded as it happened, within the peaceful shrine room of Gampo Abbey, Ani Pema's home on the cliffs of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
Structured so that you can create your own retreat at home or at your meditation center, this complete curriculum brings you key teachings about how to recognize and cultivate the soft spot that is the gateway to your own noble heart. Here is the promise of the Four Limitless Ones — maitri, compassion, joy, and equanimity — and down-to-earth advice about how to draw strength from them every day, in any situation. Here, too, are the treasured teachings about the Six Paramitas: the Buddha's own map of the journey to enlightenment. Learn how to connect with your innately unlimited friendliness, and how it can grow big enough to contain the entire world. With four complete meditations, unique heart teachings, and Ani Pema's trademark humor, The Noble Heart invites you to discover for yourself the compassion and wisdom that have established her as a leading voice in American Buddhism. More than nine hours of direct teachings from this revered Acharya (master teacher). Includes a 48-page study guide.
Highlights:
- The four great catalysts of awakening, and how to begin integrating them into your life today
- The basic goodness that nothing can take away from you
- Authentic Tibetan Buddhist chants for generating gratitude and compassion
- Where to find and how to build your inner strength and trust
- The maitri meditation that multiplies love
- How the Three Noble Principles can enrich everything you do
- Why you need your soft spot to awaken spiritually
- When "don't know" mind is wiser than all the teachings in the world
- The Three Lords of Materialism — and how to diffuse their power
- The antidote to aggression
- A melting practice you can use to undo isolation and anxiety
Review of The Noble Heart
"This wonderful set of teachings is both a transmission and a course of instruction in all the opening-the-heart practices of the Mahayana path to enlightenment. With talks, guided meditations, practice instructions, assignments and Q & A, Ani Pema teaches the foundational practices for arousing Bodhicitta for oneself and all beings. There is even an accompanying booklet. Good for individuals or classes, and for beginners as well advanced practitioners. You can never have too much of the these basic teachings." – Lelia Calder
Getting Unstuck: Breaking Your Habitual Patterns & Encountering Naked Reality
By Pema Chödrön
| 3 CDs (3 hours, 30 minutes) $24.95 |
| January, 2005 ISBN-101-59179-238-X ISBN-13978-1-59179-238-3 |
On Getting Unstuck, Pema introduces a rare Tibetan teaching she received from her teacher, Dzigar Kontrul Rinpoche, and one that has become critical to her practice. Here, she unveils the mystery of an ineffable quality: a pre-emotional feeling that arises in us, brings us discomfort, and causes us to react by escaping the discomfort often with harmful habits. Have you ever had an itch and not scratched it? In the Buddhist tradition, this points to a vast paradox: that by refraining from our urge to scratch, great peace and happiness is available. With Getting Unstuck, Pema offers us a first look at both the itch and the scratch : what Tibetan Buddhists call 'shenpa'. An urge comes up, we succumb to it, and it becomes stronger, teaches Pema Chödrön. We reinforce our cravings, habits, and addictions by giving in to them repeatedly. On Getting Unstuck, Chödrön guides us through this sticky feeling, exploring the moments when we get hooked, and offers us tools for learning to stay with our uneasiness, soften our hearts toward ourselves and others, and live a more peaceful life in the fullness of the present moment. On this full-length recording, Pema Chödrön shows us how to recognize shenpa, catch it as it appears, and develop a playful, lively curiosity toward it. Join Pema Chödrön to discover more about:
- Critical mind — how to recognize this fundamental shenpa, and approach yourself and others with a sense of humor and loving-kindness
- Ways to unravel the patterns of self-denigration, and develop the fundamental maitri — loving-kindness — toward yourself
- How to cultivate acceptance of your irritability, insecurities, and other simply human traits
- Recognition, Refrain, Relaxing, and Resolve: the four R's of working with shenpa, and more
From Fear to Fearlessness: Teachings on the Four Great Catalysts of Awakening
By Pema Chödrön
| 2 CDs (2 hours, 30 minutes) $24.95 |
| September, 2003 ISBN-101-59179-108-1 ISBN-13978-1-59179-108-9 |
The definition of an enlightened being is one who is completely fearless, teaches Pema. Where will we look when we are afraid? How do we find strength? In what can we place our trust? According to Tibetan Buddhism, there are four noble aspirations known as The Four Great Catalysts of Awakening to cultivate strength and openness in any situation. From Fear to Fearlessness, Pema helps us to discover and cultivate these four immeasurables: maitri (loving-kindness), compassion, joy, and equanimity. They are our greatest antidote to fear, teaches Ani Pema. By practicing them, we begin to experience a supreme steadfastness and peace independent of conditions. You will learn how self-acceptance overcomes the judging mind, how using honesty as a conduit to the parts of ourselves that need kindness and love the most, and of Maitri: the meditation practice that multiplies love. With guided meditations, rare heart teachings, and Ani Pema's trademark humor, here is a timeless path From Fear to Fearlessness.
Note: excerpted from the full-length audio course The Noble Heart.
Bodhisattva Mind: Teachings to Cultivate Courage and Awareness in the Midst of Suffering
By Pema Chödrön
| 7 CDs (8 hours) $69.95 |
| September, 2006 ISBN-101-59179-535-4 ISBN-13978-1-59179-535-3 |
Like a wild elephant, the distracted mind causes emotions to escalate. But if the mind is trained to be steady and open, no matter what comes at you, you will remain solid in the immediacy of your experience. On Bodhisattva Mind, Pema Chödrön leads you through an all-new series of practices to help you "tether" your thoughts and emotions — not as a limiting force, but as a means to restore yourself in the freedom of the present moment. A bodhisattva is one who seeks liberation from suffering not only for oneself, but for all beings. If you were a bodhisattva, how would you respond in the face of chaos and difficulty? Is it possible to find calm in the middle of a storm? On Bodhisattva Mind, Pema Chödrön explores timeless insights and practices from the teachings of an eighth-century Buddhist classic, Shantideva's The Way of the Bodhisattva, to reveal a powerful core truth that can move us all closer to the bodhisattva ideal.
About Shantideva
"An unlikely voice on living a virtuous life" in the eyes of his fellow Indian scholars, Shantideva seemed lazy and uninterested in his studies and was greatly resented. So they invited the young "slacker" to give a prestigious talk — an honor reserved for only the most realized Buddhist masters — hoping to humiliate him and force him to leave the school. Instead, he delivered the timeless jewel known today as The Way of the Bodhisattva. Paradoxically, the key to true liberation, he taught, is in taming the mind. Experience the Spaciousness Available in Every Moment. "If we approach the wildness of our mind like a horse whisperer using gentleness, compassion, and kindness, we return to our natural state of expansiveness that is always available to us," says Pema. Encompassing a rich span of insights from this gifted teacher, Bodhisattva Mind shows us how to connect with the spacious, clear, and unbiased nature of our minds, and experience the joy of complete freedom.
Awakening Compassion: Meditation Practice for Difficult Times
By Pema Chödrön
| 6 CDs (7 hours, 30 minutes), 1 Study guide (9 pages) $69.95 |
September 01, 2003 ISBN-101-59179-128-6 ISBN-13978-1-59179-128-7 |
For more than 800 years, Tibetan Buddhists have used the practice of lojong, or mind training, to transform difficulties into insights. Lojong training is grounded in a special meditation technique and complemented by 59 written maxims — a treasury of practical wisdom that inspires everyday awareness. On Awakening Compassion, Pema shows you how to use your own painful emotions as stepping stones to wisdom, compassion, and fearlessness.You will learn how to make friends with the painful parts of your life experience and how to use your natural courage and honesty to transform even the most difficult situations. With an informal teaching style, both playful and insightful, Pema makes this timeless way of bringing compassion into the world easy to understand and apply to your own life. More than seven hours of practical, compassionate guidance for shedding your cocoon and meeting your world with fresh appreciation. Includes nine-page study guide with lojong slogans and additional resources. Learn More About
- How to see your life freshly, clearly, and vividly using the lojong slogans to cultivate your bravery
- The attitude of a bodhisattva, or fully awakened person
- Practical techniques for working with jealousy, resentment, and rage
- How to open your heart in even the most difficult situations§ On-the-spot practices for dealing with anger, jealousy, and fear
- How to change the habits that shut you off from those who love you most
- The secret of transforming conflict into genuine communication
True Happiness: Cultivating a Life of Unconditional Joy and the Power to Benefit Others
By Pema Chödrön
| 6 CDs (7 hours) $69.95 |
| February, 2005 ISBN-101-59179-244-4 ISBN-13978-1-59179-244-4 |
Happiness is your birthright and it is readily available at any given moment, teaches Pema. So, why do we live in such suffering? The potential for happiness is not based on outer things; they come and go, causing us misery, she begins. We're always chasing after something, trying to avoid the difficult places. But there are a lot of small sweetnesses that we ignore because they're so fleeting. On True Happiness, Pema Chödrön guides you through simple-yet-effective practices that show you how to recognize and nurture these moments of delight, cultivating them until they become more and more frequent, accessible, and real as a constant influence in our lives. At the root of everything is basic goodness; a Buddhist view that each of us is fundamentally awake and compassionate, yet we tend to look at ourselves from a place of badness, explains Ani Pema. We spend our lives in self-doubt and confusion, attempting to be perfect and get it right. But life is about being open to whatever might arise, including feelings of uneasiness as well as feelings of contentment and peace. Rather than asking "How can I get out of this?" ask "How can I stay in this moment of discomfort and begin to soften?" It is in that moment of softening that you will find your open heart, teaches Pema. Everyone has the longing to feel the open heart, because it is a deep happiness that can never be taken away. Recorded at Gampo Abbey Monastery in Nova Scotia, True Happiness gives you the opportunity to spend yarne or winter retreat with Pema Chödrön in the warmth and comfort of your own home.
True Happiness: Happiness is Your Birthright
By Pema Chödrön
| 2 CDs (2 hours, 15 minutes) $19.99 |
| September, 2006 ISBN-1-59179-539-7 ISBN-978-1-59179-539-1 |
Recorded at Gampo Abbey Monastery in Nova Scotia, True Happiness features highlights from Sounds True's full-length audio learning course of the same title.
Happiness is your birthright — and it is readily available at any given moment, teaches Pema Chödrön. So why do we live in such suffering? The potential for happiness is not based on outer things — they come and go, causing us misery, she begins. We re always chasing after something, trying to avoid the difficult places. But there are a lot of small sweetnesses that we ignore because they re so fleeting. On True Happiness, Pema guides us through simple yet effective practices that show us how to recognize and nurture these moments of delight, cultivating them until they become more and more frequent, accessible, and real. Recorded at Gampo Abbey Monastery in Nova Scotia, True Happiness features highlights from Sounds True's full-length audio learning course of the same title, and gives you the opportunity to absorb the teachings of Pema at your own pace. Join this best-selling author and beloved teacher for classical meditations and practices to dissolve the barriers to your heart,reconnect with your basic goodness, and cultivate a sense of happiness — by learning to enter natural windows of spaciousness that open us to freedom.
Good Medicine: How to Turn Pain into Compassion with Tonglen Meditation
By Pema Chödrön
| 2 CDs (2 hours, 30 minutes), 1 Booklet (4 pages) $24.95 |
| March 01, 2001 ISBN-101-56455-846-0 ISBN-13978-1-56455-846-6 |
On Good Medicine, Pema 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. Skillfully distilled into a three-hour workshop, Good Medicine offers you a revolutionary practice that is already a 1,000 years old — and ready to awaken your heart right now.
How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind
with Pema Chödrön
| 5 CDs (5 hours, 45 minutes) $29.95 |
| January, 2008 ISBN-101-59179-794-2 ISBN-13978-1-59179-794-4 |
When it comes to meditation, Pema is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost teachers. Yet she's never offered an introductory course on audio — until now. On How to Meditate with Pema Chödrön, the American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun and bestselling author presents her first complete spoken-word course for those new to meditation. Through five CDs of traditional insights and her personal guidance in 12 sitting sessions, Pema will help you honestly meet and compassionately relate with your mind as you explore:
- The basics of mindfulness awareness practice, from proper posture to learning to settle to breathing and relaxation
- Gentleness, patience, and humor — three ingredients for a well-balanced practice
- Shamatha (or calm abiding), the art of stabilizing the mind to remain present with whatever arises
- Thoughts and emotions as "sheer delight" — instead of obstacles — in meditation
"From my own experience and from listening to many people over the years, I've tried to offer here what I feel are the essential points of meditation," explains Pema Chödrön. Now this beloved voice shares with you her accessible approach — simple and down-to-earth while informed by the highest traditions of Tibetan Buddhism — on How to Meditate with Pema Chödrön.
Review of How to Meditate
"To judge from the title, this set appears to be the least appealing of any of Pema's works, whether you are new or a veteran to her work. But this is the best or among the best of her presentations and will bring additional treasures to the most avid students or collectors." By Roy Tuckman "I've only listened to the first two sessions, and have already found this an invaluable guide to understanding and practicing meditation." – Jennie Peut
The Three Commitments: Walking the Path of Liberation
By Pema Chödrön
| 7 CDs (7 hours, 45 minutes), 1 Study guide (14 pages) $69.95 |
| May, 2010 ISBN-101-59179-775-6 ISBN-13978-1-59179-775-3 |
Tibetan Buddhism describes three gates that everyone must pass through on the road to spiritual liberation. With The Three Commitments, Pema brings her unique blend of insight and gentle instruction to guide practitioners through each of these thresholds as they seek the source of true happiness. As Pema explains, suffering arises when we resist the law of impermanence — the fact that everything we know, including ourselves, will one day die. Here she provides teachings and practices for fully embracing life's ephemeral nature using these three traditional monastic vows, or "commitments."
- The Pratimoksha vows — how we can find personal liberation through the inner work of letting go
- The Bodhisattva vows — the way of genuine and compassionate service to others
- The Tantric vows — how to accept impermanence with true equanimity and touch the underlying stillness from which all worldly forms ariseIn the past, initiates took their vows when entering the secluded world of the monastery.
Today, laypeople are also embracing these commitments as a way to deepen their practice while fully participating in everyday life. Through her practical instruction and accessible interpretation of ancient wisdom, Pema helps listeners discover how each of these sacred vows is not a burden or restriction, but a guiding beacon on the path to liberation.
Don't Bite the Hook: Finding Freedom from Anger, Resentment, and Other Destructive Emotions
By Pema Chodron
| 3 CDs (3 hours) $24.95 |
| Shambhala Audio July 2007 ISBN 978-1-59030-434-1 |
Life has a way of provoking us with traffic jams and computer malfunctions, with emotionally distant partners and crying children — and before we know it, we're upset. We feel terrible, and then we end up saying and doing things that only make matters worse. But it doesn't have to be that way, says Pema. It is possible to relate constructively to the inevitable shocks, losses, and frustrations of life so that we can find true happiness. The key, Pema explains, is not biting the "hook" of our habitual responses. In this recorded weekend retreat, Pema draws on Buddhist teachings from The Way of the Bodhisattva to reveal how we can:
- stay centered in the midst of difficulty
- improve stressful relationships
- step out of the downward spiral of self-hatred
- awaken compassion for ourselves and others.
The Fearless Heart: The Practice of Living with Courage and Compassion
By Pema Chodron
| 5 CDs (5 hours) $39.95 |
| Shambhala Audio July 2010 ISBN 978-1-59030-739-7 |
Fear and guilt are two of the greatest challenges we face on the spiritual path — but there is a way to transform these painful feelings into courageous self-acceptance. Here Pema presents the five aphorisms for developing fearlessness that were given to Machig Lapdronma, one of Tibetan Buddhism's greatest female teachers. Pema comments on these aphorisms, holds question-and-answer sessions, and leads guided meditations to help us:
- overcome shame and guilt§ remain courageous in the face of pain
- transform our relationships with difficult people
- increase our feelings of generosity and compassion
- This program also includes a card with the five aphorisms and study.
Review of The Fearless Heart
"Excellent production. Chödrön has a remarkable knack for making spiritual practices simultaneously insightful and funny. Though her performance is live (complete with guided meditations and questions and answers), her explanations are astonishingly clear, direct, and provocative; indeed, their unguarded, unrehearsed quality makes them more attractive." — AudioFile
Perfect Just As You Are: Buddhist Practices on the Four Limitless Ones: Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity
By Pema Chodron
| 8 CDs (8 hours) $69.95 |
| Shambhala Audio October 2009 ISBN 978-1-59030-628-4 |
Spiritual practice, Pema teaches, has nothing to do with self-improvement, since, as the course's title claims, you're already perfect right now. The limitless qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity are your deep-down, ultimate reality, and those are qualities that can't be improved upon. If you're not feeling particularly kind, compassionate, joyful, or equanimous at the moment, take heart: the Four Limitless Ones are there like seeds, waiting to be cultivated through practice — and, being limitless, they're rich enough to be worked with for a lifetime. This intensive program of study and practice provides the tools you need to access these radiant states and to nurture their growth for sake of all beings, including yourself. Here's some of what you'll learn:
- How cultivating the Four Limitless Ones is the antidote to depression, irritation, and isolation
- Basic meditation instructions to get you started in the foundational practice
- A wealth of guided meditations for generating these radiant qualities to yourself, others, and the world
- Writing and reflection exercises to bring the Four Limitless Ones powerfully into real life
- A simple chant you can use to create love and good will around yourself
- Powerful on-the-spot practices you can use throughout the day, even when there's "no time to practice"
Do the program at your own pace. It fits perfectly with any other kind of meditation you're doing. And since no previous knowledge of Buddhism is required, it's also ideal for those new to spiritual practice. After you've completed the material in Perfect Just as You Are, you'll want to listen to it again periodically–any time you need a refresher course in compassion, loving-kindness, equanimity, and joy.
Reviews of Perfect Just As You Are
"Pema Chödrön is wonderfully articulate. Her compassion makes her reflections all the more compelling." — Audiofile
"As one of Pema Chödrön'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
"Pema's deep experience and her fresh way of looking at things are like mountain water — clear and refreshing, as good dharma should be." — Jack Kornfield
