Getting Unstuck

A great cd to listen to. I wouldn't recommend listening to it on the go however ;)

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.

Based on the reviews, I was looking forward to the CDs. While I am familiar with Buddhist philosophy, I am not a Buddhist. I find Buddhism too complacent and too introspective for my Western upbringing. But I'm willing to listen to some of its more popular doctrines.

To me, the CDs had all the appeal of listening to my mother-in-law tell a story in excruciating detail about her neighbor's friend, who knows a lady who makes her own jewelry out of plastic drinking straws and elbow macaroni. I just felt my brain turning into oatmeal.

Chodron seems to be speaking to a group of people who have the time to spend three and a half hours, listening to her pontificate on Buddhist thought, tell stories and sprinkle anecdotes here and there, seemingly without any reason. The talk was about Shenpa, roughly the "stickiness of thought" but if there was any point that she made one way or the other, I missed it entirely.

What this production needed, was an editor who said, "These CD's will be for the mass market - busy people. This is not for people who have chosen the monastic life and renounced everything else. You have one hour to make your point".

Either I have Adult Attention Deficit Disorder or this needed to be more focused.

The tone of this series is very friendly while dealing with serious aspects of life. Pema Chodrin has a natural ease and humility which convey great warmth, while providing a tremendous resource for the listener who is beginning to climb out of the fox hole and back into the light. The experience was like that of discovering a treasure within, the teachings simply being the light which allowed the treasure to be seen. I love to listen over and again as I get ready for the day. At one point I had to remind myself that listening was only half the exercise. I also had to practice the meditation. And that, as well, has led to delightful outcome.

The focus of her talks are on problems that occur during meditation and how to best reframe them to get unstuck, especially if you still lose presence during anger. There is an acceptance and gentleness in her solutions. The contents is very much like that found on [...].

The talks are interesting but lack the clarity, structure, density, and innovative thought found in abridged [...].