How can we live our lives when everything seems to fall apart — when we are continually overcome by fear, anxiety, and pain?
The answer, American Buddhist nun AniPema Chödrön suggests, might be just the opposite of what one expects.
Here, in her most famous and beloved work, Pema shows that moving toward painful situations and becoming intimate with them can open up our hearts in ways we never before imagined.
Drawing from traditional Buddhist wisdom, she offers life-changing tools for transforming suffering and negative patterns into habitual ease and boundless joy. shambhala.com.
Things don't fall apart; it's all just an illusion, right?
What does Pema know?
American Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chodron
Ani Pema Chödrön 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.
The venerable nun was once a hot young hippie
Pema has two children and three grandchildren. While in her mid-30s, 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 16th Karmapa came to Scotland at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him.
Why Welcome the Unwelcome? That's crazy
Pema first met her root guru, [sex scandal ridden cult leader] Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Rinpoche, and it was with him that she ultimately made her most profound connection, studying with him from 1974 until his death in 1987.
At the request of the 16th Karmapa, she received the full bhikshuni (Buddhist nun) ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong.
(Atrocity Guide) June 12, 2023. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, a Jewish college professor (Dr. Frederick Lenz), alleged student of blissful Sri Chinmoy, and self-proclaimed "enlightened" Zen master comedian accumulated a loyal following of meditation students, taking them across the United States on a mission to achieve enlightenment [or at least get rich in this world]. It did not go well.
Cult leader "Zen Master Rama" (formerly Frederick Philip Lenz III, also known as Atmananda, a name handed out to Sri Chinmoy's inner circle of recruiters) lived from Feb. 9, 1950–April 12, 1998, at which time he committed suicide.
He was an American "spiritual leader," scandal monger, author, alleged software designer, and record producer. He founded what he termed "American Buddhism," which incorporated the teachings of Tibetan (Vajrayana) Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Vedanta (Hinduism), mysticism, and a hodgepodge of New Age ideas.
Reborn in San Diego, California, Lenz grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. He faced legal trouble in his youth for marijuana possession, and afterwards — according to his own account — embarked on a spiritual journey in Kathmandu, Nepal.
He attended the University of Connecticut, where he earned a master's degree, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY), where he completed a doctorate degree.
He later studied under various Hindu and Buddhist teachers, most notably Sri Chinmoy, for whom he served as a recruiter for years before breaking away to start his own cult.
Lenz's teachings centered around "enlightenment in the modern world" through the integration of Eastern religious principles into everyday American life.
Some of Lenz's former students accused him of cult activity, including financial and sexual exploitation of his students.
Lenz tried to deny the accusations, and no civil or criminal proceedings were brought against him.
Lenz committed suicide in 1998. After his ignominious death, his $23 million cult estate became the subject of a legal dispute, ultimately leading to the creation of the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism, which has made significant grants to various American Buddhist organizations since 2003. More
From Psychedelics to Service with Ram Dass | Here and Now Podcast, Ep. 216
(Be Here Now Network) Premiered Dec. 27, 2022. Ram Dass Here and Now: Ram Dass (Harvard's Dr. Richard Alpert) explores how his psychedelic "awakening" and quest to always stay "high" on a path to take the curriculum of being human and use service as a means to get free.
To be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now, join the Ram Dass Fellowship virtual meetup on January 3rd at 8:00 pm EST. Sign up for the General Fellowship group to receive more information.
00:00 - A Psychedelic Awakening
15:00 - Take the Curriculum
27:00 - A Path to Service
“That’s the major issue of awakening: You take what was absolutely real and flip it so you see it’s relatively real. And that there are other places you can go that are just as real.” – Ram Dass
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Heart-centered wisdom from Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Krishna Das, and many more!
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Majestic Film's "Summer in Orange" (German translated by Wisdom Quarterly) (MajesticFilm/Flickr.com)
Enlightenment comestoTalbichl. Followers ofBhagwanAmrita ("Blessed Nectar")move fromBerlin to the green Bavarianprovince withchildren in tow. They are going to create a special "treatmentcenter."Primal scream therapy, wholegrain meals...are all thatstandbetween them and the normal family little Lili dreams of.
Lili [Lisa?], sitting in a tree like a homesick deva, feels all alone in her Scandinavian family
But the balancing actbetween "Om"and "Amen" cannot gowell for long."Summer in Orange" is aculture-clashcomedy aboutthe days whenself-awareness, self-expression, andthemainstreamBavarian"soul" all coexisted.
VIMANA: a Sanskrit word with several meanings ranging from celestial mansion, platform, palace, or temple to mythological flying machines described in the Indian epics; an akasha-deva vehicle or "chariot of the gods" is capable of traveling through the air. While Indian mythology speaks of the devas as possessing rapid self-moving chariots or vehicles with which they traverse space, deva or deviwas often used as an honorific by ancient Indians for their highly intellectual, extremely scientific forefathers of now forgotten antiquity. So vimanas as those thought to have been used by Atlanteans are spoken of as being self-moving and carrying their occupants through the air (cf SD 2:427-8). In the Ramayana, aerial vehicles are also mentioned as being used by the rakshasas (asuras or "anti-devas") of Sri Lanka; Ravana's vimana was called Pushpaka.
WQ: Brahmin, as Swami Paramahamsa Nithyananda's personal friend, what can you say about his recent sex scandal?
Of course, it's embarrassing. But there's nothing wrong with sex.
WQ: No, but there is something very wrong with hypocrisy.
Yes, the ancient Vedas do not have anything good to say about that.
WQ: Nithyananda would have been wiser to be like your hero Osho. Did Osho have sex with his devotees?
He never did such things.
WQ: There were allegations, no videotape, but there were allegations.
Nithyanand is young. This indiscretion is a great mistake. Does Buddhism believe in sex as a natural thing?
WQ: Buddhism is fine with sex. It makes a distinction between sex and sexual misconduct. Sex is appropriate for independent, consenting adults. If one is not dependent or under the protection of one's parents, relatives, guardians, religious community, a spouse, or the government, then sex is fine. But under no circumstance is sex fine for a Buddhist monk, nun, novice (a monastic in training), an 8-precept holder, or someone in a meditation retreat where one has vowed to abstain from it.
We don't know what Nithyanand has vowed.
WQ: We do. He represents himself as a celibate saddhu, advocating celibacy, accepting money and property donations from devotees who believe he is a godma, a self-realized guru. That would be great: Let him be like Shri Rajneesh (Osho) and teach sex, because then he wouldn't be a hypocrite. Could you tell him to come out of hiding and start teaching Tantra, spiritual sexuality, and shaktipat. But to be a hypocrite or a deceiver of many good people wanting an honest teacher...
Nithyanand would be wiser to teach like Osho and not be closeted. He has made a mistake.
WQ: He is being accused of more than the one indiscretion caught on video. He is allegedly taking Viagra, drinking, and wasting time watching TV in a luxurious room or hotel by Indian standards. What this is really about is a millionaire and his money.
We all need money. His followers understand.
WQ: Sure. Yet his handlers (and his foundations) are worried about losing their cash cow. Look how they circle the wagons and call their lawyers for advice. How can his temples in America stay open? Who would defend a scoundrel?
WQ: I've seen the video. Have you seen the video? The excuse that it's a conspiracy or something taken out of context... Brahmin, please!
It's embarrassing. But your yoga is good?
WQ: My yoga is fine. Buddhism has eight limbs in the Noble Eightfold Path leading to enlightenment. Yoga has eight limbs (ashtanga) to the Brahma world, to see God, to abide in the Brahma Viharas. This is the Brahminical teaching now.
Yes, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras or aphorisms say there are eight limbs in Raja Yoga.
WQ: One of those limbs is the Restraints (Yamas). A big restraint is brahmacarya (celibacy), literally "the way to Brahma." Nithyananda has clearly attained jhana (dhyana) and is, or was, close to the Brahma World. Why would he fall back?
He is only human. Why do you think he fell?
WQ: I'll tell you why. This is ancient, something the Buddha explained to the Brahmins of his day. Jhana, samadhi, Oneness -- none of these is "enlightenment." They merely suppress the defilements. They don't eradicate them. When they fade, all the base impulses -- lust, anger, self-delusion -- are still there.
And Buddhism has a better answer?
WQ: It has an answer if you want to reach nirvana, complete liberation. If you just want to be liberated from this world and go to heaven(s), it also an answer like so many traditions do. If you want to be born in celestial worlds (in space), follow the Five Precepts or Eight Precepts. But to be born in the Brahma Worlds, celibacy (brahmacarya) is a prerequisite. If at the time of death lust is completely suppressed and only a latent tendency, enter jhana and you will be born among the brahmas ("gods"). Simply having led a good life, if at the time of death one dies peacefully and unconfused, one is reborn as a deva ("shining one," light being). But living for money made by wrong livelihood (Vanijja Sutra) or as a monastic violating the precepts, that won't have a good result.
No one is perfect.
WQ: The Path teaches the way to perfection -- to temporarily purify oneself by right-concentration (samma-samadhi) then to develop liberating-insight (vipassana) based on that temporary purity. It sounds like Nithyananda got to the first step then started selling books and calling himself "enlightened." It's a problem as old as India.
Lord Buddha came from India. His parents were Hindus. He was a Hindu.
WQ: There was no "Hinduism." India had every kind of spirituality. Siddhartha (before the great awakening that made him the Buddha, the "Awakened One") was born into Vedic Brahmanism, the corrupted temple religion of priests promoting superstitious beliefs, elaborate rituals, and Catholic-style indulgences.
By Frances Harrison (BBC religious affairs correspondent)
The producers say the film portrays a fictional faith. Hindus in the US have started a protest against a Hollywood comedy, saying the film will hurt the religious sentiments of millions of Hindus worldwide. More than 5,000 people have signed an online petition protesting against the film Love Guru, starring actor Mike Myers and due to be released on Friday. Some Hindu groups are considering a boycott of Paramount Pictures which produced the film. Paramount says the film does not make reference to any particular religion. The company says Love Guru portrays a purely fictional faith. We all know when you show a person with a sari and a mark on their forehead that will be associated with Hinduism Bhavna Shinde, Sanatan Society. In the film, Myers plays the main character, Guru Pitka -- who is raised by gurus in an ashram in India and then moves to the US to seek fame as a self-help coach resolving the marital problems of a Canadian hockey player. The film includes a character played by the British Iranian comedian Omid Djalili called Guru Satchabigknoba and a hockey player called Coach Cherkov.
"Mythical creation" The argument that it's slapstick and farce rather than real religion doesn't wash with Hindu activists in the US. The premature outcry against the movie is itself religious propaganda Spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra. They say that in the West so little is known about Hinduism that even a parody like Love Guru could be misinterpreted by teenagers and give them a skewed view of the religion. "They should draw a line when it comes to people's faith," says Bhavna Shinde of the Sanatan Society in the US. She is upset that the main character wears sacred Hindu saffron robes and carries holy prayer beads. Mike Myers himself has described the religion he lampoons as a "mythical creation -- it's like the Force in Star Wars." And Paramount Pictures have quoted the spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra rebutting criticism of the film based on only the two-and-a-half-minute trailer. "The premature outcry against the movie is itself religious propaganda," said Mr Chopra.
"Hindu concepts" But Bhavna Shinde is not convinced; indeed, she says it's ironic the film company quotes a man who doesn't even consider himself to be a Hindu. "We all know when you show a person with a sari and a mark on their forehead that will be associated with Hinduism." She argues that terms used in the film like "guru," "karma," and "ashram" are "signature Hindu concepts" clearly pointing to Hinduism. "Which other religion are they talking about?" she asks. So far it's only the trailer that's caused concern - two Hindu groups in the US have complained that they were promised an early screening before the film is released but were never shown it.
In the UK, Paramount Pictures says it will arrange a pre-screening for Hindus before the film opens in August. Hindu activists in the US have appealed to the rating body to change the classification for the film -- which warns some material may be inappropriate for children under 13 years of age -- to make it impossible for anyone under 17 to see it. They've also written protest letters to the Indian Film Censor Board. They say they would have been happy with some kind of disclaimer at the start of the film explaining that it is not a proper representation of Hinduism but complain their views were not listened to.
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