Pema Chödrön: A Life of Wisdom & Compassion
For decades, Pema Chödrön has offered deeply practical teachings for meeting life as it is — not by turning away from difficulty, but by opening our hearts in the very places where we usually close down.
In this special commemorative edition, Pema Chödrön: A Life of Wisdom & Compassion, Lion’s Roar celebrates Pema’s 90th birthday with a rich collection of her life story, essential teachings, conversations, meditations, and guidance for working with fear, uncertainty, pain, compassion, and change.
This beautifully curated issue offers both an intimate portrait of one of the most beloved Buddhist teachers of our time and a practical guide to bringing her teachings into everyday life.
Learn from Pema’s life, path, and most essential teachings
Born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in New York City in 1936, Pema Chödrön’s path was shaped by heartbreak, spiritual searching, and a profound commitment to practice. In this issue, Andrea Miller traces Pema’s journey from student and mother to Buddhist nun, author, teacher, and senior teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia.
Readers will also find classic teachings from Pema herself, including practical guidance on pausing, opening to uncertainty, working with painful emotions, cultivating compassion, and discovering the freedom available in ordinary life.
A practical guide for difficult times
Pema’s teachings are beloved because they invite us to begin exactly where we are — with our fear, tenderness, anger, grief, confusion, longing, and love.
In this special issue, you’ll find teachings to help you:
- Develop courage in uncertain times
- Work with painful emotions without shutting down
- Practice compassion toward yourself and others
- Use meditation to open to life as it is
- Transform difficulty into a path of awakening
- Reconnect with the tenderness and wisdom already present in your heart
Inside the Issue
Explore three sections of teachings, practice guidance, and reflections.
A Life Well-Lived
Begin with Pema’s life story and the experiences that shaped her teachings. This section includes Andrea Miller’s profile “Becoming Pema,” as well as classic conversations with bell hooks and Margaret Wheatley.
Highlights include:
- Becoming Pema — Andrea Miller on Pema’s early life, spiritual search, ordination, connection with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and role in establishing Gampo Abbey.
- Cultivating Openness When Things Fall Apart — A powerful conversation between bell hooks and Pema Chödrön on compassion, racism, suffering, accountability, and the courage to keep the heart open.
- How to Move Forward Once You’ve Hit Bottom — Pema tells the story of asking Trungpa Rinpoche for help when her life had fallen apart, and receiving his unforgettable teaching about standing up after being knocked down by the waves.
Awakening to Compassion
This section gathers some of Pema’s most accessible and transformative teachings on mindfulness, meditation, loving-kindness, lojong, tonglen, and the path of compassion.
Highlights include:
- Waking Up to Your World — Pema teaches the simple practice of pausing, taking three conscious breaths, and creating gaps in the momentum of habitual thought.
- Take Three Conscious Breaths — A short, practical meditation for reconnecting with the present moment anywhere: in bed, making tea, standing in line, or moving through a busy day.
- How Lojong Awakens Your Heart — A practical introduction to mind-training slogans that use life’s difficulties as raw material for awakening compassion.
The Dharma Path
In the final section, Pema offers clear, plainspoken teachings on Buddhist practice, bodhichitta, spiritual progress, and showing up fully for life.
Highlights include:
- How to Appreciate Your Life — Just As It Is — Pema explores how our labels shape our experience and how appreciation can open us to the richness of ordinary life.
- Bodhichitta: The Excellence of Awakened Heart — A teaching on the courageous, tender heart that longs to wake up for the benefit of others.
- Signs of Spiritual Progress — Pema challenges our usual ideas of progress and invites a more compassionate, honest relationship with practice.
Celebrate 90 years of Pema Chödrön’s life and work with this special issue.
Whether you have loved Pema Chödrön’s teachings for years or are just discovering her work, this issue offers a generous introduction to her life, her path, and her most essential teachings.
Return to it when life feels uncertain, read it when your heart feels closed, and use it as a guide for meditation, reflection, and practicing compassion in everyday life.