Rachel Binford Binford itibaren Thandwe, Myanmar (Burma) itibaren Thandwe, Myanmar (Burma)

I bought this book over a year ago, when my mother's health issues intensified. The back cover, quoting Publishers Weekly, calls it "the Tiberan Buddhist equivalent of Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People..." While I knew much of the information (thanks to my former yoga teacher, Lesli and other readings), it is information that bears repeating and expansion. The author, Pema Chodron, explains in the introduction that the book is primarily transcripts of lectures that she has given. The book flows well. I especially liked using "thinking" when the mind wanders during mediation to recognize the intrusion of thought, then dismissing those thoughts. A new concept to me is "tonglen": a method for connecting with suffering by breathing in our suffering, of that of a person known, or a stranger, then breathing out the opposite of that pain or suffering - happiness, joy, relaxation. "We're always trying to deny that it's [death] a natural occurence that things change, that the sand is slipping through our fingers. Time is passing. It's as natural as the seasons changing and day turning into night. But getting old, getting sick, losing what we love - we don't see these events as natural occurences." (44) "We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong...Blaming is a way to protect our hearts, to try to protect what is soft and open and tender in ourselves." (81) In dealing with anger or a dilema: "Basically the instruction is not to try to solve the problem but instead use it as a question about how to let this very situation wake us up further rather than lull us into ignorance. We can use a difficult situation to encourage ourselves to take a leap, to step out into that ambiguity." (146)

The further that I delve into this series, the more I am absorbed into it's world. It's wonderful how each book just feels like the continuation of the same story rather than just another story with the same characters as the one before. On to book four!! ^_^

Caris' review killed any desire to read this