I read it straight through (slowly) from beginning to end, but it's the kind of book you can pick up at random anytime, read a few pages and have your day enriched. Now that I've read it once, I'm sure I will do just that, and often! The short passages make for great bedtime reading too. ( )

I’ve reviewed a couple of Pema’s previous books. The present book is a compendium of small extracts from her various works.

Pema is an American Buddhist nun who studied with the Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa.

What is different about her writings is that she writes not as though she is enlightened but a person just like us with everyday problems and negative feelings.

Pema tells us that we already have everything we need and are “one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.”

Whether we are violent, depressed, addicted or jealous, or even hate ourselves, these are good places to start – just where we are.

We should accept ourselves completely as we are.

Difficulty is inevitable. We cannot escape the reality of death, and there are also the realities of “aging, of illness, of not getting what we want, and of getting what we don’t want”.

What causes misery is always trying to avoid pain and seek happiness.

When we feel” depressed, lonely, betrayed, or any unwanted feelings, this is an important moment on the spiritual path. This is when real transformation can take place.”

We are never separated from enlightenment, never alienated from the awakened state.

Loving-kindness, or maitri, doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. “The point is not to try to change ourselves. --- it’s about befriending who we are already.”

Everything that occurs is actually the path itself. We can use everything as the means for waking up.

The root of aggression and suffering is ignorance. We ignore our kinship with others. “One reason we train as warrior-bodhisattvas is to recognize our interconnectedness – to grow in understanding that when we harm another, we are harming ourselves.”

“In cultivating loving-kindness, we train first to be honest, loving and compassionate toward ourselves.”

As we train in opening our hearts, “we gradually feel more joy, the joy that comes from a growing appreciation of our basic goodness”.

“The key is to be here, fully connected with the moment, paying attention to the details of ordinary life.”

We learn that we should never have expectations for other people, just be kind to them.

We must allow ourselves to feel what we feel and not push it away. This means accepting every aspect of ourselves, even the parts we don’t like.

Life is both glorious and wretched. Wretchedness softens us up considerably. "Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person.”

The above will give you an impression of Pema’s teachings. This little book is well worth reading, but I admit I prefer to read the full versions of her books.

I’ll leave you with a final quote: “Enlightenment is not the end of anything. Enlightenment, being completely awake, is just the beginning of fully entering into we know not what.” ( )

Thank you for selecting me a winner in the giveaway.

I had heard of Pema for a very long time but not being a Buddhist, I did not express much interest in reading her work. I do suffer from BPD and I find that some of the mindfulness, compassion and self compassion writings to be quite helpful in taming turbulent emotions and outburst. It was a valuable read.

I struggle with fear, something she pushes you to overcome and I am a believer in hope, something she does not seem too keen on, hence the 4 star rating rather than 5.

Perfect for followers of Buddhism. ( )