Pema Chödrön

Template:Short description Template:Infobox religious biography Pema Chödrön (Template:Langx; born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, July 14, 1936) is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism<ref name="exacharya">Template:Cite news</ref> and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Template:Lang.<ref name=lion/><ref name="gampoabbey">Template:Cite web</ref> Chödrön has written several dozen books and audiobooks, and was principal teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia until recently. <ref name="gampoabbey"/><ref name="Cahill">Template:Cite book</ref> She retired in 2020.<ref name="exacharya"/>

Early life and education

Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936 in New York City.<ref name=lion/><ref name="pbs"/> She grew up Catholic.<ref name="pbs"/> She grew up on a New Jersey farm with an older brother and sister, and graduated from Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut.<ref name="pbs"/><ref name="Dakini Power">Haas, Michaela (2013). "Dakini Power: Twelve Extraordinary Women Shaping the Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism in the West". Snow Lion. Template:ISBN, p. 123.</ref> 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.<ref name=lion>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

Stupa of Enlightenment at Chodron's Gampo Abbey

Chödrön began studying with Lama Chime Rinpoche during frequent trips to London over a period of several years.<ref name=lion/> While in the United States she studied with Trungpa Rinpoche in San Francisco.<ref name=lion/> In 1974, she became a novice Buddhist nun under Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa.<ref name=lion/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Hong Kong in 1981 she became the first American in the Vajrayana tradition to become a fully ordained nun or bhikṣuṇī.<ref name="Dakini Power"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Trungpa appointed Chödrön director of the Boulder Shambhala Center (Boulder Dharmadhatu) in Colorado in the early 1980s.<ref>Boucher (1993) pp. 96-97</ref> 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.<ref name="Cahill"/> Chödrön's first book, The Wisdom of No Escape, was published in 1991.<ref name=lion/> 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.Template: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.<ref name=lion/> That year she published her second book, Start Where You Are<ref name=lion/> and in 1996, When Things Fall Apart.<ref name=lion/> No Time to Lose, a commentary on Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, was published in 2005.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> That year, Chödrön became a member of The Committee of Western Bhikshunis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Practicing Peace in Times of War came out in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016 she was awarded the Global Bhikkhuni Award, presented by the Chinese Buddhist Bhikkhuni Association of Taiwan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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."<ref name="exacharya" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Teaching

Chödrön teaches the traditional "Yarne"<ref>Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India: Their History and Contribution to Indian Culture. George Allen and Unwin Ltd, London 1962. pg 54</ref> retreat at Gampo Abbey each winter and the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life in Berkeley each summer.<ref name="pbs"/> 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.<ref name="pbs">Bill Moyers and Pema Chödrön . August 4, 2006</ref>

Pema Chödrön giving a talk from her book No Time to Lose, 2005

Personal life

Chödrön married at age 21 and has two children. She divorced in her mid-twenties.<ref name=lion/> She remarried and then divorced a second time eight years later.<ref name=lion/> She has three grandchildren.<ref name="Oprah Interview">Template:Cite web</ref>

Works

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Profile at the Pema Chödrön Foundation