Pema Chodron - The Doorway to Freedom

www.pemachodrontapes.com. Working with the Different Levels of Shenpa (Getting Hooked). Talk 3 from the Doorway to Freedom, Berkeley, CA 2003. Item V100-3, from Pema Chodron's archivists, Great Path Tapes and Books. gptapes@aol.com. By giving your full attention to what it feels like to be hooked and to relax there -- with kindness and gentleness and wisdom -- you can train in interrupting the momentum of shenpa and the reactivity which follows. Video by Stu Sweetow, www.avconsultants.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• buddhist
• buddhism
• gampo
• abbey
• shenpa
• depression
• addiction
• trungpa
• sakyong
• pema
• chodron

[hornybodhisattva]

pema floors me everytime, her teachings are sooo vast and nuanced. and help me sooo very much.

[600euros]

Why do these videos always cut off!

[missreggae1luv]

And as one confronts their issues, may we be reminded that nothing ever goes away until its taught us what we need to know.

[eotto2001]

@BookandCandle Yeah, I went to Lousy World and that is exactly what was concerning me. I have a friend who studied Pema who has been in a five year depression and always concerned about how this or that is making her world a living hell. When you suggest to her to get treatment, her eyes glaze over more than they already are. It really is externalizing the cause of the pain rather than face it. Be in it but not of it. [Lights went on!]

[eotto2001]

@BookandCandle Thank you for the reply. I went back this video with your wisdom. I still get it. I personally have gone into my pain to find "balance" with it and out of it had clarity. Pema is correct. Reginald Ray says and practices the same thing. It is quite a juggernaut for the individual and people around them. There is an implied goal of dark night soul travel to come to the dawn. Can it be misinterpreted by some to say in depression or pain?

[BookandCandle]

She isn't saying stay in the 'pain' she's teaching that to be able to get clear of "suffering" - our inner made and amplified negativity - we need to be okay with the "pain" - pain being those things we have no control over in life, like death or someone saying mean things. She explains it very well in the "Lousy World" video and the Bill Moyers videos. To put it in a Christian way; "turn the other cheek". Don't take negative things into your self. practice letting it (suffering) go.

[merylste]

Being with your pain does not mean you don't find a way to change the situation. It is being with what IS and make friends with it. Otherwise, our resistance creates a lot of added suffering to the situation. 

[eotto2001]

I appreciate this, however, if one has suffered from serious and debilitating depression or grief -- grief for me -- the idea of staying in it can be a dangerous one. I get the teaching here and embracing the suffering with egolessness of sorts and I have done that, I have had to be watchful of it. My experiences with depression aren't bad as those with chronic depression, but still I look for exit for survival and I don't wish to worship the depression.

[edmediadesigntech]

@lbb67 that is a great insight!

[outjazzer]

this gets closer too me and what i know than almost any other teacher ive heard.

[TadRapidly]

all you have to do is open your heart. Well, actually, your ego thinks that if you do that then you are weak. Thats how it tricks you. So you better not. Better just keep that sucker closed. ;-)