Dzigar Kongtrul

DZIGAR KONGTRUL RINPOCHE grew up in a monastic environment and received extensive training in all aspects of Buddhist doctrine. In 1989, he moved to the United States with his family, and in 1990, he began a five-year tenure as a professor of Buddhist philosophy at Naropa University. He also founded Mangala Shri Bhuti, his own teaching organization, during this period. He has established a mountain retreat center, Longchen Jigme Samten Ling, in southern Colorado. When not guiding students in long-term retreats and not in retreat himself, Rinpoche travels widely throughout the world teaching and furthering his own education. He is the author of several books including Training in Tenderness and Peaceful Heart.

Pema Chodron

Ani Pema Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936, in New York City. She attended Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She taught as an elementary school teacher for many years in both New Mexico and California. Pema has two children and three grandchildren.

While in her mid-thirties, Ani Pema traveled to the French Alps and encountered Lama Chime Rinpoche, with whom she studied for several years. She became a novice nun in 1974 while studying with Lama Chime in London. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa came to Scotland at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him.

Pema first met her root guru, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Rinpoche, and it was with him that she ultimately made her most profound connection, studying with him from 1974 until his death in 1987. At the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, she received the full bikshuni ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong.

Ani Pema served as the director of Karma Dzong in Boulder, Colorado, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave her explicit instructions on establishing this monastery for Western monks and nuns. She currently teaches in the United States and Canada and plans for an increased amount of time in solitary retreat under the guidance of Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. She is interested in helping to establish Tibetan Buddhist monasticism in the West, as well as continuing her work with Western Buddhists of all traditions, sharing ideas and teachings. Her nonprofit, the Pema Chödrön Foundation, was set up to assist in this purpose.

"‘What does it take to get out of your own way?’ In his inspiring and insightful new book, Dzigar Kongtrul turns our usual ideas of laziness and diligence on their heads by looking to The Way of the Bodhisattva—a well-loved classical text—to explore this question. The result? A practical and comprehensive guide to developing a warm heart and open mind through the practice of joyful effort, from one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most highly respected and innovative teachers." —Susan Kaiser Greenland, author of Real-World Enlightenment and Mindful Games

"For any undertaking to be successful, we have to make the necessary effort. How much more so if we wish to achieve ultimate enlightenment for ourselves and others! In an age where it is all too easy to get lost in distraction and pleasure, this new exploration of Shantideva’s timeless advice is a much-needed guide to help us find joy in practicing virtue." —Pema Wangyal Rinpoche, author of Awakening Wisdom

"Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche hands us a priceless gift in this unique elucidation of Shantideva’s teaching on diligence. With tender guidance and exquisite skill, he reveals diligence as vital for freeing us from the stubborn habits and distractions that keep us from moving forwards or realizing our true nature. Setting this teaching within the wider spectrum of the bodhisattva path and the practices of self-reflection and compassion, Rinpoche shows how we ourselves can discover inspiration, self-confidence, delight in spiritual practice, and come to understand diligence as ‘the art of finding joy in everything we do.’" —Patrick Gaffney, editor of Mind in Comfort and Ease

"Skillfully unpacks all 76 of Shantideva’s verses on [diligence], offering clear and relatable guidance. . . . Diligence emerges not only as a discipline, but as a joyful and liberating practice." —Buddhadharma