book review: the compassion book
02 Oct 2022
The Compassion Book: Teachings for Awakening the Heart by Pema Chödrön
What are the main ideas?
- the 59 lojong slogans are one way to practice making friends with / drawing closer to things that are painful, that we usually want to move away from. that movement towards that which we’d rather escape can generate genuine compassion in us.
- the slogans also teach us to share that which we consider pleasurable or enjoyable. this is in contrast to much of our typical conditioning, which is to hoard those things.
- lojong practice teaches us that everything in our experience, pleasurable or unpleasurable, can be a key to awakening.
If I implemented one idea from this book right now, which one would it be?
be grateful for everything (including suffering).
How would I describe the book to a friend?
this pocket book packs a wallop. it’s short on words and big on depth. it’s absolutely a text that could be worked with over and over again. if i’m honest, many of the slogans refer to things about which i’d have no idea without the commentary. and that’s ok. chödrön shares great and very brief explanations of the references. but it’s a little bewildering to read a sentence like “always abide by the three basic principles.” and then look over to see what they actually are. i think this is just fuel to the fire/awareness of the reality that buddhism in america really is out of context.
reminder: book review structure
words / writing / post-processing
240w / ?min / ?min