Author(s): Pema Chodron

Mind/Body/Spirit

What if the full sense of our aliveness were only to be found in the labyrinth of our most challenging times and difficult experiences? Amid pain and crisis, teaches Pema Chodron, there lies a hidden miracle, a doorway to freedom that appears to us only when we're sure that there is no way out.
In these intimate audio learning sessions, Pema Chodron begins by helping us to distinguish the "triggers" or external events that we blame for our suff ering from the deeper habitual patterns that are feeding our anger, fear, or sadness. From this understanding, we then learn how to free ourselves from our propensity to suff er through the transformative awareness of impermanence-the dynamic and ever-shifting nature of both joy and suff ering, self and selfl essness-and the absolute and eternal fl ow from which all of it arises.
"What is causing my pain? What will happen if I simply lean in, keep company with it, hold it with tenderness?" Moment by moment, Pema supports and encourages listeners to bring an open-hearted sense of curiosity and welcoming to our apparently impossible situations or unbearable relationships-to discover the deeper freedom available just beneath the surface.
For those experiencing emotional crisis, When Pain Is the Doorway provides expert guidance to help us stop, stay present, and enter into a more welcoming, spacious place of being that is our true home.