Chodron, Pema
"Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and becoming something better. It's about befriending who we are already." (01/15/2022)
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Pema Chödrön | |
|---|---|
 At the Omega Institute, May 2007. | |
| Title | Bhikkhuni |
| Personal | |
| Born | Deirdre Blomfield-Brown July 14, 1936 |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| Children | Edward Bull Arlyn Bull |
| Lineage | Shambhala Buddhism |
| Education | Sarah Lawrence College University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation | resident teacher Gampo Abbey |
| Senior posting | |
| Teacher | Chögyam Trungpa Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche |
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Ani Pema Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936, in New York City. 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.
While in her mid-thirties, Ani Pema 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 Scotland at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him.
Pema first met her root guru, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Rinpoche, 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.
Ani Pema served as the director of Karma Dzong in Boulder, Colorado until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave her explicit instructions on establishing this monastery for western monks and nuns.
Ani Pema currently teaches in the United States and Canada and plans for an increased amount of time in solitary retreat under the guidance of Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. She is also a student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the oldest son and lineage holder of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Ani Pema is interested in helping establish Tibetan Buddhist monasticism in the West, as well as continuing her work with western Buddhists of all traditions, sharing ideas and teachings. Her non-profit, The Pema Chödrön Foundation, was set up to assist in this purpose.
She has written several books: The Wisdom of No Escape, Start Where You Are, When Things Fall Apart, The Places that Scare You, No Time To Lose,Practicing Peace in Times of War, How to Meditate, and Living Beautifully. All are available from Shambhala Publications and Sounds True.
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Pema Chödrön (པདྨ་ཆོས་སྒྲོན། padma chos sgron “lotus dharma lamp”; born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, July 14, 1936) is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism[1] and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.[2][3] Chödrön has written several dozen books and audiobooks, and was principal teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia until recently. [3][4] She retired in 2020.[1]
Early life and education
[edit]Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936 in New York City.[2][5] She grew up Catholic.[5] She grew up on a New Jersey farm with an older brother and sister, and graduated from Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut.[5][6] She obtained a bachelor's degree in English literature from Sarah Lawrence College and a master's degree in elementary education from the University of California, Berkeley.[2]
Career
[edit]
Chödrön began studying with Lama Chime Rinpoche during frequent trips to London over a period of several years.[2] While in the United States she studied with Trungpa Rinpoche in San Francisco.[2] In 1974, she became a novice Buddhist nun under Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa.[2][7] In Hong Kong in 1981 she became the first American in the Vajrayana tradition to become a fully ordained nun or bhikṣuṇī.[6][8][9]
Trungpa appointed Chödrön director of the Boulder Shambhala Center (Boulder Dharmadhatu) in Colorado in the early 1980s.[10] Chödrön moved to Gampo Abbey in 1984, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in North America for Western men and women, and became its first director in 1986.[4] Chödrön's first book, The Wisdom of No Escape, was published in 1991.[2] Then, in 1993, she was given the title of acharya when Trungpa's son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, assumed leadership of his father's Shambhala lineage.[citation needed]
In 1994, she became ill with chronic fatigue syndrome, but gradually her health improved. During this period, she met Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and took him as her teacher.[2] That year she published her second book, Start Where You Are[2] and in 1996, When Things Fall Apart.[2] No Time to Lose, a commentary on Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, was published in 2005.[11] That year, Chödrön became a member of The Committee of Western Bhikshunis.[12] Practicing Peace in Times of War came out in 2007.[13] In 2016 she was awarded the Global Bhikkhuni Award, presented by the Chinese Buddhist Bhikkhuni Association of Taiwan.[14] In 2020 she resigned from her acharya role from Shambhala International, in part due to the group's handling of sexual misconduct allegations, saying, "I do not feel that I can continue any longer as a representative and senior teacher of Shambhala given the unwise direction in which I feel we are going."[1][15]
Teaching
[edit]Chödrön teaches the traditional "Yarne"[16] retreat at Gampo Abbey each winter and the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life in Berkeley each summer.[5] A central theme of her teaching is the principle of "shenpa", or "attachment", which she interprets as the moment one is hooked into a cycle of habitual negative or self-destructive thoughts and actions. According to Chödrön, this occurs when something in the present stimulates a reaction to a past experience.[5]
Personal life
[edit]Chödrön married at age 21 and has two children. She divorced in her mid-twenties.[2] She remarried and then divorced a second time eight years later.[2] She has three grandchildren, all of whom reside in the San Francisco Bay Area.[17]
Works
[edit]When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
[edit]One of Chödrön's most famous books is When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times. In her work, Chödrön discusses uncertainty and how to find the good in discomfort.[18] [19]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Famed Buddhist nun Pema Chodron retires, cites handling of sexual misconduct allegations against her group's leader". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Andrea Miller (October 20, 2014). "Becoming Pema". Lion's Roar. Retrieved 2014-10-21.
- ^ a b "Ani Pema Chödrön". Gampo Abbey. Archived from the original on 2013-03-24. Retrieved 2014-10-21.
- ^ a b Susan Neunzig Cahill (1996). Wise Women: Over Two Thousand Years of Spiritual Writing by Women. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 377. ISBN 0-393-03946-3.
- ^ a b c d e Bill Moyers and Pema Chödrön . August 4, 2006
- ^ a b Haas, Michaela (2013). "Dakini Power: Twelve Extraordinary Women Shaping the Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism in the West". Snow Lion. ISBN 1559394072, p. 123.
- ^ Fabrice Midal (2005). Recalling Chögyam Trungpa. Shambhala Publications. p. 476. ISBN 1-59030-207-9.
- ^ Sandy Boucher (1993). Turning the Wheel: American Women Creating the New Buddhism. Beacon Press. pp. 93–97. ISBN 0-8070-7305-9.
- ^ James William Coleman (2001). The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition. Oxford University Press. p. 150. ISBN 0-19-515241-7.
- ^ Boucher (1993) pp. 96-97
- ^ Pema Chödrön (2005), No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva, Boston: Shambhala, ISBN 1-59030-135-8
- ^ "The Committee of Western Bhikshunis: Ven. Bhiksuni Pema Chödrön". thubtenchodron.org. Sep 17, 2006. Archived from the original on 2014-10-21. Retrieved 2014-10-21.
- ^ "Practicing Peace In A Time Of War". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- ^ "8 North American Buddhist nuns, including Pema Chödrön and Thubten Chodron, receive "Global Bhikkhuni Award" - Lion's Roar". Lionsroar.com. 2016-11-10. Retrieved 2016-12-10.
- ^ "Letter from Ani Pema Chödrön". shambhalatimes.org. 2020-01-16.
- ^ Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India: Their History and Contribution to Indian Culture. George Allen and Unwin Ltd, London 1962. pg 54
- ^ Staff Writer (Interview). "Oprah Talks to Pema Chödrön". Oprah.com. Harpo Productions. Retrieved Dec 1, 2015.
- ^ Zimmerman, Edith (2019-09-17). "The Woman Who Convinced Me That Bad Things Are Actually Good". The Cut. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
- ^ "When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron". www.publishersweekly.com. 1998-02-03. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
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