Pema Chödrön (པདྨ་ཆོས་སྒྲོན། padma chos sgron “lotus dharma lamp”; born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, July 14, 1936) is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism[1] and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.[2][3] Chödrön has written several dozen books and audiobooks, and was principal teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia until recently. [3][4] She retired in 2020.[1]
Pema Chödrön | |
|---|---|
 At the Omega Institute, May 2007. | |
| Title | Bhikkhuni |
| Personal | |
| Born | Deirdre Blomfield-Brown July 14, 1936 |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| Children | Edward Bull Arlyn Bull |
| Lineage | Shambhala Buddhism |
| Education | Sarah Lawrence College University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation | resident teacher Gampo Abbey |
| Senior posting | |
| Teacher | Chögyam Trungpa Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche |
| Website | pemachodronfoundation |
Early life and education
Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936 in New York City.[2][5] She grew up Catholic.[5] She grew up on a New Jersey farm with an older brother and sister, and graduated from Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut.[5][6] She obtained a bachelor's degree in English literature from Sarah Lawrence College and a master's degree in elementary education from the University of California, Berkeley.[2]
Career
Chödrön began studying with Lama Chime Rinpoche during frequent trips to London over a period of several years.[2] While in the United States she studied with Trungpa Rinpoche in San Francisco.[2] In 1974, she became a novice Buddhist nun under Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa.[2][7] In Hong Kong in 1981 she became the first American in the Vajrayana tradition to become a fully ordained nun or bhikṣuṇī.[6][8][9]
Trungpa appointed Chödrön director of the Boulder Shambhala Center (Boulder Dharmadhatu) in Colorado in the early 1980s.[10] Chödrön moved to Gampo Abbey in 1984, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in North America for Western men and women, and became its first director in 1986.[4] Chödrön's first book, The Wisdom of No Escape, was published in 1991.[2] Then, in 1993, she was given the title of acharya when Trungpa's son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, assumed leadership of his father's Shambhala lineage.[citation needed]
In 1994, she became ill with chronic fatigue syndrome, but gradually her health improved. During this period, she met Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and took him as her teacher.[2] That year she published her second book, Start Where You Are[2] and in 1996, When Things Fall Apart.[2] No Time to Lose, a commentary on Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, was published in 2005.[11] That year, Chödrön became a member of The Committee of Western Bhikshunis.[12] Practicing Peace in Times of War came out in 2007.[13] In 2016 she was awarded the Global Bhikkhuni Award, presented by the Chinese Buddhist Bhikkhuni Association of Taiwan.[14] In 2020 she resigned from her acharya role from Shambhala International, in part due to the group's handling of sexual misconduct allegations, saying, "I do not feel that I can continue any longer as a representative and senior teacher of Shambhala given the unwise direction in which I feel we are going."[1][15]
Teaching
Chödrön teaches the traditional "Yarne"[16] retreat at Gampo Abbey each winter and the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life in Berkeley each summer.[5] A central theme of her teaching is the principle of "shenpa", or "attachment", which she interprets as the moment one is hooked into a cycle of habitual negative or self-destructive thoughts and actions. According to Chödrön, this occurs when something in the present stimulates a reaction to a past experience.[5]
Personal life
Chödrön married at age 21 and has two children. She divorced in her mid-twenties.[2] She remarried and then divorced a second time eight years later.[2] She has three grandchildren, all of whom reside in the San Francisco Bay Area.[17]
Works
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
One of Chödrön's most famous books is When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times. In her work, Chödrön discusses uncertainty and how to find the good in discomfort.[18] [19]
References
External links
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