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 matter...

Don't Bite the Hook

When her granddaughter was accepted to Naropa University, the celebrated author Pema Chödrön promised that she'd speak at the commencement ceremony. Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better contains the wisdom shared on that day. "What do we do when life doesn'...

Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better

How to Befriend Your Most Challenging Emotions and Experiences  In challenging times, why do so many of us turn to Pema Chödrön for guidance? Many say that it’s her honest and caring way of communicating the core teachings of Buddhism - not just conc...

Coming Closer to Ourselves

Have you ever found yourself thinking your way into a tangle of fret, frustration, or gloom? And then something small - a few kind words, the sun glancing through the clouds, a warm cup of tea - gave you a welcome pause from all your inner chatter? W...

Making Friends with Your Mind

Finding freedom in our most difficult circumstances.  What if the full sense of our aliveness were only to be found amidst our most challenging times and difficult experiences? In pain and crisis, teaches Pema Chödrön, there lies a hidden doorway to ...

When Pain is the Doorway

Life, death, and rebirth - Pema Chödrön on the Tibetan Book of the Dead What happens when we die? One of the most treasured resources for understanding this essential question is the Tibetan Book of the Dead. With Embracing the Unknown, Pema Chödrön ...

Embracing the Unknown

What would happen if we looked with fresh eyes at the struggles and "impossible situations" that we face every day - and found there four gifts that changed everything?  For decades, Pema Chödrön has brought clarity and heart to the core teachings of...

The Truth of Our Existence

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, which we can call on to cultivate strengt...

From Fear to Fearlessness

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 Chödrön presents the five aphorisms for developing fearlessness that w...

The Fearless Heart

We live in difficult times. Life sometimes seems like a roiling and turbulent river threatening to drown us. Why, in the face of that, shouldn't we cling for safety to the certainty of the shore - to our comfortably familiar patterns and habits? Beca...

Fully Alive

Spiritual practice, Pema Chödrön 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, ...

Perfect Just as You Are

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 doe...

Working with Difficult Emotions

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 59 powerful mind-training slogans as a way to transform life's ordinary situations into opport...

Be Grateful to Everyone

Two master teachers illuminate the mysteries of karma.  Of the many Eastern wisdom teachings to have found their way westward, the notion of karma may be the most misunderstood - and most transformative. American-born teacher Pema Chödrön is renowned...

Karma

In the midst of fear, anger, or sadness it may seem impossible to find our ground. Yet, the feelings we want to avoid the most can open the way to fearlessness, our basic goodness, and true freedom.  Beloved Tibetan Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön has ...

Three Steps to Courage

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...

Smile at Fear

Discover the Buddha's six keys to greater ease, compassion, and fulfillment. We may tell ourselves that once our lives get on track - with a good career, a loving partner, and a better sense of security - then we'll be able to focus on our greater pu...

Journey to Fulfillment

How can human suffering become good medicine? Through tonglen: the ancient Tibetan meditation that transforms pain into compassion on the medium of your own breath. Pema Chödrön and Alice Walker in Conversation reveals the revolutionary power of tong...

Pema Chödrön and Alice Walker in Conversation

On the spiritual path we speak of enlightenment. But how do we reconcile the idea of enlightenment with what we see when we look in the mirror - when insecurities, doubts, and self-centered tendencies arise in our minds? Dzigar Kongtrül suggests that...

It's Up to You

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'...

True Happiness

The best-selling author and beloved Buddhist teacher shares her insights on the practice of compassion and enlightened mind (bodhichitta).  Compassion is a skill. It's not a special trait that we either have or don't, but a practice that we can all n...

Giving Our Best

With war and violence flaring all over the world, many of us are left feeling vulnerable and utterly helpless. In this book Pema Chödrön draws on Buddhist teachings to explore the origins of aggression, hatred, and war, explaining that they lie nowhe...

Practicing Peace in Times of War

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 o...

This Moment Is the Perfect Teacher

Pain, loss, shame, sadness - suffering is an unavoidable part of being human. The practice of tonglen offers us a way to transform our relationship with suffering - our own and that which is all around us. In The Courage to Love the World, beloved te...

The Courage to Love the World

Most of us are well aware of the benefits of meditation, and new research is providing us with more and more evidence of what the world's spiritual traditions have known for years: meditation can positively impact every area of our lives.  So why do ...

The Meditation Summit: Volume 2

 Two of the world's most beloved spiritual teachers and leading figures in the Shambhala tradition of Buddhism discuss the core principles and practices of the tradition and how personal meditation practice can forge an enlightened society..  Best-se...

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