Customer Reviews

Getting Unstuck

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Pema Chodron offers some sound, beautiful ideas on how to cope with not only addictive behavior, but basically anything in life that you just plain don't like. Her lovely, grounded voice is a pleasure to listen to, she's damned funny, and I've found myself listening to the ideas on this CD over and over as I make my way through the often hostile streets of Manhattan. It's like a primer in how to stay clear and calm and grounded in life, no matter how lousy (or terrific) your circumstances may be.

I normally find authors audio series very disappointing. Not this one. I am a huge fan of Pema Chodron's work. She is a great example of someone willing to do the work to shift and change and create a better world around her. In typical fashion, she isn't offering you a blind eye to the painful or negative things in your life. She teaches you how to step into it and allow your own energy to shift and change the negativity. Truly an inspiring piece of work. When you do this work, reality doesn't intrude... it offers you the way out.

I became interested in Pema Chodron's teachings a few months ago, and continue to be amazed by her simple way of describing things that philosophers, psychiatrists, and academics would take volumes to hint at.

The teachings themselves I appreciate; after zillions of years of every kind of self-help known to womankind, these ideas and instructions are an enormous relief. This isn't a review of Buddhism, or this lineage within Buddhism. This isn't a review of this particular set of CDs. I wouldn't know how to do any of these things. I do know that after hearing countless talks and seminars and audiobooks of all kinds, I appreciate accuracy, clarity, generosity, and suggestions I can use immediately. I listen to these CDs over and over, and love them more every time.

Getting Unstuck consists of three audio CD's recorded at Gampo Abbey. Pema Chodron is funny and full of anecdotes during each session (about 1/2 hour each).
Session One: Learning to Stay
Stop scratching, exploring the itch
Session Two: The Heart of Distraction
Introduces Shenpa, how we get hooked
Session Three: Meditation, the Path to Enlightenment
Degrees of Shenpa
Session Four: Enjoying the Process
Lightening up, making daily aspirations, and keeping a bigger perspective
Session Five: Tools for Liberation
Stop kicking the wheel (stop keeping thought momentum going)
Session Six: Taking Your Practice into the World
Coming back to the present

I would have given Getting Unstuck five stars except I didn't think the practices were as specific and different as I expected. Coming back to "thinking" and sitting with the breath are not new for me. I do enjoy making the daily aspirations so I am more aware of my thoughts throughout the day and in turn I am choosing my words more wisely too.

Enjoy these CD's as there is something for everyone regardless of where they are in their meditation practice.

Pema Chodron begins by presenting the concept of 'staying', being present, in situiations both mundane and difficult. She points out, with insight and humor the reality that only for a small percentage of our lives are we actually 'present' rather than being preoccupied by- or purposely escaping in- thought. From there she introdueces 'shenpa' the Tibetian term for the quality or pre-cognative engery that is the genisis of the 'hook' that grabs you in the form of both negative and positive emotions. By discecting the events that lead to one's reaction to a given situation, i.e. anger, she shows us how to drive a wedge between the event and our response so we have a choice. We are no longer doomed to react, and repeat the same stimulus and response over and over and over. What makes these concepts so practical is her willingness to discuss them in terms of her own life and how memories of past traumatic events were eventually divested of the their destructive energy; then disucsses how we can use these tools in our own lives.

I found this to be one of the most helpful and profound series of talks I have ever heard. Pema Chodron teaches a whole new (at least to me) approach to dealing with addictive behavior in ourselves and provides really useful and worthwhile ways of overcoming addictions. I kept going "wow" throughout the talks, and have gone back and listened to them again and again, and still find it helpful. Amazing teacher. Amazing teachings.

What a refreshing change from all the kitschy, marketing-driven New Age entrepreneurs!

Pema Chodron is a teacher from the Tibetan tradition who takes core Buddhist teachings and meditation techniques and applies them to our concrete, everyday life---without the thick layer of esoteric terminology and sleep-inducing academic presentation that all too many of her contemporaries have (even within the supposedly "teaching beyond words" Zen tradition) and without the 9-step pie-in-the-sky kitsch of the pop psychologists. Only Charlotte Joko Beck ("Everyday Zen") comes close.

Like the Dalai Lama's writing, there is a palpable and deep humility, gentleness, gratitude and quiet joy with which all of her words and laughter are imbued. She has an amazing knack for keeping it real: lots of candid personal anecdotes, pokes fun at herself from time to time, never puts herself on some lofty pedestal. It really felt like listening to a good friend chatting about herself, simply being herself: as with most true "masters," one is effortlessly taken by her simplicity, spareness, and an utter lack of pretension or vanity.

I have long admired her writing, but her voice adds an extra dimension of beauty and power, deeply calming in and of itself.
This was the first audio book I have ever listened to, and it will certainly not be the last.

Getting Unstuck is my second CD set of Pema Chodron's lessons. I listen to them while commuting. I started with Good Medicine, which I love. Anyway, this one is harder to hear because it addresses our addictions, not just drugs and alcohol, but mean thoughts, shopping sprees, obsessions, and whatever we all do to avoid just being with our feelings. I listen to each CD a few times before moving on to the next CD. Then I go back and listen to the first CDs again. This set has six lessons on three CDs. This week I am beginning to understand what she is teaching.
I find that listening to the CDs, rather than reading the books, allows me to get the message. Somehow I am forced to listen, while the book is so easy to put down and forget.
Changing how one reacts to the world is not like taking a pill with instant results. And it is not like riding an escalator where the only direction we go is up. You can't listen to these lesson once and become the Dalai Lama. But if you can listen to Pema, you can start to listen to yourself with compassion. And that in itself is liberating.

This set has over 3 hours of material, 3 CDs (2 sessions each) divided into many tracks so you can listen to part of it & continue later--convenient to listen to, study, or revisit tracks later. Sound quality is great & Pema speaks at a nice pace--easy to understand without being bored--in her usual down-to-earth, humorous, modest style--which I find extremely engaging; she radiates sincerity & authenticity. Unlike most of her work, this set concentrates on one aspect/factor in Buddhist practice--shenpa--of great importance in Shamatha meditation & mindfulness practice. It is a much overlooked link between thoughts & attachment/distraction. According to Pema, CD1/track 2 people avoid "the immediacy of experience" [mindfulness] due to shenpa--distractions, habituation, & karma. Because of our CD1/tr.11 "background static of unease," we seek comfort - giving shenpa a hold on us. Shenpa is the stickiness or hooked quality of our thoughts & feelings which we get wrapped around even in our meditation; CD3/tr.16 "shenpa is the root of suffering." It's a quality of the content of our thoughts--even if we say "thinking" to each thought, the shenpa is still there. We cannot eliminate our thoughts, but we can eliminate shenpa--attachment to their content. Shamatha meditation can be used to temporarily escape from shenpa--avoiding thought contents & inherent storylines, but it takes more than that to CD1/tr.5 "poke your head out of the cocoon & see the sky." Per CD2/tr.9, "Shenpa is blinding you to the enjoyment of life;" it must be faced directly, not avoided or merely labeled "shenpa." It's self-deprecating, negative, absurd content must be faced. Pema suggests we CD3/tr.2 "change the movie" [~Neuro-Linguistic Programming]. This is done through shinjang--thoroughly processing shenpa to re-frame ourselves into openness & be more at ease [reminiscent of Longchenpa's trilogy, tr. by Guenther, "Kindly Bent to Ease Us"] into a higher level of abstraction [~Dzogchen/Mahamudra view] where "thoughts are like clouds in the sky." However, Pema uses stories of personal experience (CD2/tr.5 Jarvis) to keep her teaching real, personal, & balanced suggesting CD2/tr.6 "relative practice & absolute view." My favorite part of the set is the Q&A at the very end where one participant speaks of a "shenpa party" & Pema addresses boundaries & their relationship to compassion: CD3/tr.14 "let your compassion be the boundaries" & "don't try to force forgiveness," it comes spontaneously. In summary, this is an important work addressing shenpa in depth rather than a breadth of topics. It's lovely, easy to digest, & useful. Enjoy!

I found myself getting stuck in repetitious thought patterns even after decades of meditation practice. This audio book is one of the best teachings I've ever heard and can apply to anyone with an open mind who is ready to find the keys to get unstuck. I speak from my experience and the experience everyone I know who listens, to it. I hear things like "life altering changes". "Getting Unstuck" is awesome. Done with a good sense of humor and lots of down to earth wisdom, Pema Chodron has outdone herself with this one.