Pema Chodron

Pema is a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, but she wasn’t born that way. Instead she lived a full life first including being a single mum before realising that there was a happier and more fulfilling way to live. She has written a number of books and meditation CDs, some of which are listed below or you can access more details via her website – http://pemachodronfoundation.org/.

The Wisdom of No Escape: How to Love Yourself and Your World

We spend our lives trying to control and making things happen in a certain way but this is actually very destructive and not helpful. The easiest way to live is actually to let life flow and accept what happens to ourselves and the world around us, rather than judging, resisting and controlling. This book is Pema’s guide to doing that.

The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness

Life often feels very scary and uncertain. This is natural although our natural tendency is to resist it the fear and seek certainty and security. Buddhist teachings give us an alternative way to deal with it through training the mind. Tibetan Buddhism has a set of ‘slogans’ or points to remember and these will help ease our fear. But this book also provides a very good overview of the whole suite of Buddhist teachings.

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

This book developed from a collection of talks given by Pema focusing on loving-kindness and compassion – but for ourselves as much as anything. We need to start with ourselves and develop an understanding of the world around us and how it has become the way it has. This book will help us with that as well as helping us to see our role in it.

Start Where You Are: How to accept yourself and others

The starting point of this book is a Tibetan Buddhist poem called ‘7 Points in Training the Mind’, but it’s really about acceptance and how the things that face us in the world are the things that will help us to experience the world in a new way and find peace. Rather than fighting and controlling events and people, we can open to what they offer, thus making our lives richer and happier as a result.

Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears

Many of us get caught up in ways of thinking and behaving that are unhelpful but that we don’t seem to be able to break free of. It’s as if we are trapped in a pattern and can’t see the way out. This little book investigates some of the causes of these patterns – or ‘shenpas’ as Pema calls them – and provides guidance on how to free ourselves from them.