Pema Chödrön | |
|---|---|
 At theOmega Institute for Holistic Studies, May 2007. | |
| Title | Bhikkhunī |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Deirdre Blomfield-Brown (1936-07-14)July 14, 1936 (age 89) |
| Children | Edward Bull Arlyn Bull |
| Education | Sarah Lawrence College University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation | resident teacherGampo Abbey |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| Lineage | Shambhala Buddhism |
| Senior posting | |
| Teacher | Chögyam Trungpa Dzigar KongtrulRinpoche |
| Website | pemachodronfoundation |
Pema Chödrön (Standard Tibetan:པདྨ་ཆོས་སྒྲོན།,romanized: padma chos sgron,lit. 'lotus dharma lamp'; bornDeirdre Blomfield-Brown, July 14, 1936) is an American-bornTibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, formeracharya ofShambhala Buddhism[1] and disciple ofChögyam TrungpaRinpoche.[2][3] Chödrön has written several dozen books and audiobooks, and was principal teacher atGampo Abbey inNova Scotia until recently.[3][4] She retired in 2020.[1]
Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936 inNew York City.[2][5] She grew upCatholic.[5] She grew up on aNew Jersey farm with an older brother and sister, and graduated fromMiss Porter's School inFarmington, Connecticut.[5][6] She obtained a bachelor's degree inEnglish literature fromSarah Lawrence College and a master's degree in elementary education from theUniversity of California, Berkeley.[2]
Chödrön began studying withLamaChime Rinpoche during frequent trips to London over a period of several years.[2] While in the United States she studied withTrungpa Rinpoche in San Francisco.[2] In 1974, she became a novice Buddhist nun underRangjung Rigpe Dorje, the sixteenthGyalwa Karmapa.[2][7] In Hong Kong in 1981 she became the first American in theVajrayana tradition to become a fully ordained nun orbhikṣuṇī.[6][8][9]
Trungpa appointed Chödrön director of the Boulder Shambhala Center (Boulder Dharmadhatu) in Colorado in the early 1980s.[10] Chödrön moved toGampo 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 ofacharya when Trungpa's son,Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, assumed leadership of his father'sShambhala lineage.[citation needed]
In 1994, she became ill withchronic fatigue syndrome, but gradually her health improved. During this period, she metDzigar 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 onShantideva'sGuide 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 fromShambhala 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]
Chödrön teaches the traditional "Yarne"[16] retreat atGampo Abbey each winter and theGuide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life inBerkeley 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]
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.[17]
One of Chödrön's most famous books isWhen Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times. In her work, Chödrön discusses uncertainty and how to find the good in discomfort.[18][19]
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