A Year with Pema Chödrön 2024 • Online Course

We’ll kick off the year with the subject of Pema’s most-loved book, which offers life-changing tools for transforming suffering and negative patterns into natural ease and boundless joy. There’s a fundamental opportunity for happiness right within our reach, yet we usually miss it—ironically, while we are caught up in attempts to escape pain and suffering. How can we live our lives when everything seems to fall apart—when we are continually overcome by fear, anxiety, and pain? The answer might be just the opposite of what you expect. Moving toward painful situations and becoming intimate with them can open up our hearts in ways we never before imagined. Live call January 7, 2024, 1:00 p.m. EST

When you think about what causes you the most difficulty and strife in your life, do you think about your afflictive emotions? According to Buddhist teachings, the afflictive emotions of craving, aggression, ignorance, pride, and jealousy, known as the five kleshas, are the root of our suffering. Circumstances will always arise that trigger these emotions, but if we can learn to work with them skillfully, we have the power to transform the effect of them in our lives. Pema teaches the three-step process of Refrain, Reframe, and Relax as a method of putting yourself in the driver’s seat instead of being driven by emotions. Live call April 14, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. (EDT)

We all go through challenges. Whether we like it or not, the Challenge Zone rather than the Comfort Zone, as Pema teaches, is actually where our life blossoms. When we stretch our capacity to hold our deepest emotions and move through life’s tribulations with grace, we surprisingly grow in love, freedom, and genuine connection with others. It’s through embracing our struggles that we become liberated and understand our common humanity. Through mind-training and awakening bodhicitta, we ripen our capacity for self-compassion and open to universal compassion: the innate wisdom of the heart. Live call July 28, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. (EDT)

Death and impermanence are the greatest fears for many of us. As Pema Chödrön entered the ninth decade of her life, she spent a year in solitary retreat working deeply with traditional Tibetan Buddhist teachings on death and transitions. Her insights on the subject are deeply rooted in study, practice, and experience, giving them a grounded and welcoming appeal. In the final live session, we’ll discover newfound freedom in life’s ever-constant flow of endings and beginnings with Pema’s wise words. Live call October 13, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. (EDT)