It's true, as they say, that we can only love others when we first love ourselves--and we can only experience real joy when we stop running from pain. The key to understanding these truisms is simple but not easy: we must learn to open ourselves up to life in all its manifestations. Here, spiritual teacher and When Things Fall Apart author Pema Chodron presents a uniquely practical approach to doing just that, showing us the true value in having "no escape" from the ups and downs of life.
Drawing from her own experiences with marriage, divorce, motherhood, and more, Pema reveals that when we embrace the happiness and heartache, the inspiration and confusion--all the twists and turns that are part of natural life--we can begin to discover a true wellspring of courageous love that's been within our hearts all along. As she writes in chapter four: "Our neurosis and our wisdom are made out of the same material. If you throw out your neurosis, you also throw out your wisdom."
The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness, Pema Chodron, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 110 Pages, $16.95
Pema Chodron is an American nun and one of the foremost students of Chogyam Trungpa, who appointed her in 1986 to be the director of Gampo Abbey, a Buddhist monastery for Western men and women in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
|
CONTENTS: The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness
|
|
Preface
|
ix
|
|
|
|
1.
|
Loving-Kindness
|
1
|
|
2.
|
Satisfaction
|
5
|
|
3.
|
Finding Our Own True Nature
|
7
|
|
4.
|
Precision, Gentleness, and Letting Go
|
13
|
|
5.
|
The Wisdom of No Escape
|
21
|
|
6.
|
Joy
|
25
|
|
7.
|
Taking a Bigger Perspective
|
29
|
|
8.
|
No such Thing as a True Story
|
35
|
|
9.
|
Weather and the Four Noble Truths
|
41
|
|
10.
|
Not Too Tight, Not Too Loose
|
47
|
|
11.
|
Renunciation
|
55
|
|
12.
|
Sending and Taking
|
61
|
|
13.
|
Taking Refuge
|
71
|
|
14.
|
Not Preferring Samsara or Nirvana
|
81
|
|
15.
|
The Dharma That is Taught and the Dharma That is Experienced
|
89
|
|
16.
|
Sticking to One Boat
|
95
|
|
17.
|
Inconvenience
|
99
|
|
18.
|
The Four Reminders
|
105
|
|
|
|
Bibliography
|
117
|
|
