Whether you meditate or not, Pema Chodron's message of compassion and tenderness toward self and others is profound. Two main resources have been helping me transform my consciousness and habits into a life of fullness and joy: this audiotape series and the program described in an extraordinary book by George Leonard and Michael Murphy, "The Life We Are Given." I recommend both unhesitatingly.

Life-changing. Highly recommended.

I was at the Dharmadhatu Center in Los Angeles in 1980. I had listened to some Tibetan nun lecturing. That was fine. I was talking to the guy at the desk. Asking him if I could only pay half on some seminar. It was a hassle. Suddenly, I turned around. There was the Tibetan nun standing in the doorway. She was looking at me with such intense love that I felt embarrassed. Just open love beaming at me. I don't know if the reader has ever felt that. Someone not loving YOU in a grasping way. But just total love. From the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. I suddenly turned away. It was a weird experience. Anyway, that was Pema Chodren. I have bought these tapes. You will do something called "Tonglen". You will also do Shamatha Meditation. And have 59 Lojungs (items to practice). I would like to simplify this if I may. You will learn a simple breathing technique (Buy "Start Where You Are" by Pema Chodren where she will tell you how to do this very simple technique of just following your outbreath). Then Tonglen. Another very simple meditation technique which you can also use during difficult times during the day. And then the slogans. I would like to share with you my experience with one of the slogans. "Drive All Blames into One". In this slogan, your focus is not on the person who is irritaing you, or the situation, but the focus is switched to paying attention to your anger. No matter what the situation. You are taking responsiblity for your emotions. Pema explains how this will enable you to be even more assertive! Because the anger is gone. You will eventually find yourself responding accurately to the person or situation. No back-talking in one of the slogans. No putting others down. It's a whole journey. I have only one question. Where will Bill Butler go?

A good friend recommended Pema Chodron's books to me, and I am so glad I took his advice and bought this book! I keep this little book in my purse and carry it with me everywhere, and read it in those "wasted" moments waiting in a doctors office, or riding in a car, even while waiting in line at the bank on a Friday afternoon. The poor thing is wrinkled and bent from use, travel, and being read, over and over! There is much wisdom here in Pema Chodron's easy to read, easy to understand book, and it can be applied to anyone of any faith. I recommend Awakening Loving- Kindness to everyone!

A little gem of a book. I highly recommend it. I keep it in my sack with me most of the time even though I have read it twice through already. She really drives home the truth that trying to change yourself is aggression against yourself. I have found a lot of wisdom in this tiny tome. Please partake, too.

This tiny book has had a huge impact on my life. While I have often been glibly advised to live with kindness, or by the golden rule, I have never seen such clarity on HOW to live with kindness and compassion toward others, and especially toward self. This is a book to read over and over, to highlight and to underline. A book to absorb. Themes are joy, balance, fear, trust, kindness, openness, wisdom, perspective, courage, and awareness.

This is one of the most wonderful, healing videos I've ever seen.

In today's stress-filled environment this video Good Medicine offers a valuable way of confronting any aggression. This video offers a release from suffering. Anger, fear, or grief arise from our unskilful response to pain. When we try to escape suffering by avoiding, we find that avoidance doesn't diffuse the suffering. Often, instead, the amount of suffering escalates. Through the practice of Tonglen, Pema Chodrin shows us a way to confront suffering directly so it vanishes. In her words, "This is news we can use."

Tonglen changes the environment by replacing the dynamics of anger, fear, or grief with compassion. The exchange takes place on the medium of the breath. Visualization is part of the process. Through this video Pema Chodrin gives clear instructions, includes personal experiences, and frames her instructions with a sense of humour.

Learning Tonglen can not only improve our individual health, but also can help create peace on the spot in explosive situations. I highly recommend this video.

I first was introduced to Pema Chodron through the audio program "Awakening Compassion" - another great work. I then picked up a few books and "Good Medicine". The audio adds a fuller dimension to the message. You get a sense for how sincere and down to earth she is and this lends validity to the practice that you don't /can't pick up on from the books alone. This audio program is highly recommended! In contrast to "Awakining Compassion", I think the quality of the recording is much better - although the message and entertainment are excellent in both.

This two cassette tape series of the Tibetan Buddhist teaching of Tonglen is a wonderful companion to the various other tapes and books by Ane Pema Chodron. Her delightful manner creates a welcomed ease for the student when listening to and working with the depth of her teachings and the honored Tibetan lineage she so effortlessly expesses. Having a "beginner's mind," I have enjoyed using these particular tapes to begin my own Tonglen practice as part of my daily commute into San Francisco by bus. All of Pema Chodron's tapes are great personal journeys,each the gift of an individual and self-paced retreat. This series is similar to her Noble Heart series in terms of pacing and format, but gently focusses on the singular practice of Tonglen. This practice has changed me in ways I am only beginning to understand. Until I can run away to Gampo Abbey to study, I will ride my bus in the early morning and breathe in and out.

the most enabling book on spiritual life-not clutching on in usual addictive style prevalent in american media life-but really letting go and being ungrounded-this book saved my soul in a critical moment-we can live without clutching and grasping-let the universe supply without grabbingi just showed it to two therapists-one a director of a group of therapists-they were amazed at the profundity and helpfulness-and in line with more enlightened therapeutic practice-not advice -lots of support -see where this new way leads you

If you are ready to hear what Pema has to say this tape series can change your life.Pema presents her information in clear and easy to understand terms.I believe she instructs us to confront reality than follow with a "chaser" of compassion.This method keeps your self-discovery from overwhelming you and keeping you from continuing.Actually Pema uses the word friendliness to discribe how we must approach this self-understanding.At first I thought that was such a wimpy term-'friendly'.It turns out if you can muster up friendliness for yourself when you begin to uncover your self you will be doing well indeed. Thank you Pema.

Pema Chodron is a ONE-OF-A-KIND meditation master. Her lucid presentation of buddhist meditation is a real treasure. She is sincere and has a great sense of humor. In addition to discussing meditation, she also teaches on some Lojong slogans as they relate to formal/informal practice of meditation.

WATCH OUT!! Pema Chodron is a Vajra Master and listening to her will transform your mind and open your heart!

This is my favorite Pema Chodron book! You can open its pages anywhere, any time, in any frame of mind, and receive wide benefit to mind and heart. It is spiritual teaching of the only useful kind, practical teaching deliberately intended not to implant, but rather to unsheathe what is already native, but hidden. Pema Chodron leaves one to oneself -the very best teaching!- and by the faintest strokes of wisdom, insight, and practiced sensibilities leaves one higher, deeper, and more able to live freely within oneself. I think she is an extraordinary teacher, in the very best tradition of Western Buddhist training. If Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia is fortunate indeed to be gifted with this extraordinary woman, likewise are we. It seems I open that amazing turquoise cover (a more illustrious blue than even the fine photo on this page indicates!) several times a week. It is a book one gratefully lives with. I have given it to friends, family, and even a few strangers! I recommend it with confidence, compassionate purpose, and indeed a great deal of joy.

"Each of us has all that it takes to become fully enlightened," Pema Chodron writes in this book. "We have basic energy coursing through us. Sometimes it manifests as brilliance and sometimes it manifests as confusion" (p. 22). Chodron's 108-page book is based on a series of "talks" she delivered in the spring of 1989 at Gampo Abbey, a Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia founded by Chodron's teacher, Chogyam Trungpa. "The message . . . for the reader," Chodron writes in the book's Preface, "is to be with oneself without embarrassment or harshness. This is instruction on how to love oneself and one's world" (p. x).

This book is nothing less than liberating. It offers the power to awaken your heart, and the power to awaken your courage. "Working with obstacles is life's journey" (p. 68) Chodron tells us. "The purpose of your whole life is not to make a lot of money, it's not to find the perfect marriage, it's not to build Gampo Abbey. It's not to do any of these things. You have a certain life, and whatever life you're in is a vehicle for waking up. If you're a mother raising your children, that's the vehicle for waking up. If you're an actress, that's the vehicle for waking up. If you're a construction worker, that's the vehicle for waking up. If you're a retired person facing old age, that's the vehicle for waking up. If you're alone and you feel lonely and you wish you had a mate, that's the vehicle for waking up. If you have a huge family around you and you wish you had a little more free time, that's the vehicle for waking up. Whatever you have, that's it" (p. 71).

Written before her perhaps better known books, this may be my favorite Pema Chodron title. I have returned to it many times since it was first published in 1991. This is a good dharma book, written with Chodron's characteristic wisdom and clarity.

G. Merritt

This was the first Pema Chodron book I'd ever read and it was transforming! I was familiar with Buddhist teachings prior to reading this, but found that her book made those sometimes complex teachings very accessible. Don't be scared off if you're not Buddhist, however. The principles here give one a different perspective on life--it's a psychological approach rather than a religious approach. Pema Chodron's THE WISDOM OF NO ESCAPE gave me an excitement about exploring my inner world and helped me to see that wherever I'm at in life is okay--I don't have to struggle against the process of Life. It's a book I've returned to time and again.

I read this book after first reading Pema Chodron's more recent dharma book, WHEN THINGS FALL APART (1997). In both of her books, Chodron explains that life's obstacles are actually fine opportunities for wakefulness. I recommend both books, despite their overlap in subject matter.

Working with numerous lojong "slogans," this book is about awakening one's heart through tonglen meditation practice. Chodron writes in the Preface of her book, "if you have ever wondered how to awaken your genuine compassionate heart, this book will serve as a guide" (p. ix). We learn that through tonglen practice, "everything we meet has the potential to help us cultivate compassion and reconnect with the spacious, open quality of our minds" (p. 81).

Life is full of "raw material for waking up" (p. 64). However, it's also up to each of us to wake up, Chodron observes (p. 69). Starting wherever we are in life, Chodron's instructive teachings encourage us to "lighten up" (p. 17; Chapter 15) and allow the world to speak for itself (pp. 25; 29-30). Chodron challenges us to contemplate lojong slogans including: "Always maintain a joyful mind" (p. 92). "Be grateful to everyone" (pp. 8, 56). "Drive all blames into one" (p. 50).

Reading this insightful book is like having a heartfelt conversation with a wise friend. For me, this is what makes reading Pema Chodron such a rewarding experience. If you like the engagement this book offers, I also recommend Jack Kornfield's A PATH WITH HEART and AFTER THE ECSTASY, THE LAUNDRY.

G. Merritt

I absolutely loved this book. I read it for a class about wisdom and of the 10 books we had to read I'm only keeping three; this is one. I didn't know anything about Buddhism before reading this and I don't feel that I need to be a Buddhist in order to benefit from Pema's insights. Her advice for living (taken right from lojong slogans from Buddhist traditions) can be taken on many different levels. I don't feel that you need to go deep into the practice in order to benefit from any of this books teachings. You take from it what you need to. I'm adding my voice to the many here who have praised her, Pema Chodron has written a wonderful, helpful book. If you're in pain emotionally I highly recommend it. If you just want to get some peace in your life I highly recommend it. Everyone needs help coping with living, even if it's just a little. Pema has given us a guide to one way of coping.

I highly recommend Start Where You Are for anyone who is serious about meditation practice and wants an earthy, no frills, no pretentions guide to compassionate living. Pema Chodron stresses that in order to act with compassion toward others, one must start with themselves, openning up that can of worms full of all the messy stuff that we would all rather not fess up to.

At a very difficult time in my life, I just kept starting at the beginning every time I finished reading it. I felt as if I knew Pema Chodron personally by reading her books. And having read everything of Chogyam Trungpa's that I could find prior, I had a strong grasp of the foundation from which she learned, but that is certainly not a prerequisite to benefiting from her teachings.

I would also strongly recommend her earlier book: The Wisdom of No Escape.

What do salty sailors, communists, ad execs, and Tibetan Buddhists have in common? The Power of Slogans! From 'Have a Coke and a Smile' to "Be all that you can Be", the brain loves a good saying. This book is Trungpa's translation of the 59 slogans used to instruct Tibetan Buddhists, with his commentary on each. Trungpa is unassailable as an instructor: the 11th generation of a line of chosen Tibetan Trungpas, he went to oxford on a scholarship and then moved to the US in the 1970's where he founded what remain as among the foremost Buddhist/meditative institutions in the country. I tend to believe Buddhism gained a little more than it lost en route to japan, so I prefer the zen stuff, but this book has a lot to offer anyone. Some nitpicking: For a guy who dedicated his life to bringing jargonless Buddhism to the west, the book is a little full of 'mystical-sounding foreign words' though thankfully the glossary is very fine. And plenty of important Buddha concepts don't shine through (cause and effect, and the big mirror concepts don't get too much play here) so just make sure this isn't the only book you read on the topic. And some of the slogans are simply not too memorable and consequently lose their force; 'always be grateful' is dandy, though 'the mahayana instruction for ejection of consciousness at death is the five strengths' seems like an important one that alas probably won't be dancing off too many tongues at the critical moment. Still this is a fine book, a great book for beginners or advanced alike, coming from any tradition whatsoever. & the small format fits well, making it a great book for commutes or travels. Enjoy! (& remember: just because I didn't like the book as much as you doesn't mean you should vindictively vote against my review!)

It is always amazing to me that more people don't know the wonderful work that Trungpa did in bringing Buddhism to the West. He was a proponent of loving kindness who skillfully assisted thousands in understanding both the basic precepts of Buddhism, and specific traditions of Tibetan Buddhism as they are now practiced in both East and West.

This small format book is a wealth of information -- more than the mere "slogans" which lead each section. It is a careful revelation of principals and practices one usese to train the mind, emphasizing how one can use compassion and intelligence in dealing with everyday situations. A real gem of a book to read and read again.

Bringing Buddhist teachings to a western mind is no easy task. I find that the material in this book clearly allows one to understand Dharma in a crisp and refreshing light. The ability to apply this to the western life is well stated.

This book has resided on the shelf next to my bed for many years and has been read often. Reading through a few reviews at this site it is clear many people are willing to listen to Pema Chodron's uncompromising words about the challenges of being human. For those people seeking a few comforting bromides, who expected a self-help book, this material must surely be unwelcome. But it is far from trite and certainly not depressing. Tibetan Buddhists practice in the charnal grounds not because they're depressives, but because life ends in death for all of us. And charnal grounds in Tibet were places where hacked up bodies were fed to circling vultures...no quickly slipping a deceased body into a casket to avoid confronting the withered body or the odors associated with illness and death for these Buddhists.

When I attended a Pema Chodron lecture some years ago she announced that her favorite manta is "Om, grow up!" It takes great courage to meet life on life's terms and accept responsiblity for our actions. And since life invariably brings challenges associated with disappointment and loss, the work continues to the moment of death. In our addicted society, that is a message all too readily rejected. Pema is not for the faint of heart! But if you intend to claim your aliveness, to risk intimacy, to share joy, her words are worth attending to. Namaste.

This is a wonderful book for anyone, not just for those who feel that things are falling apart. It offers insight into accepting life just as it is, in this moment. The author shares her "wisdom mind" in this concise and compassionate book about finding peace within the fundamental groundlessness of life. I have read the book twice, and now I read a chapter here and there for refreshment and inspiration. Buy this book, and then buy one for someone you care about.

Life's difficult times may be inevitable, but they're not a prerequisite for appreciating the 146 pages of wisdom found in this book. Pema Chodron is the director of Gampo Abbey in Pleasant Bay, Nova Scotia. WHEN THINGS FALL APART pays respect to her teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. We learn in the book's title essay, before becoming a Buddhist nun, Chodron survived the anger of a failed marriage. In truth, she writes, it saved her life (p. 10).

Chodron's experience illustrates the point of the 22 "teachings" contained within this book: "Life is a good teacher and a good friend" (p. 10). Life, Chodron observes, "is like riding a train sitting backwards" (p. 143). Leaning into the sharp points along the way is the kind of instruction we can apply to our lives to bring about "revolutionary changes in how we perceive things" (p. 139). The thorny path through hope, fear, death, loneliness, opinion and chaos should not be avoided. It is the goal.

I have now read Chodron's book twice. It is like a heart-to-heart encounter with an insightful friend. Thank you, Pema Chodron.

G. Merritt