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Thread: Pema Chödrön

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    Default Pema Chödrön

    She is my favorite contemporary Buddhist teacher right now. Her take on Buddhism tends to be a little more hard-edged than most of the others I've read and heard speak. She speaks of Buddhist practice as one of "warriorhood" - opening fearlessly to our own suffering and neurotic habits and letting vulnerability break through all the barriers we put up to close ourselves to the world. At first I found her books really off-putting and pessimistic, but later I realized there's a lot of truth to what she was saying.

    A few videos:






    "How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."
    -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

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    IEE ?
    ILE "Searcher"
    Socionics: ENTp
    DCNH: Dominant --> perhaps Normalizing
    Enneagram: 7w6 "Enthusiast"
    MBTI: ENTJ "Field Marshall" or ENTP "Inventor"
    Astrological sign: Aquarius

    To learn, read. To know, write. To master, teach.

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    That is a good possibility. My first thought when seeing her picture was that she looked like an EII I know, but she doesn't write or speak like any EII I've ever met. A good comparison would be Jack Kornfield (below) who I definitely think is EII:

    "How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."
    -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

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    One of the types I had thought of for her was actually LSI, so SLE would not be too far off. She reminds me of an LSI philosophy/comparative religion professor I had once. She mentions having somewhat violent tendencies when she was younger - kicking and throwing things and the like, as well as attempting to throw a rock at her husband when she learned he was cheating on her, lol. It made me think of SLEs I know.

    You can actually find some good stuff by her at her publisher's website: Pema Chodron
    "How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."
    -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

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    Yeah TiSe.
    ...the human race will disappear. Other races will appear and disappear in turn. The sky will become icy and void, pierced by the feeble light of half-dead stars. Which will also disappear. Everything will disappear. And what human beings do is just as free of sense as the free motion of elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, feelings? Pure 'Victorian fictions'.

    INTp

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    ILE - ENTp 1981slater's Avatar
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    Her head reminds me of Jack Nicholson's
    ILE "Searcher"
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    I actually finally got around to reading Power of Now. Tolle definitely teaches something very much like Buddhism, but definitely goes about it in a very different way from Chodron. I found Chodron's words speaking to me with a lot more urgency. Tolle seemed to intellectualize a bit too much. One huge difference, however, is that Tolle is a theist (of some sort) and Chodron is an unapologetic nontheist. Likewise, Chodron dramatizes the meditative path (Ni/Se) whereas Tolle does the opposite (Ne/Si). Two telling quotes for comparison:

    "What we're talking about is getting to know fear, becoming familiar with fear, looking it right in the eye -- not as a way to solve problems, but as a complete undoing of old ways of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and thinking. The truth is that when we really begin to do this, we're going to be continually humbled. Fear is a natural reaction of moving closer to the truth. If we commit ourselves to staying right where we are, then our experience becomes very vivid. Things become very clear when there in nowhere to escape."
    -- Pema Chodron

    vs.

    "Fear arises through identification with form, whether it be a material possession, a physical body, a social role, a self-image, a thought, or an emotion. It arises through unawareness of the formless inner dimension of consciousness or spirit, which is the essence of who you are. You are trapped in object consciousness, unaware of the dimension of inner space which alone is true freedom."
    -- Eckhart Tolle

    They both ultimately prescribe similar systems, but go about it quite differently.

    Quote Originally Posted by 1981slater View Post
    Her head reminds me of Jack Nicholson's
    I can't say I see this, lol.
    "How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."
    -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

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