The key is to be here, fully connected with the moment, paying attention to the details of ordinary life.”

While in her mid-thirties, she traveled to the French Alps and encountered Lama Chime Rinpoche, with whom she studied for several years. She became a novice nun in 1974 while studying with Lama Chime in London. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa came to England at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him. I love Pema Chodron's style and approach. This book has some great excerpts from her books, but some of them don't work well out of context. Some would be super confusing if I was not already used to her style and Buddhism. I do like that they give the resource for every saying though, so if there is one that interests or confuses you, you can go read the full context. With that said though, the ideas skip around and I don't understand how they were organized, if at all. It feels like someone just put a whole bunch of quotes in a jar and then pulled them out randomly and inserted them into the book.Your investment will help Elephant Journal invest in our editors and writers who promote your values to create the change you want to see in your world! LIFE’S work is to wake up, to let the things that enter into your life wake you up rather than put you to sleep. The only way to do this is to open, be curious, and develop some sense of sympathy for everything that comes along, to get to know its nature and let it teach you what it will.” This book was interesting and I did learn a lot from it. I really wasn't familiar with Buddhism and I think this was a good way to dip a toe.

When we feel” depressed, lonely, betrayed, or any unwanted feelings, this is an important moment on the spiritual path. This is when real transformation can take place.”Difficulty is inevitable. We cannot escape the reality of death, and there are also the realities of “aging, of illness, of not getting what we want, and of getting what we don’t want”. And clearly you appreciate mindfulness with a sense of humor and integrity! Why not join the Elephant community, become an Elephriend?

She’s one of the most influential voices in contemporary spirituality, the writer whose books are passed from friend to friend." Pema tells us that we already have everything we need and are “one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.” She attended Miss Porter's School in Connecticut and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She taught as an elementary school teacher for many years in both New Mexico and California. Pema has two children and three grandchildren. In this book Pema Chödrön presents the traditional Buddhist teachings that guide her own life: those of The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara), a text written by the eighth-century sage Shantideva. This treasured Buddhist work is remarkably relevant for our times, describing the steps we can take to cultivate courage, caring, and joy—the keys to healing ourselves and our troubled world.Ani Pema first met her root guru, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Trungpa, and it was with him that she ultimately made her most profound connection, studying with him from 1974 until his death in 1987. At the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, she received the full bikshuni ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong.