These archive audio and video recordings record Pema’s teachings over approximately the last 20 years. Many were recorded and made available by Great Path Tapes, which is now part of the Pema Chödrön Foundation. Many were not commercially produced, but we make them available for those students who may find them of value.
Below is a list of titles and a short description of their subject matter. Click on each to see the formats available for that title. All titles are available as Audio CDs and Audio Downloads, and some are additionally available in DVD format, or as MP3 CDs (MP3 files on a data CD, not playable on home or car CD players).
Note: These MP3 audio files cannot be downloaded directly to smartphones or tablets. Learn more here: Downloads — Technical Support. If this info does not resolve your issue, please email us at support@pemachodronfoundation.org.
If you would like to browse these titles under categories of subject matter please click here.
A Personal Journey
Pema Chödrön shares her path as a practitioner, monastic, teacher, leader, and woman. A major theme is the power and blessing of observing monastic vows and discipline, and how this has served as a support for every aspect of her life. 1 talk (Gampo Abbey, 2005)
Awakening Bodhichitta: Training in the Six Paramitas
In this retreat on the training of a bodhisattva, Pema Chodron focuses on how to practice “action bodhicitta,” the six paramitas of transcendental generosity. 5 talks (Lyndon State College, 1999)
Developing Patience
Cultivating non-aggression; contemplating aggression, shenpa and patience; practicing patience – specific situations; troublemakers as Buddhas. 4 talks
Discipline and Depression
What is the role of discipline and how does it apply to our lives? How can it help us change habits that cause us suffering and harm to ourselves and others? 1 talk (Gampo Abbey, 1996)
Emptiness is Good News: A Teaching on the Heart Sutra
Introduction to Mahayana, the “great” vehicle, with teachings on the Heart Sutra. This is the fourth talk from the “Meditation in Action” retreat. 1 talk
Facing Our Demons: A Story of Milarepa
Pema Chodron uses the story of Milarepa is as an example of how to face our own “demons” and how to work with resistance and pain, and to go into any situation with an open heart. 1 talk (2000)
Glimpses of Mahayana
All that you need can be found within: that is the view of buddhanature, or basic goodness. The mahayana teachings encourage the natural evolution of our wakefulness through being open to all states of mind. 2 talks (Gampo Abbey, 1996)
How to Live Compassionately in a Troubled World
Heart advice on working gently, yet precisely with our emotions and our state of mind. A commentary by Pema Chödrön on Chapter 5 of Shantideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva. 4 talks (Omega Institute, 2005)
How to Stay with Uncomfortable Feelings
Working with the present moment. “The essence of Buddhism is staying with pain without running away, as the path of joy.” Recorded at Gampo Abbey, June 1996. 1 talk (Gampo Abbey, 1996)
Joy in Everyday Life
Joy is the second of the four Shambhala dignities, related the spontaneous discipline and virtue of the perky snow lion. These everyday-life teachings include aspiration bodhicitta contemplations and teachings on action bodhicitta. 5 talks (Gampo Abbey, 2010)
Making a Relationship with Pain and Joy
Tonglen practice is a method for connecting with suffering – our own and that which is all around us. This single talk by Pema Chödrön consists of the basic tonglen instructions and guided tonglen practice, given in 1998 at the San Francisco Zen Center. 1 talk (1998)
Peaceful Abiding Meditation
How to develop a stable, open, and strong mind in the midst of the chaotic, painful, and groundless experiences of our lives. 4 talks (New York City, 2004)
Popping the Bubble of Ego
Pema Chödrön teaches on shenpa. Those times when the bubble of ego is popped and there is no ground are the most rich and powerful times in our lives. 1 talk (Shambhala Mountain Center, 2003)
Self-Compassion
This talk includes an overview of each of the four limitless qualities: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, and an explanation of the four lines of the four limitless qualities chant. 1 talk (Omega Institute, 1999)
The Lion’s Roar
In this talk Pema Chödrön explores the questions: How do we use the life we already have to be wiser? What is the source of wisdom? By training to open right in the moment we can realize the workability of all situations. Also includes an uplifting presentation on overcoming depression. 1 talk (1989)
The Myth of Freedom
In these talks Pema Chödrön teaches from Chögyam Trungpa’s text, The Myth of Freedom. Pema presents many core Buddhist teachings and leads us through the stages of the path of meditation. 6 talks (2007)
Thinking as an Addiction
In this talk Pema Chödrön discusses our addiction to generating thoughts in order to give ourselves a feeling of false comfort, and the importance of labeling thoughts as thoughts. 1 talk (Gampo Abbey, 1992)
Wisdom and Compassion
Pema Chödrön and Jack Kornfield: A conversation between these two great teachers, held at Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco, May 26, 2005. 1 talk
Working with the Different Levels of Shenpa
This talk addresses working with the three levels of shenpa (getting “hooked”). By giving your full attention to what it feels like to be hooked and to relax there, you can train in interrupting the momentum of shenpa and the reactivity which follows. 1 talk (2003)