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. Click here for a short video of Pema Chödrön discussing life at Gampo Abbey: You Tube video.
Ani Pema 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.
Ani Pema is interested in helping establish Tibetan Buddhist monasticism in the West, as well in continuing her work with western Buddhists of all traditions, sharing ideas and teachings. She has written several books: "The Wisdom of No Escape", "Start Where You Are", "When Things Fall Apart", "The Places that Scare You", "Tonglen, the Path of Transformation", "Comfortable with Uncertainty", "No Time To Lose" and "Practicing Peace in Times of War" (This one will be coming out in September 2006).
You can find out more about Pema Chödrön, Tibetan Buddhism, and meditation retreat centers, urban centers and groups around the world at www.shambhala.org. Shambhala International is an organization of meditation centers, founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, offering meditation instruction, classes and practice opportunities in both the Buddhist and Shambhala traditions. It is currently directed by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, one of several great teachers of the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism whom Pema studies with.