Early on in her clinical practice, psychoanalyst Pilar Jennings was presented with a particularly difficult case: a six-year-old girl who, traumatized by loss, had stopped speaking. Challenged by the limitations of her training to respond effectively to the isolating effect of childhood trauma, Jennings takes the unconventional path of inviting her friend Lama Pema a kindly Tibetan Buddhist monk who experienced his own life-shaping trauma at a very young age into their sessions. In the warm therapeutic space they create, the young girl slowly begins to heal. The result is a fascinating case study of the intersection of Western psychology and Buddhist teachings. Pilar's story is for therapists, parents, Buddhists, or any of us who hold out the hope that even the deepest childhood wounds can be the portal to our capacity to love and be loved.

To Heal a Wounded Heart, Pilar Jennings,Shambhala Publications, 2017, Paperback, $18.95

Lama Lodo was born in Sikkin in 1939. At the age of eight he entered a monastery to study the traditional subjects of the Karma Kagyu tradition: reading, writing, religious texts, singing and dancing. At fifteen he met Drupon Tenzin Rinpoche, who was the great meditation master of the The-Yak Monastery and a teacher of His Holiness the sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa. With his teacher's blessing, Lama Lodo eventually began the traditional three-year retreat, which is a requirement of becoming a lama. Unfortunately, both student and teacher became ill during this time. Tenzin Rinpoche directly contriubted to Lama Lodo's recovery, but died himself.

The lineage-holder of the Karma Kagyu tradition, H. H. Karmapa, intervened during this painful period in Lama Lodo's life. Since he was without a teacher and his study seriously interrupted. Lama Lodo was directed by His Holiness to seek a new teacher in the Very Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, who has been called "The great master of this age." Very soon Lama Lodo was able to pass his examinatioin and begin a new retreat. He contracted tuberculosis, but was able to complete his recovery and retreat by viewing the illness as the purification of bad karma.

Lama Lodo has spent the years since then giving insturciton in meditation, dharma and puja. In 1974, H. H. Karmapa and Kalu Rinpooche sent Lama Lodo to the West. He has tuaght in Belgium, Germany Holland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden, and since 1976 has been in residence as Senior Spiritual Teacher at the Kagyu Droden Kunchabe Center in San Francisco. He teaches extensively on the West Coast.