The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
Gampo Abbey (Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton) · 2001
1936 CE · Modern · New York City
b. July 14, 1936 (living)
Pema Chödrön (b. Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, 1936) is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun and a senior teacher in the Shambhala lineage founded by Chögyam Trungpa. Ordained as a novice in 1974 and taking full bhikṣuṇī ordination in 1981—among the first American women in the Vajrayāna tradition—she became the founding director of Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia in 1984. She is widely read for accessible books such as When Things Fall Apart, drawing on the mind-training (lojong) and compassion teachings. She continues to teach.
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DOCUMENTED: born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936; worked as a schoolteacher before turning to Buddhism.
New York City, in the United States. In the 20th century its theological institutions—notably Union Theological Seminary—hosted figures such as Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr and visitors including Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Orthodox theologian Georges Florovsky.
Sokei-an (Shigetsu Sasaki), B. R. Ambedkar, Alan Watts, Robert Thurman, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sharon Salzberg
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Pema Chödrön’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Sokei-an (Shigetsu Sasaki), B. R. Ambedkar, Alan Watts, Robert Thurman, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sharon Salzberg
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pema Chödrön’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Gampo Abbey (Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton) · 2001
Gampo Abbey (Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton) · 1997