Pema Chödrön — When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

I’m so thrilled to share the book When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Time with you. This book has been recommended on my podcast many times — but I never felt inclined to read it. The summer of 2022 brought some earth-shaking events in my life and I felt called to get a copy of this book.

This book has helped me to embrace fears, acceptance of life as is, learning to sit with the discomfort. I’ve read this book dozens of times almost every week. Depending on what’s going on with me — I pick up a paragraph, sit with it, and feel the sadness, disappointment, anger, or whatever is flowing through me.

I share a small excerpt from this book.

“Relaxing with loneliness is a worthy occupation. As the Japanese poet Ryokan says, “if you want to find the meaning, stop chasing after so many things”

“To stay with that shakiness — to start with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge — that is the path of true awakening”.

“This very moment is the perfect teacher”

“When we find ourselves in a mess, we don’t have to feel guilty about it. Instead, we could reflect on the fact that how we relate to his mess will be sowing the seeds of how we relate to whatever happens next”

Pema Chodron 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. Pema has two children and three grandchildren.

While in her mid-thirties, 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 Sixteenth Karmapa came to England at that time, and Pema received her ordination from him.

Book link: When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Time

Thanks for reading. You can learn more about me at https://nishantgarg.me