This is an indispensable handbook for cultivating fearlessness and awakening a compassionate heart. With insight and humor, Pema Chodron, author of The Wisdom of No Escape, presents down-to-earth guidance on how to make friends with ourselves and develop genuine compassion toward others. The author shows how we can "start where we are" - embracing rather than denying the painful aspects of our lives. Pema Chodron frames her teachings on compassion around fifty-nine traditional Tibetan Buddhist maxims, or slogans, such as:
* "Always apply only a joyful state of mind"
* "Don't seek others' pain as the limbs of your own happiness"
* "Always meditate on whatever provokes resentment"
* "Be grateful to everyone"
Working with these slogans and through the practice of meditation, Start Where You Are shows how we can all develop the courage to work with our own inner pain and discover joy, well-being, and confidence.


Start Where You Are, Pema Chodron, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 157 pages, $14.95

Pema Chodron is an American Buddhist nun and one of the foremost students of Chogyam Trungpa, the renowned meditation master. She is director of Gampo Abbey, in Nova Scotia, the first Tibetan monastery in North America establied for Westerners. Ani (a Tibetan honorific for a nun) has written many books, and has recorded on DVD, Video, Cd's and Cassettes many teachings, such as The Places That Scare You, Comfortable With Uncertainty, The Wisdom of No Escape, Start Where You Are, and the best seller, When Things Fall Apart.

	Contents: START WHERE YOU ARE - A Guide to Compassionate Living
	Preface	ix
	Acknowledgments	xiii
1.	No Escape, No Problem	3
2.	No Big Deal	11
3.	Pulling Out the Rug	17
4.	Let the World Speak for Itself	22
5.	Poison as Medicine	28
6.	Start Where You Are	33
7.	Bringing All That We Meet to the Path	44
8.	Drive All Blames into One	50
9.	Be Grateful to Everyone	56
10.	Cutting the Solidity of Thoughts	63
11.	Overcoming Resistance	70
12.	Empty Boat	78
13.	Teaching for Life and Death	82
14.	Loving-Kindness and Compassion	88
15.	Lighten Up	92
16.	Abandon Any Hope of Fruition	96
17.	Compassionate Action	101
18.	Taking Responsibility for Your Own Actions	109
19.	Communication from the Heart	115
20.	The Big Squeeze	122
21.	High-Stakes Practice	132
22.	Train Wholeheartedly	140
	Appendix: The Root Text of the Seven Points of Training the Mind	145
	Bibliography	149
	Resources	151
	Index of Slogans	155