Pema Chödrön

Pema Chödrön is a leading exponent of teachings on meditation and how they apply to everyday life. Pema Chödrön is widely known for her charming and down-to-earth interpretation of Tibetan Buddhism for Western audiences.

Pema Chödrön studied under the meditation master Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and currently studies under Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. Pema Chödrön is the resident teacher at Gampo Abbey, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the first Tibetan monastery for Westerners and has authored several books, including:

• Comfortable with Uncertainty
• The Path of Transformation
• The Places that Scare You
• When Things Fall Apart
• Start Where You Are
• The Wisdom of No Escape

The Meditation section contains an essay written by Pema Chödrön as well as pieces by other members of Pema's teaching lineage. The balance of the site is comprised of teachings by Pema Chödrön and questions that she has answered.

PEMA CHÖDRÖN EXCERPTS FROM: 
SELF-MASTERY. A JOURNEY HOME TO YOUR SELF
 A TEXTBOOK For the next MILLENNIUM

REMINDERS

Pema Chodron taught me about the four Buddhists spiritual Reminders. They help us "stay awake" so we can live our lives as consciously awakened beings. These Reminders weave together like a thick rope with each of the four elements overlapping, which supports the strength of the other Reminders. They form a wonderful recipe for staying conscious in a world that does everything it can to null you into being "In the world."

1. PRECIOUS HUMAN BIRTH: Life is so wonderfully precious. It needs to be worshiped, not wasted. That is way learning to Be, Here, Now so we can stay awake to Tolle's Power of Now is so important. That's why I like to use as many spiritual tools as possible to keep me conscious to the preciousness my life, such as the acronym I.A.M (It's About Me). We need to feel life to it fullest and not go unconscious when "so-called" bad feelings arise. It is so important to "live now" and to not let yesterdays lessons keep us stuck in the past. Our birth is precious and we all have a spiritual purpose for living, so an important question to keep asking yourself is, "What will my legacy be when I am no more?"
2. IMPERMANENCE: Impermanence means that the essence of life is fleeting. It is sobering to think that you do not have long to live. Impermanence can help you to feel that, "Since I am only on this planet a short time, I will use my time constructively." Impermanence heightens your sense of preciousness and gratitude. Death helps use to penetrate our thick skulls that life does not last forever. Impermanence helps us to remember to practice as if our hair was on fire.
3. LAW OF KARMA: The Law of Karma is also referred to as the Law of Sowing and Reaping because your every action generates a force of energy that returns to you its kind; therefore what you sow, you reap. Traditionally, this Reminder helps us to focus on a specific element of sowing and reaping. It was created as a tool to Remind us that we are the only ones who can transcend our "stuckness." It's a Reminder that the next time we feel like staying in bed all day because we feel sad and depressed if we do so, we will reap that habit of letting the ego win again, but if we do anything that helps us get out of bed, we will also reap the reward that the next time our ego "acts out" it will that much easier to take action to help ourselves feel better. So, when you choose actions that are open, honest, and spiritually centered, the fruits of your labor will attract the same. But, if your actions are riddled with pain, fear, and mistrust, the fruits of your labor will mirror your fear-based actions.
4. SAMSARA: Samsara is a term that means the futility of continuing to spin around on this treadmill of births and deaths. Samsara creates a very small, limited view of reality. It creates a one-dimensional view of reality rooted in the push and pull of the earth plane dyads. Samsara defines the element of the mind that immaturely wants life to be predictable, safe, convenient and always trustworthy. The mind is always seeking zones of safety, when these physical plane zones of safety are continually falling apart, changing and ending. Samsara means that we allow ourselves to be blow around by the eight winds of life: gain and loss, praise and ridicule, credit and blame, and suffering and joy. This dysempowers us because it dictates how we feel because we feel happy when the wind blows praise our way and sad when the winds blows ridicule our way. Self-mastery is the opposite of Samsara. A Self-mastered person is totally open to whatever happens because he/she knows that that the world is constantly changing. Committing to be a Self-mastered person is like being thrown out of the nest of "living in the world" to be one who is "not of this world." It means you are willing to step into something that is uncertain and unknown, knowing that life is about transcending the old world paradigms, which were based solely on only things that you can see, touch and taste. Self-mastered people live in a multi-dimensional world where reality is consciously co-created.

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