Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears - Taking the Leap

Another enlightening book from a wonderful teacher. Whether or not you are Buddhist, read anything she's written and you will learn that even the smallest change in attitude can make a significant difference in your life and the in the lives of those around you...think "the ripple effect."

Wow, this book is amazing. I borrowed a copy from a girlfriend and had to purchase a copy for myself. Now I understand why I act the way I do. She is teaching me to be mindful of the moment something happens before I get upset or blow up. This is truly amazing and I am now living a much peaceful life!

As always, Pena Chodron is able to connect with what is common in all of us. Our struggles are universal and the keys to freeing ourselves are within each of us. Relatable, insightful and right on the mark.

While flowing from the Buddhist worldview, this deceptively simple text contains a practical formula for tapping into what the author calls our natural openness, natural warmth, and natural intelligence. As a practicing Catholic with deep familiarity with Buddhist theory and practice, a PhD in Theology, and four grandchildren, I found exceptionally helpful spiritual direction in the wise and warm words of Pema Chodron. She draws equally from a discipline of meditation that is as close to religiously neutral or 'portable' as possible, and a life filled with the vicissitudes that most of us face---marital struggles, care and concern for family, moral weakness and bad habits, illness, aging. What she offers is a simple, honest,jargon-free way to meet these challenges that works---regardless of one's religious or philosophical standpoint.

I went out and bought "When Things Fall Apart" after reading this one. I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking A "stress free" and freedon from fear. These books have changed my life for the better.

This book is highly recommended. I keep it by my bedside and read parts of it almost daily. We are living in a world with 'destructive patterns' and unless we wake up and change our bad habits, we are in for a rude awakening. It has helped me to deal with daily stresses in new ways that I never knew about and has made my life much more happy.

I was thrilled when my new Pema Chodron book arrived. It's a wonderful book as Pema is a great teacher & writer. I was disappointed in how long it took for my shipment to arrive. I received it almost 3 weeks after ordering it.

I was looking for something on dealing with lifelong fears and phobias. This was more about fear of empathy and development of empathy. On that it was good as Chodron,a favorite author of mine, always is. It just wasn't what I was looking for at this moment.

I have long admired the writings of Pema Chodron, and I think she has done it again with this book. She excels at making teachings from the Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhist tradition of her root teacher Chogyam Trungpa accessible to anyone and relevant to daily life. In this book she presents teachings on 'shenpa', which is often translated as 'attachment' but which she suggests might better be understood as "what it feels like to get hooked." As she puts it:

"Somebody says a harsh word and something in you tightens: instantly you're hooked. That tightness quickly spirals into blaming the person or denigrating yourself. The chain reaction of speaking or acting or obsessing happens fast. Maybe if you have strong addictions, you go right for your addiction to cover over the uncomfortable feelings."

The focus of Taking the Leap is how we can learn to recognize when we are hooked, and how we can work with and transform the energy generated when this occurs. Instead of judging or battling within ourselves, we can learn to see each occurrence of shenpa as an opportunity - an opportunity for awakening. This process is about more than just our personal happiness, for shenpa is the source of bigotry and violence in our world. Ani Pema says:

"Each of us can be an active participant in creating a nonviolent future simply by how we work with shenpa when it arises. How individuals like you and I relate to being hooked, these days, has global implications."

The key to working with shenpa in a different way is to remain open and even curious about the energy that arises when we are 'hooked', instead of acting out or seeking to distract ourselves. Pema Chodron references a Tibetan metaphor of a peacock, whose feathers become more brilliant and glowing when it eats certain plants that are poisonous to other animals. If we can learn to simply accept the energies that arise in us, without judgment, we can explore them, and ultimately transmute them. This is the true essence of the Tantric Buddhist approach.

Pema Chodron always keep her writings straightforward and personal, referencing stories from her own life and those of people she has known. One particularly powerful story for me was about a Jewish couple who befriend an elderly Ku Klux Clan member who has been harassing them, and transform the situation, the man, and themselves in the process. She describes several specific techniques for working with shenpa, including some sitting meditations, but an individual certainly does not need to be Buddhist or even be familiar with Buddhist writings to understand this book. In fact, if I have any criticism (and it's not really a criticism) it's that I find her writings are always deceptively simple - they are so digestible it's easy to underestimate the transformative power of the teachings within them.

So I highly recommend Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears, and suggest working with it for some time. It is a small book, and appropriate for both non-Buddhists and Buddhists of any lineage.

Written in everyday language, for the most part. The author gives easy to follow instructions for catching ourselves getting dragged into drama by the stories that fuel our emotions. While the instructions are easy, making ourselves do them is the biggest challenge because the urge to give into the drama is tempting. Her simple steps of - pausing, noticing that urge, shifting our attention to our breath, allowing the emotion to wash over and through us, letting it go, continuing with whatever is right in front of us in the next moment - have the power to release us from self-imposed suffering. Some say pain is unavoidable but suffering is what we do to ourselves when we want what is happening to not be happening. The author lets us know that the life span of an emotion - the time it takes to move into and through us - is one and a half minutes. If it stays longer than that it's because we have trapped it inside ourselves by refusing to shift our attention away from the mind chatter that is fueling it.

I just finished reading my autographed copy that I received from the publisher and have ordered a second copy from the store for my daughter. I was going to give her my volume but had to order another because I can't give mine up!
This is the best of Pema's work (well, other than WHEN THINGS FALL APART). TAKING THE LEAP is succinct and spare, yet brings all of her words in one slim volume that particularly addresses our American culture in 2016's post-election country. Therefore, although this book's publishing date is 2009, her words are very important for today, 2016 (and actually, are timeless).
I have read all of Pema's works and love each of them. This one has one particular training that I think is terribly important and one that I have tried to incorporate in my daily life. It is the teaching of showing kindness to EVERY person we meet, whether they are the checker at the grocery, the wait person, the sales person, anyone that we come across each day. My late husband practiced the same and our son makes numerous friends being kind to everyone. Having patience is such a virtue from which everyone benefits.
Also, Pema's teaching about identifying with everyone's pain, joy, sorrow, etc. shows that we are all connected and that we ALL share the same feelings and emotions. Pema's teaching on compassion helps us to grow in love for our fellow man.
I have read several Buddhist authors, but Pema Chodron's are the ones with which I identify the most because of her simplicity and humanity.

Pema Chodron is always superb, but this book is merely a compilation of some of her previous writings; in particular, it takes from her wonderful audio CD "Getting Unstuck." So why buy the condensed version when you can buy the real thing? Try "The Places That Scare You" or "When Things Fall Apart." These are rich, textured writings that you can read over and over. If you want a CD, I think "Getting Unstuck" is far and away her best.

On the other hand, if you like to keep things simple, this book might be just the thing.