Pema Chödrön

American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun, born 1936 in New York City as Deirdre Blomfield-Brown. She was a married mother of two when her husband told her, unexpectedly, that he was leaving her for another woman. She picked up a stone and threw it at him. Then she sat with the rage. Then she found her way to the Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and, eventually, to ordination. She is the principal teacher and former abbess of Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, in the Shambhala lineage. Her great contribution: bringing the *lojong* (mind-training) slogans of Tibetan Buddhism — especially *tonglen*, the practice of breathing in suffering and breathing out relief — into language that ordinary people in crisis can actually use. Core teaching: do not move away from what hurts. Stay. Lean in. The place that scares you is exactly where the work is. Groundlessness is not a problem to solve; it is the truth to live from. Key works: *When Things Fall Apart*, *The Places That Scare You*, *Start Where You Are*, *Comfortable with Uncertainty*, *Welcoming the Unwelcome*.