Mood

Despair

For when nothing seems possible. Pema Chödrön on groundlessness; the bodhisattva's vow as the medicine.

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Knowledge

FiguresVajrayana

Pema Chödrön

American Buddhist nun and senior student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Resident teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia. Author of When Things Fall Apart and the most-read American voice on the practice of staying with what is difficult.

Stone relief carving of a bodhisattva on a Central Javanese temple wall

Core TeachingsMahayana

Bodhicitta

The aspiration to attain complete buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings — the defining commitment of the Mahayana path, and the seed from which the bodhisattva's entire activity grows.

Gandharan relief of the Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath

Core Teachings

The Four Noble Truths

The Buddha's first teaching after awakening — delivered at Sarnath to the five ascetics — laid out the diagnosis of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path that leads beyond it. Every later teaching is a commentary on these four.

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