Welcoming the Unwelcome
Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
From the bestselling author of When Things Fall Apart, an open-hearted call for human connection, compassion, and learning to love the world just as it is during these most challenging times.
In her first new book of spiritual teachings in over seven years, Pema Chödrön offers a combination of wisdom, heartfelt reflections, and the signature mix of humor and insight that have made her a beloved figure to turn to during times of change. In an increasingly polarized world, Pema shows us how to strengthen our abilities to find common ground, even when we disagree, and influence our environment in positive ways. Sharing never-before told personal stories from her remarkable life, simple and powerful everyday practices, and directly relatable advice, Pema encourages us all to become triumphant bodhisattvas--compassionate beings--in times of hardship.
Welcoming the Unwelcome includes teachings on the true meaning of karma, recognizing the basic goodness in ourselves and the people we share our lives with--even the most challenging ones, transforming adversity into opportunities for growth, and freeing ourselves from the empty and illusory labels that separate us. Pema also provides step-by-step guides to a basic sitting meditation and a compassion meditation that anyone can use to bring light to the darkness we face, wherever and whatever it may be.
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Chodron (Practicing Peace), a Buddhist teacher and bestselling poet, asks readers in this exquisite meditation to consider distinctions between the self and the other that can lead to polarization and suffering. To do so, she writes, one must sublimate personal motivations in favor of bodhicitta; roughly translated as the "awakened heart-mind," bodhicitta is an aspiration to help others and a commitment to know oneself. Chodron targets what she sees as growing animosity within modern society, and teaches that, because reality is impermanent, the ego must struggle and harden against the "brokenheartedness of suffering" by being "open to our own discomfort." Rather than losing one's awareness by being "hooked" by constant attention to one's suffering, Chodron advises readers to "stay upright with... vulnerability" and to "connect with the unbiased open space" of basic goodness. She offers instructions for sitting meditation, tonglen meditation, and LESR (locate, embrace, stop, and remain) as concrete practices. While her only practical advice relates to meditation practices, Chodron asks readers throughout to remain with the fear and anxiety of groundlessness that is the very source of polarization. For her, such practice transforms the present moment from harmful habits to fresh opportunities. Though Chodron treads familiar territory, her trademark tenacity and wisdom provide meditative practices and convincing rationale for more empathetic living.
