Books : The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 294.3444
EAN: 9781570624094
ISBN: 1570624097
Label: Shambhala
Manufacturer: Shambhala
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: August 21, 2001
Publisher: Shambhala
Release Date: August 21, 2001
Sales Rank: 117619
Studio: Shambhala
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
In The Places That Scare You, Pema Chödrön continues the teachings of When Things Fall Apart, showing how at the core of the most painful experiences lie the seeds of spiritual awakening. Here she presents key teachings on recognizing and cultivating the "soft spot" that is the gateway to compassion and open-heartedness. In this book she discusses: The four great catalysts of awakening, and how to integrate them into our lives Why the "soft spot" is necessary for spiritual awakening The basic goodness that is inherently ours How the three noble principles can enrich everything we do The maitri meditation that multiplies love Why an attitude of "don't know" can be wiser than the world's greatest spiritual teachings How to keep the heart open with equal fearlessness to both heartache and delight
Amazon.com Review:
Pema Chödrön may have more good one-liners than a Groucho Marx retrospective, but this nun's stingers go straight to the heart: "The essence of bravery is being without self-deception"; "When we practice generosity, we become intimate with our grasping"; "Difficult people are the greatest teachers." These are the punctuations to specific teachings of fearlessness. In The Places That Scare You, Chödrön introduces a host of the compassionate warriors' tools and concepts for transforming anxieties and negative emotions into positive living. Rather than steeling ourselves against hardship, she suggests we open ourselves to vulnerability; from this comes the loving kindness and compassion that are the wellsprings of joy. How do we achieve it? Through meditation, mindfulness, slogans, aspiration, and several other practices, such as tonglen, which is taking in the pain and suffering of others while sending out happiness to all--emphasis on the all. Chödrön introduces each of these practices in turn, backing them up with succinct practical reasoning and a framework of ideas that offers fresh interpretations of familiar words like strength, laziness, and groundlessness. Chödrön is the type of person you'd like to have with you in an emergency, and to deal with the extremes of daily life. In her absence, The Places That Scare You will do nicely. --Brian Bruya
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
In a nutshell, if you don't want to bring awareness to the places in yourself you avoid and would rather not deal with awakening, do not listen to or read this book.
If you are interested in a brilliantly written perspective on compassionate spiritual awakening, then by all means get it and listen or read it over and over. We are so blessed to live in a time where we have teachers like Pema Chodron to give us instruction on how to bring awareness to our habitual thinking that keep us stuck. Yes, it can be frightening to look within with such scrutiny, but Pema reminds us that we can intend to begin our inquiry from a compassionate and accepting place.Self condemnation for what we find in ourselves is a trap and another mental agonizer.
I have seemed to be addicted to drama and unhappiness all my life.
I have been on a spiritual and personal growth path for 20 years.
The longer I live the more I realize that my own thinking keeps driving me to dead ends of pain and suffering. I am at a point where the only thing left to do is surrender my mind as best as I can. Thankfully, I have teachers like Pema to light the way a bit for me.
Rating:  -
There is something repellant, even repulsive, about the religious mind. We cannot escape the world, however much we dislike it: it is a violent, often ugly place, dominated by the stupid; and however far we flee from it, these unpleasantries inevitably find us out, we cannot run far enough or fast enough. Show me your attachment to the beautiful and the good, indeed, show me your love of peace, and I will show you beauty adulterated and good compromised; and I will expose your peace as a forgery that hides your hatred of life. The religious mind, when it perceives this contradictory and chaotic quality of existence, sees in it an opportunity to perform a trick of ethical magic. If one is good, if one is clarified, if one is just in every action, if one will only turn the other cheek, behold, nothing will ever die, pain will cease, and the horrible will be rectified. Alas, good friends, the truth is quite otherwise: he who turns his cheek is beaten and crucified. And he who cries for justice, will weep in earnest by way of reckoning.
It is the weak who fear the strong; it is the good who inspire in others evil. In this world one either eats or is eaten, and no amount of sympathy, pity, or compassion will adulterate the predatory core of being itself. And books like this are authored by charlatains, who try to take away your fear by denying the necessity for it.
I give you two instances of this religious magic: Ms. Chodron informs us of an elderly ... Read More
Rating: -
I love listening to this tape. I put it on and start it over again when it is done. I find it totally inspiring to listen to the writing of this wise Buddhist monk.
My only criticism is that the woman who reads the book (beautiful voice, by the way). She pronounces the word "strength" omitting the 'g' sound. This was horribly annoying to me. I grew up pronouncing the 'g' and it sounds prissy and pompous to omit the 'g' sound.
Rating: -
I loved this book -- it's practical and prescriptive. I applied her advice into both my personal and professional life. Next steps -- I will read her entire collection.
Rating:  -
Pema Chrodon's work is, as always is an insightful read about human nature and emotions and how we come to term with those emotions. I found the focus on the bodhichitta and the different sayings fascinating as well as enjoying further revelations about Buddhist beliefs and spirituality. All of what she writes is applicable to living life and facing the fears any of us could face.
The only reason this is a four instead of a five is because you can find a lot of what she writes in here, in her other works. It still makes for good reading, but reading one of her works seems to get to heart of all of her writing.
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