Awakening Loving-Kindness

Awakening Loving-Kindness

by Pema Chödrön
Awakening Loving-Kindness

Awakening Loving-Kindness

by Pema Chödrön

eBook

$10.99 

Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

Inspiration and encouragement for cultivating kindness—by embracing the joy, suffering, confusion, and brilliance of our everyday lives—from the author of When Things Fall Apart

Do you want to be a more compassionate person, confident and unafraid to love yourself and the world around you unconditionally, but aren’t sure how? We often look far and wide for guidance to become better people, as though the answers were somewhere out there. But Pema Chödrön suggests that the best and most direct teacher for awakening loving-kindness is in fact your very own life.
 
Based on talks given during a one-month meditation retreat at Gampo Abbey, where Pema lives and teaches, her teachings here focus on learning how to see the events of our lives as the perfect material for learning to love ourselves and our world playfully and wholeheartedly—and to live in our skin fearlessly, without aggression, harshness, or shame. This is instruction for embarking on the greatest adventure of all, to come alive to your inherent human kindness.


“Perhaps what makes Pema's message resonate so strongly with people, no matter what their religion or spiritual path, is its universality.” O, The Oprah Magazine

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780834821194
Publisher: Shambhala
Publication date: 11/05/1996
Series: Shambhala Pocket Classics
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 208
Sales rank: 816,004
File size: 447 KB

About the Author

PEMA CHÖDRÖN is an American Buddhist nun in the lineage of renowned Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa and resident teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, the first Tibetan monastery in North America established for Westerners. She is the author of many books and audiobooks, including the best-selling When Things Fall Apart and Don't Bite the Hook.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter
1: Loving-Kindness

There's
a


common
misunderstanding among all the human beings who have ever been born on the
earth that the best way to live is to try to avoid pain and just try to get
comfortable. You can see this even in insects and animals and birds. All of us
are the same.

A
much more interesting, kind, adventurous, and joyful approach to life is to
begin to develop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our
inquisitiveness is bitter or sweet. To lead a life that goes beyond pettiness
and prejudice and always wanting to make sure that everything turns out on our
own terms, to lead a more passionate, full, and delightful life than that, we
must realize that we can endure a lot of pain and pleasure for the sake of
finding out who we are and what this world is, how we tick and how our world
ticks, how the whole thing just
is.
If
we're committed to comfort at any cost, as soon as we come up against the least
edge of pain, we're going to run; we'll never know what's beyond that
particular barrier or wall or fearful thing.

When
people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they
often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle
aggression against who they really are. It's a bit like saying, "If I
jog, I'll be a much better person." "If I could only get a nicer
house, I'd be a better person." "If I could meditate and calm down,
I'd be a better person." Or the scenario may be that they find fault with
others; they might say, "If it weren't for my husband, I'd have a perfect
marriage." "If it weren't for the fact that my boss and I can't get
on, my job would be just great." And "If it weren't for my mind, my
meditation would be excellent."

But
loving-kindness—maitri—toward ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything.
Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be
angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of
feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves.
Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become
something better. It's about befriending who we are already. The ground of
practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That's the
ground, that's what we study, that's what we come to know with tremendous
curiosity and interest.

Sometimes
among Buddhists the word ego is used in a derogatory sense, with a different
connotation than the Freudian term. As Buddhists, we might say, "My ego
causes me so many problems." Then we might think, "Well, then, we're
supposed to get rid of it, right? Then there'd be no problem." On the
contrary, the idea isn't to get rid of ego but actually to begin to take an
interest in ourselves, to investigate and be inquisitive about ourselves.

The
path of meditation and the path of our lives altogether has to do with
curiosity, inquisitiveness. The ground is ourselves; we're here to study
ourselves and to get to know ourselves now, not later. People often say to me,
"I wanted to come and have an interview with you, I wanted to write you a
letter, I wanted to call you on the phone, but I wanted to wait until I was
more together." And I think, "Well, if you're anything like me, you
could wait forever!" So come as you are. The magic is being willing to
open to that, being willing to be fully awake to that. One of the main
discoveries of meditation is seeing how we continually run away from the
present moment, how we avoid being here just as we are. That's not considered
to be a problem; the point is to see it.

Inquisitiveness
or curiosity involves being gentle, precise, and open—actually being able to
let go and open. Gentleness is a sense of goodheartedness toward ourselves.
Precision is being able to see very clearly, not being afraid to see what's
really there, just as a scientist is not afraid to look into the microscope.
Openness is being able to let go and to open.

The
effect of this month of meditation that we are beginning will be as if, at the
end of each day, someone were to play a video of you back to yourself and you
could see it all. You would wince quite often and say "Ugh!" You
probably would see that you do all those things for which you criticize all
those people you don't like in your life, all those people that you judge.
Basically, making friends with yourself is making friends with all those people
too, because when you come to have this kind of honesty, gentleness, and
goodheartedness, combined with clarity about yourself, there's no obstacle to
feeling loving-kindness for others as well.

So
the ground of maitri is ourselves. We're here to get to know and study
ourselves. The path, the way to do that, our main vehicle, is going to be
meditation, and some sense of general wakefulness. Our inquisitiveness will not
be limited just to sitting here; as we walk through the halls, use the
lavatories, walk outdoors, prepare food in the kitchen, or talk to our
friends—whatever we do—we will try to maintain that sense of aliveness,
openness, and curiosity about what's happening. Perhaps we will experience what
is traditionally described as the fruition of maitri—playfulness.

So
hopefully we'll have a good month here, getting to know ourselves and becoming
more playful, rather than more grim.



Table of Contents

Preface xi

1. Loving-Kindness 1
2. Satisfaction 8
3. Finding
Our Own True Nature
13
4. Precision,
Gentleness, and
Letting
Go
24
5. The
Wisdom of No Escape
44
6. Joy 49
7. Taking
a Bigger Perspective
55
8. No
Such Thing as a True Story
69
9. Weather
and the Four Noble Truths
79
10. Not
Too Tight, Not Too Loose
91
11.
Renunciation
111
12. Sending
and Taking
123
13. Taking
Refuge
143
14. The
Four Reminders
163

Bibliography 191
Resources 192



What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"These teachings are simple, earthy, and alive. Pema's deep experience and her fresh way of looking at things are like mountain water—clear and refreshing, as good Dharma should be."—Jack Kornfield, co-author of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews