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Awakening Compassion: Meditation Practice for Difficult Times
For more than 800 years, Tibetan Buddhists have used the principles of "lojong (literally, "mind training") to transform difficulties into insights, and conflict into genuine communication. "Awakening Compassion is the first audio retreat on the practice of lojong taught by Pema Chodron herself. With many on-the-spot techniques for dealing with jealousy, anger, and fear, this perennial bestseller--now available on CD--is a unique resource for bringing compassion into the world and stopping the cycle of suffering in our own lives.
9 pages, Audio Cassette
First published January 1, 1995
14 people are currently reading
511 people want to read
About the author
Pema Chödrön
187 books5,452 followersAni Pema Chödrön (Deirdre Blomfield-Brown) is an American Buddhist nun in the Tibetan tradition, closely associated with the Kagyu school and the Shambhala lineage.
She attended Miss Porter's School in Connecticut and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She taught as an elementary school teacher for many years in both New Mexico and California. Pema has two children and three grandchildren.
While in her mid-thirties, she traveled to the French Alps and encountered Lama Chime Rinpoche, with whom she studied for several years. She became a novice nun in 1974 while studying with Lama Chime in London. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa came to England at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him.
Ani Pema first met her root guru, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Trungpa, and it was with him that she ultimately made her most profound connection, studying with him from 1974 until his death in 1987. At the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, she received the full bikshuni ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong.
Ani Pema served as the director of the Karma Dzong, in Boulder, CO, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave her explicit instructions on establishing this monastery for western monks and nuns.
Ani Pema currently teaches in the United States and Canada and plans for an increased amount of time in solitary retreat under the guidance of Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.
She attended Miss Porter's School in Connecticut and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She taught as an elementary school teacher for many years in both New Mexico and California. Pema has two children and three grandchildren.
While in her mid-thirties, she traveled to the French Alps and encountered Lama Chime Rinpoche, with whom she studied for several years. She became a novice nun in 1974 while studying with Lama Chime in London. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa came to England at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him.
Ani Pema first met her root guru, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Trungpa, and it was with him that she ultimately made her most profound connection, studying with him from 1974 until his death in 1987. At the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, she received the full bikshuni ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong.
Ani Pema served as the director of the Karma Dzong, in Boulder, CO, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave her explicit instructions on establishing this monastery for western monks and nuns.
Ani Pema currently teaches in the United States and Canada and plans for an increased amount of time in solitary retreat under the guidance of Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
July 17, 2016
This is my favorite-favorite of all of Pema Chodron’s lectures. I haven’t listened to this one in a while, but it was really influential in my total life overhaul last year.
My favorite part of this lecture is Pema Chodron’s description of the Buddhist idea of ego, which is so different, I think, from the western idea of ego, which is more like hubris. But, I do think that the two descriptions are different ways to get at the same thing. They both see ego as something that alienates us from other people.
The Buddhist idea of ego, like everything else in Buddhism, is a way to describe aversion and clinging and the chaos they cause in our lives. She describes it like this: ego is like if you’re in a room you love. The temperature is your perfect temperature, the food is your favorite. Your favorite music is playing and the walls are your favorite color.
But, you suddenly realize that you can hear sounds from outside and there is an uncomfortable breeze, and so you close the window. Then, you realize there’s a little air still coming in under your door, so you put a towel down. You can hear the neighbors through the wall, and so you brick up that wall, and pretty soon you are trapped in your perfect room.
Anything from the outside is threatening to your comfortable space, and you can’t tolerate anything coming into your space or being taken from it.
I’ll tell you about how I’ve seen this play out in my own life with the topic I’m so passionate about right now (as always) – sexism. I used to react when someone said something sexist by pulling into myself and seeking out people who I knew wouldn’t be sexist, jobs that would encourage me to show myself. I assumed I wasn’t welcome where sexism existed, and since I wasn’t welcome, I should go home.
For example, a supervisor said, “Women often have trouble promoting themselves in their resumes.” Even though I listened to his advice about my resume, I decided that this was evidence that so many lawyers just assume women are pushovers. Maybe we are pushovers, I thought. I also thought there are so many benefits to being humble and straightforward about skills and not bragging, but maybe the law and especially men in the law, can’t accept that.
Maybe I don’t belong in the law, I thought. Men in the law were the outside world, they claimed it, and my inclination was to withdraw into my comfortable house and let them have the outside.
But, that was a limitation I was putting on myself; it was not reality. In reality, I can go out into any situation and be safe in my own thinking. Who cares if this guy thinks women have trouble promoting themselves? I don’t have to think that, and him being wrong doesn’t hurt me. My thought that maybe I’m a pushover and don’t belong was super uncomfortable, but that was allll my choice.
I can open my door and step outside, and then I can step back into my comfortable spot when I want to. I can open the window, and then close it again when I’m tired of the outside smells. But, I can still be me no matter what feelings are out there. I can hear someone say that women have trouble with promotion, I can sit with the thought and let my supervisor think it, and I can still not choose to believe it.
So, this is the kind of coaching I’m doing with people now. Transforming their workplace through managing their mind and setting boundaries. It’s the most fun ever. Check me out, and get my free guide to getting the respect you deserve at work!
My favorite part of this lecture is Pema Chodron’s description of the Buddhist idea of ego, which is so different, I think, from the western idea of ego, which is more like hubris. But, I do think that the two descriptions are different ways to get at the same thing. They both see ego as something that alienates us from other people.
The Buddhist idea of ego, like everything else in Buddhism, is a way to describe aversion and clinging and the chaos they cause in our lives. She describes it like this: ego is like if you’re in a room you love. The temperature is your perfect temperature, the food is your favorite. Your favorite music is playing and the walls are your favorite color.
But, you suddenly realize that you can hear sounds from outside and there is an uncomfortable breeze, and so you close the window. Then, you realize there’s a little air still coming in under your door, so you put a towel down. You can hear the neighbors through the wall, and so you brick up that wall, and pretty soon you are trapped in your perfect room.
Anything from the outside is threatening to your comfortable space, and you can’t tolerate anything coming into your space or being taken from it.
I’ll tell you about how I’ve seen this play out in my own life with the topic I’m so passionate about right now (as always) – sexism. I used to react when someone said something sexist by pulling into myself and seeking out people who I knew wouldn’t be sexist, jobs that would encourage me to show myself. I assumed I wasn’t welcome where sexism existed, and since I wasn’t welcome, I should go home.
For example, a supervisor said, “Women often have trouble promoting themselves in their resumes.” Even though I listened to his advice about my resume, I decided that this was evidence that so many lawyers just assume women are pushovers. Maybe we are pushovers, I thought. I also thought there are so many benefits to being humble and straightforward about skills and not bragging, but maybe the law and especially men in the law, can’t accept that.
Maybe I don’t belong in the law, I thought. Men in the law were the outside world, they claimed it, and my inclination was to withdraw into my comfortable house and let them have the outside.
But, that was a limitation I was putting on myself; it was not reality. In reality, I can go out into any situation and be safe in my own thinking. Who cares if this guy thinks women have trouble promoting themselves? I don’t have to think that, and him being wrong doesn’t hurt me. My thought that maybe I’m a pushover and don’t belong was super uncomfortable, but that was allll my choice.
I can open my door and step outside, and then I can step back into my comfortable spot when I want to. I can open the window, and then close it again when I’m tired of the outside smells. But, I can still be me no matter what feelings are out there. I can hear someone say that women have trouble with promotion, I can sit with the thought and let my supervisor think it, and I can still not choose to believe it.
So, this is the kind of coaching I’m doing with people now. Transforming their workplace through managing their mind and setting boundaries. It’s the most fun ever. Check me out, and get my free guide to getting the respect you deserve at work!
June 10, 2016
Awakening Compassion is one of the most important books that I have read or listened to in a long time. I had as many deeply impactful moments listening to this as I have had in a while, and I still missed plenty of what was going on. The most important insight for me was that we are all born with this soft spot in our soul, so tender and vulnerable that we build all sorts of walls around it. We feel the urge to distance ourselves so much from this place, but still recognize the fountain of strength and love that is in that soft spot, that we name it God and push it outside of ourselves and deny our own natures, naming that very soft spot "original sin" because we do so many mean and hurtful things to protect that spot. So we need to find ways to re-approach that soft spot and break down some the walls, but also recognize that this spot only grows and deepens as we approach it so we will never be truly reconciled with it.
That isn't just mumbo jumbo to me, that deeply reflects part of my lived human experience that I have never had words for before. I am very grateful I found this book and will return to it soon.
That isn't just mumbo jumbo to me, that deeply reflects part of my lived human experience that I have never had words for before. I am very grateful I found this book and will return to it soon.
October 9, 2021
I’ve been a student of Pema Chodron’s books and videos for about 25 years now. I’ve always resonated with her Tibetan Buddhist teachings and her calm, seasoned delivery of the principles and practices she has mastered as an ordained Buddhist nun. Recently, I’ve been particularly called to her audio workshops as a way to re-instill some of the things I have learned from her through her books and from the rare opportunity to see her in person. This 7 hour live presentation did much to bring me back to a more centered and balanced place amidst so much of the current chaos that is going on in our lives now. It’s a nice reminder that finding a little peace within is really the only way to deal with things about which we have so little control.
May 7, 2024
Maybe the most important collection of Pema’s right now. Awakening the bodhicitta, practicing tonglen. Things I never imagined myself learning about much less practicing and recommending, but it’s 2024 and the world is going through some things. As of this writing, more than 14,500 children killed in Gaza since October 7. FOURTEEN THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED CHILDREN. I recommend that everyone listen to this audiobook now.
July 17, 2022
POOOOOOOL UP. As the law states, if its nice you play it twice (and take notes).
October 31, 2017
Formative for my thinking, in particularly how to make peace with my suffering.
September 6, 2017
Pema Chödrön offers here an advanced workshop of several challenging practices that enable us to better encounter those people and situations that bring out the worst in us. The confrontations in life by others that push our buttons. Offering us practitioners a way to "widen the circle of compassion" to include everyone; that certainly includes enemies, strangers, and friends, and include those same people in one's meditations and thoughts of joy, hoping they, too, can feel this wonderful experience.
The slogans begin with "The point where all Dharmas agree", "Drive all Blames into One", "Be grateful to everyone". Effectively, how other people enable us to perfect our patience, anger control, and compassion, particularly those that irritate us most. So often a person's practice of meditation and the teachings is often isolated away from others that think or act differently. The perfect wisdom to live in the world, and function with one's doors and windows open to the world, yet with boundaries.
Then she moves to another set of Tonglen, and qualities of the Bodhichitta
Presented with lectures, and question period.
The slogans begin with "The point where all Dharmas agree", "Drive all Blames into One", "Be grateful to everyone". Effectively, how other people enable us to perfect our patience, anger control, and compassion, particularly those that irritate us most. So often a person's practice of meditation and the teachings is often isolated away from others that think or act differently. The perfect wisdom to live in the world, and function with one's doors and windows open to the world, yet with boundaries.
Then she moves to another set of Tonglen, and qualities of the Bodhichitta
Presented with lectures, and question period.
May 8, 2017
Combine a voice that sounds a little like Teri Gross, a self-deprecating laugh, and wisdown--you've got Pema Chodron's workshops recorded on the audio book. I just bought one of her books, but I'm glad I was introduced to this Buddhist nun through her own words. I have been practicing yoga on and off most of my life, dabbling in meditation, but wanting something more. This book, which tackles the particular kind of practice called lojong; not everyone may appreciate this, but it's a very good fit for me. I appreciate that I feel like I'm really being asked to think about this approach, not just adopt it, and that I have to struggle to really understand how this works for the individual and society. I appreciate this more than the "7 ideas to get yourself together" kind of bromides that are so typical today. Highly recommend, but I think it's a personal fit, and may not be for everyone.
May 3, 2018
I got this to learn a bit more about Tonglen practice - essentially taking in the pain of others and releasing something positive to them and the universe. There's a lot to absorb and digest in this, and I can probably learn from it in future listenings. Some practical information - She goes through "slogans" of the practice, and early on she says "and the last slogan," which kind of threw me until I recognized that it was the last slogan for the session that was being recorded and that more slogans would appear in recordings of other sessions. I'm so glad she's been recorded so those of us who can't be with her in person have a chance to experience and learn from her. Her teachings have certainly helped me in my recent journey.
May 1, 2018
She seemed to ramble on several topics. When asked questions by the students she didn't have an answer for many of the questions and she also said that you should get a teacher, however, they probably won't have answers either. She seemed friendly enough and the students loved her. I guess I needed to be there and then maybe it would have been better.
Also I'm not sure about sucking in other people's bad vibes to make the world a better place. To be fair Chodron did say that the practice may not make the world better but it makes the practitioner better.
Also I'm not sure about sucking in other people's bad vibes to make the world a better place. To be fair Chodron did say that the practice may not make the world better but it makes the practitioner better.
August 9, 2017
A practical, useful teaching of some of the Lojong slogans. Audio from several talks she gave during retreats. Pema has a reputation in my mind of a soft fluffy buddhist teacher. This talk changed my mind. She is down to earth and mired with the same problems as everyone. Well maybe not exactly the same but close. This is part of my continued exploration of Lojong. She emphasized Tonglen Meditation. This is part of Lojong Practice and I'll have to incorporate it. Recommended.
January 22, 2022
Another wonderful book from Pema Chodron who suggest ways in which you can practice compassion and change your mind set from feeling your doing the practice wrong to just doing the practice and knowing that everyone has difficulties. Like I've said before, I like that Pema Chodron includes herself when she says that sometimes things can be difficult, but also I like how she shows you how to change your mind set. She makes me laugh and teaches at the same time.
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April 22, 2021This wasn't an audiobook, but rather a recorded workshop. It was nice to hear the teachings directly from Pema. She is so funny and makes the strange language of the slogans so easy to relate to. I always feel so inspired after listening to her. I could probably listen again and again and still forget and get off track.
January 12, 2025
A compilation of recorded retreat sessions, Pema Chodron provides accessible and practical teaching on managing emotions and transforming one’s mindset, particularly in difficult circumstances. Infused with humor and everyday examples, the conversational style presentations offer, wisdom, examples, and practice opportunities to grow self-awareness, “awaken compassion,” and enhance communication.
March 27, 2021
I cannot recommend anything Pema Chodron enough. Listened to a little of this each morning on my run as a meditation. That is how I have listened to all of her books. A great way to start the day and learn or remember to open, love yourself, and others.
March 31, 2024
if you listen to as much Pema as I do, things can get a bit repetitive, so it's always a delight to get more than her basic tan lin practices. this also dives into lonjin practice and a bit deeper into groundlessness in wider applications. definitely one of favorite.
May 24, 2018
They call it enlightenment for a reason.
January 13, 2020
This was my first "encounter" with Pema Chödrön. I loved her humour and humility. This series of teachings contain some precious gems. I look forward to learning more with Pema.
May 4, 2020
A lot of information but it was just kinda meh for me
May 6, 2020
I think a global pandemic qualifies "for difficult times." Lots of great and practical advice here for changing thought and behavior patterns.
January 2, 2021
I am a huge devotee of Pema Chodron. A generous, compassionate, humble guide to navigating this crazy life. read this one twice this year.
January 27, 2021
One of my favorites. The practices Pema describes in this book changed my relationship to pain.
March 17, 2021
A powerful yet peaceful series of lectures and Q&A from Pema, this holds great tips for healing and processing what gets in the way of compassion.
August 22, 2021
This volume brings clarity, compassion, and context to these practices.
February 4, 2022
Infinitely helpful---I've turned to these talks at least 3 of the most critical turning points of my life. And they are healing!
October 14, 2022
Audio quality wasn’t great and maybe I wasn’t in a place for this to be as potent as it could have been.
February 17, 2023
Good book focused on a specific meditations on address stress and anxiety in difficult times
May 7, 2023
At this point, I'm comfortable saying Pema Chodron is my favorite person in the world.
January 31, 2024
It doesn’t get any better than Pema. So far this has been my favorite book from her.
May 28, 2024
succinct and precise
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews