Thursday, July 26, 2007

Books: The Pema Chodron Collection


Even people obsessed with organizing and shopping for their homes need a little spirituality now and then. Pema Chodron's collection of works has become the closest thing to scripture for me. In it, she interprets Buddhist teachings in a way that provides guidance for living and coping with emotional stress that is actually practical. I can't tell if Buddhism as interpreted by her is more a religion or a form of psychotherapy, but it is eerie to me how when I crack open this book at night, the words always speak to some problem or inner turmoil with which I'm grappling. I'm not into proselytizing, but her works have been so helpful to me that I think they deserve to be shared. (Pema Chodron was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, in 1936 in New York City and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a now a fully ordained Buddhist nun and prolific author, and directs a monastery in Nova Scotia, Canada. )

No comments: