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Pema Chödrön

Pema Chödrön

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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New York CityUnited States

What they did here

DOCUMENTED: born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936; worked as a schoolteacher before turning to Buddhism.

About New York City

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.

Across the traditions, in New York City at the same time

See other sages who lived in New York City

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Pema Chödrön’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

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.