Tag Archives: Pema Chodron

Of shoes and fluff and sealing-wax

Posted on February 8, 2020 by Vajragoni

Shambhala, once the proud publishers of Pocket Books such as The Zen Teachings of Huang Po, are now mass-publishers of love, empathy and caring—or in other words, your ever-prevalent new age bookstore. In my email box are incessant titles of stuff such as “Seeking out Deeper Connections”, the deep as in the emotional garbage that is the sewer-hole of our mass-infected world, and connections as in wounded souls seeking incessant solace and surface sharing and stroking. The popular guru on the block is Pema Chödrön, who increasingly looks like she’s morphing into some kind of character right out of The Hobbit. read more

Posted in Contemporary Musings, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Well, whaddya know!

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Vajragoni

Last month I wrote a blog about the upcoming series on the Zen Teaching of Huang Po, lamenting the fact that my favorite edition of Blofeld’s translation, the Shambahla Pocket Book Edition, is now extinct. So, then, what kind of selections does Shambahla market these days in pocket-size? The Pocket Pema Chodron and The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh, of course! Why of course these two contemporary cultural icons have replaced perhaps the greatest Zen Master of all time! This is the kind of stuff that people interested in Buddhist spirituality just have to read! Move over, Huang Po! Move over Sutras! Make-way for the new kids on the block; after all, this is the kind of stuff that sells; that appeals to people’s baser knowledge base. Oh, let’s forget about the Buddhadharma and just satisfy our psycho-emotional and physical needs—that’s what really matters after all! Listen to the stuff that litters my mailbox: read more

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment