This audiobook by Pema Chödrön, the renowned American Buddhist nun, offers short, stand-alone sections designed to help us cultivate compassion and awareness amid the challenges of daily living. More than a collection of thoughts for the day, Comfortable with Uncertainty offers a progressive program of spiritual study, leading the reader through essential concepts, themes, and practices on the Buddhist path. 

Comfortable with Uncertainty does not assume prior knowledge of Buddhist thought or practice, making it a perfect introduction to Chödrön’s teachings on lovingkindness, meditation, mindfulness, “nowness,” letting go, and working with fear and other painful emotions. Through the course of this audiobook, listeners will learn practical methods for heightening awareness and overcoming habitual patterns that block compassion.

El termino chino para la palabra “crisis” consta de dos ideogramas: uno significa dificultad; el otro, oportunidad. La ancestral sabiduria china refleja de este modo que, ademas de conflictivos, los tiempos de crisis son tambien tiempos “adecuados” que encierran la oportunidad y la promesa de nuevas y mas amplias posibilidades. Con esta obra calida, llena de aliento y de consejos sabios, aprenderemos a reconocer que la vida es siempre un buen maestro y un buen amigo, incluso en los momentos mas criticos. Y que esos momentos dificiles, cuando uno se siente descentrado y todo parece derrumbarse, constituyen una situacion ideal para crecer y madurar, pues nos permiten librarnos de las actitudes y creencias erroneas que nos mentenian atrapados, y expandir el corazon y la mente mas alla de nuestros antiguos limites.

We live in difficult times. Life sometimes seems like a roiling and turbulent river threatening to drown us. Why, in the face of that, shouldn’t we cling for safety to the certainty of the shore—to our comfortably familiar patterns and habits? Because, Pema Chödrön teaches, that kind of fear-based clinging leads only to even greater suffering. 

In this recorded retreat, based on the program Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change held at Omega Institute, Pema Chödrön and her teaching assistant, Meg Wheatley, provide a wealth of wisdom for learning to step right into the river: to be completely, fearlessly present even in the hardest times, the most difficult situations.  It’s the secret of being fully alive. The teachings and practices they present includes: 

   • A teaching based on a Native American prophecy for cultivating the ability to take nothing personally 
   • A guided meditation for developing patience in the midst of irritation 
   • Tips for accessing your innate strength and confidence—simply by altering your posture

The best-selling author and beloved Buddhist teacher shares her insights on the practice of compassion and enlightened mind (bodhichitta).

COMPASSION IS A SKILL. It’s not a special trait that we either have or don’t, but a practice that we can all nurture in our daily lives. And the benefits are vast. It liberates our hearts from a narrow sense of self, expands our sense of well-being, and so much more. Of course, it’s not always easy. But when we learn to work with our adversities and fears, whatever it is that might be keeping us stuck, then we find that we gradually and naturally become more open, joyful, and free. And it is this very freedom that enlivens us and allows us to become truly available to the people around us.
In this recorded retreat, Pema Chödrön reveals all the essentials for practicing compassion in our everyday lives, using a text that is very close to her heart: the Buddhist classic known as The Way of the Bodhisattva. Here she focuses on its first chapter and primary subject, the enlightened heart and mind (bodhichitta), showing us how this awakened state is available to us here and now, right where we are.

Over the years, Pema Chödrön’s books have offered an exciting new way of living: developing fearlessness, generosity, and compassion in all aspects of their lives. In No Time to Lose Pema invites listeners to venture further along the path of the “bodhisattva warrior,” explaining in depth how we can awaken the softness of our hearts and develop true confidence amid the challenges of daily living. 

Pema reveals the traditional Buddhist teachings that guide her own life: those of The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara), a text written by the eighth-century sage Shantideva. This treasured Buddhist work is remarkably relevant for our times, describing the steps we can take to cultivate courage, caring, and joy—the keys to healing ourselves and our troubled world. Pema offers us a highly practical and engaging commentary on this essential text, explaining how its profound teachings can be applied to our daily lives.

With war and violence flaring all over the world, many of us are left feeling vulnerable and utterly helpless. In this book Pema Chödrön draws on Buddhist teachings to explore the origins of aggression, hatred, and war, explaining that they lie nowhere but within our own hearts and minds. She goes on to explain that the way in which we as individuals respond to challenges in our everyday lives can either perpetuate a culture of violence or create a new culture of compassion. 

“War and peace begin in the hearts of individuals,” declares Pema Chödrön at the opening of this inspiring and accessible audiobook. She goes on to offer practical techniques any of us can use to work for peace in our own lives, at the level of our habits of thought and action. It’s never too late, she tells us, to look within and discover a new way of living and transform not only our personal lives but our whole world.

We all have fears, but when we look closely at them, we discover that behind each fear resides a basic fear of ourselves. We’re afraid to look at our habitual styles of thinking and behaving because we might not always like what we see. Ironically it is this fear of honest self-reflection that keeps us trapped in patterns of stress and discontentment. Here is a vision for moving beyond this most basic fear to discover the innate bravery, trust, and joy that reside at the core of our being. In this recorded retreat, Pema Chödrön shares teachings inspired by the book Smile at Fear, which was written by her teacher Chögyam Trungpa. She, and her teaching assistant, Carolyn Rose Gimian, also share practices they received from Trungpa Rinpoche for courageously meeting ourselves in the present moment, including: 
•    The Windhorse Practice: a three-step meditation on awakening confidence 
•    Spiritual Warrior training for meeting life with courage and compassion 
•    Meditation instruction for calming the mind and developing concentration

Two of the world’s most beloved spiritual teachers and leading figures in the Shambhala tradition of Buddhism discuss the core principles and practices of the tradition and how personal meditation practice can forge an enlightened society.

Best-selling authors Pema Chödrön and Sakyong Mipham get to the heart of Shambhala practice in this recorded retreat on the ways that inner peace and bravery can help us cultivate compassionate action and positive societal change. They offer insight on the inherent strength and goodness of humanity and on how each of us can tap into that strength through meditation practice. Sakyong Mipham provides guided practices on core Shambhala meditations for developing courage, love for others, and respect for others’ basic human dignity; Pema Chödrön teaches extensively on how personal spiritual practice relates to community betterment; and a compelling panel discussion with Shambhala teacher Adam Lobel and Episcopal Rev. Marc Handley Andrus reviews how the retreat’s teachings can be brought to bear in today’s interconnected global society.

We always have a choice, Pema Chödrön teaches: We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us and make us increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder. Here Pema provides the tools to deal with the problems and difficulties that life throws our way. This wisdom is always available to us, she teaches, but we usually block it with habitual patterns rooted in fear. Beyond that fear lies a state of openheartedness and tenderness. This audiobook teaches us how to awaken our basic goodness and connect with others, to accept ourselves and others complete with faults and imperfections, and to stay in the present moment by seeing through the strategies of ego that cause us to resist life as it is.