When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times Author: Pema Chodron | Language: English | ISBN:
B00BBXJH2C | Format: PDF
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times Description
The beautiful practicality of her teaching has made Pema Chödrön one of the most beloved of contemporary American spiritual authors among Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. A collection of talks she gave between 1987 and 1994, the book is a treasury of wisdom for going on living when we are overcome by pain and difficulties. Chödrön discusses:
- Using painful emotions to cultivate wisdom, compassion, and courage
- Communicating so as to encourage others to open up rather than shut down
- Practices for reversing habitual patterns
- Methods for working with chaotic situations
- Ways for creating effective social action
- File Size: 320 KB
- Print Length: 164 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1570623449
- Publisher: Shambhala Publications (September 14, 2010)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00BBXJH2C
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,305 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Buddhism > Tibetan - #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Eastern - #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Other Eastern Religions > Eastern Philosophy
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Buddhism > Tibetan - #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Eastern - #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Other Eastern Religions > Eastern Philosophy
I was just finishing this book in September 2001 when the events of 9-11 turned the world upside down, and things truly fell apart. There suddenly were all the vulnerable feelings that Pema Chödrön encourages us to embrace: fear, sorrow, loneliness, groundlessness. And in the days of shock and grief that followed, there was that brief and abundant display of "maitri," or loving kindness, which emerged in waves of generosity and compassion for one another. For a while, we were in the world that she points to as an alternative to the everyday routine of getting, spending, and constant activity.
It is nearly impossible to summarize or characterize this fine book. In some 150 pages it covers more than a person could hope to absorb in many years, if not a lifetime. We may know the Buddha's famous insight that human pain and suffering result from desire and aversion. But few writers have been able to articulate as well as Chödrön the implications of that insight in ways that make sense to the Western mind. As just one example from this book, her discussion of the "six kinds of loneliness" (chap. 9) illustrates how our desires to achieve intimacy with others are an attempt to run away from a deep encounter with ourselves. Our continuing efforts to establish security for ourselves are a denial of fundamental truths, which prevents our deep experience of the joy of living. Our reluctance to love ourselves and others closes down our hearts.
Chödrön invites us to be fascinated, as she is, by paradox. On hopelessness and death (chap. 7) she writes: "If we're willing to give up hope that insecurity and pain can be exterminated, then we can have the courage to relax with the groundlessness of our situation. This is the first step on the path.
I'm giving this very good book one star so I can join the one-star people here at the bottom, and say something in reply to their anger and despair. They are angry at Trungpa and then at Pema, because the message coming from the former and followed by his disciple is, you cannot escape the pain of your obsessions unless you are willing to lose them. Meditation is not a soothing massage after which you can jump right back into the habits that harmed you in the first place. What kind of progress are you making, then? And what is continued bondage to obsession, but despair?
Whether or not you practice Buddhism as a religion, there is no sense in practicing it unless you understand your personal goals to be caught up in compassion. A number of the complainers here talk about depression as a good reason to turn away from others and seek some kind of palliative numbness. Do that if you want to, but in time you will find yourself disappointed with your practice, and distracted by your anxiety and selfishness, which will continue to threaten you. You will find yourself drawn, after all, to compassion. If it was good enough for the Buddha, it should be good enough for you. Your depression and those distractions are one and the same thing, and compassion is the key to unlocking them, and dissolving the depression while turning away from selfishness and your inventory of reasons for anger. This is all very good advice, and I've done a spotty job of following it, but my own progress in alleviating depression has, without question, begun with compassion for the people I perceived as my enemies. You can choose to be healthy or sick, but you can't choose to be healthy while hanging on to the habits that made you sick in the first place.
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