In The Courage to Love the World, Pema Chodron shares her most recent teachings on tonglen, a revered Tibetan Buddhist meditation for connecting with our own suffering and that of others. While it may seem counterintuitive, Pema teaches that by welcoming suffering, we are able to transform it as we overcome our fear of pain and dissolve the armour of self-protection around our hearts. Breathe in for all of us and breathe out for all of us, teaches Pema. Use what seems like poison as medicine, as a path to compassion for all beings. This four-part series includes Pema's insightful, heartfelt, and often humorous stories about tonglen, along with direct instruction and guided meditations.


The Courage to Love the World, Pema Chodron, Sounds True, 4 hours 49 min/ 4 CDs, $29.95

Ani Pema Chdrn 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.