Creating a Culture of Tenderness: Embracing Our Kinship wit All of Life

Description

Recorded live at an evening event to benefit Homeboy Industries, the teaching in this program - including talks by Pema Choedroen and Fr. Greg Boyle, as well as questions and dialogues with audience members - explore the power of kinship, and how we can cultivate courage and compassion in the midst of life's greatest challenges. Pema Choedroen is a world-renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher and author who has inspired millions through her example and message of wisdom and compassion, even in the face of difficulty. Greg Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries, which is marking its 30th anniversary of witnessing to the fundamental human truth that there is no us and them, only us. Here, Pema and Greg share teachings on cultivating positive connections with others and personal strength through vulnerability - and consciously creating the lives and world we want to share.

Pema Choedroen Ani Pema Choedroen was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936, in New York City. 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, Ani Pema 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 Scotland at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him. Pema first met her root guru, Choegyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Rinpoche, 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 Karma Dzong in Boulder, Colorado until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Choegyam 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. Ani Pema is interested in helping establish Tibetan Buddhist monasticism in the West, as well as continuing her work with Western Buddhists of all traditions, sharing ideas and teachings. Her nonprofit, The Pema Choedroen Foundation, was set up to assist in this purpose. She has written several books: The Wisdom of No Escape, Start Where You Are, When Things Fall Apart, The Places That Scare You, No Time to Lose, Practicing Peace in Times of War, How to Meditate, and Living Beautifully. All are available from Shambhala Publications and Sounds True.