Pema Chodron (1936- )

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“We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.”

Pema Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown 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. Pema has two children and three grandchildren.

After two divorces, Pema traveled to the French Alps and encountered the Tibetan Buddhist Lama, Chime Rinpoche, with whom she studied for several years. She became a novice nun in 1974 while studying with Lama Chime in London. She then met the well-known and controversial teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1972, and studied with him until his death in 1987. Trungpa Rinpoche's son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, appointed Chödrön an acharya (senior teacher) shortly after assuming leadership of his father's Shambhala lineage in 1992.

Pema is currently the resident teacher at Gampo Abbey, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the first Tibetan monastery for Westerners and has authored several books, including Practicing Peace in Times of War, No Time to Lose, The Places that Scare You, When Things Fall Apart, Start Where You Are. Her earthy and heartfelt presentation of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings have made Pema one of the most popular Buddhist teachers in the West today. Pema has herself struggled with life questions many people can relate to, from relationship troubles, parenting, and illness (she has suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for parts of her adult life), which helps make her so appealing and inspiring. She also continues to study the dharma, spending seven months a year in solitary retreat.