After having enjoyed Pema Chodron's wonderful video set "Good Medicine" (6305642842), Her "Noble Heart" set of 6 cassettes was greatly enhanced. I could picture her orchestrating this retreat at her Monastery in Eastern Canada. That is exactly how this tape set is arranged. She provides an enjoyable, enthusiastic lecture with examples, stories, personal experiences, input from her Master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, etc. For each of the 12 segments (sides of cassettes) she also includes meditations and visualizations as appropriate. Topics include:
1. Bodhichitta Practice--ego, 3 noble principles, etc.
2. cultivating friendliness through meditation--posture, calm abiding (shamatha), working with thoughts, non-grasping mind...
3. developing inner strength/trust--experiencing reality, the 4 limitless ones (loving kindness, compassion, joy, & equanimity, materialism...
4. The Practice of Maitri (loving kindness)--the roots of suffering and happiness, ignorance, etc. Great presentation on Maitri practice!
5. Compassion practice--your "soft spot," ego's weaknesses, addiction and obsession, dualistic thinking, far & near enemies of practice, pity/overwhelm/forgiveness
6. Unlimited joy & equanimity--stages of practice, openness, melting practice, big sky mind, etc.
7. Tonglen (sending & receiving)--shunyata--openness of being, awakening Bodhichitta, stages of tonglen practice, dissolving the armor of self-protection, etc.
8. Meditation & wisdom--post-meditation, purity, categories of meditation, prajna (wisdom/understanding), etc.
9. Generosity, discipline, & patience--categories of them, undoing deep-seated patterns, antidote to aggression, etc.
10. Joyful exertion--the nondual paramitas, contemplation, exertion, nonduality, etc.
11. Shunyata Meditation--groundlessness, nature of mind, opening mind, contemplating equanimity, nongrasping, etc.
12. Bodhichitta to the world--connectedness, limitless compassion, dissolving barriers, the Dharmic habit, Bodhichitta slogans (only touched on here--see her "Start Where You Are" for this).
Overall, it's almost like being there. A wonderful experience. She covers lots of ground in her easygoing, warm, and wise style that balances theory with practice. A gem.

Pema Chodron is a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition. Noble Heart: A Self-guided Retreat On Befriending Your Obstacles is a profound audiobook narration in which Pema Chodron guides her listeners into an awakening their compassion, an appreciation for the beauty of vulnerability as a spiritual resource, the realization of strength that comes only through embracing the pain of experience, the treasured teachings of the six paramitas that offer the Buddha's own guide to the journey of enlightenment, and so much more. Noble Heart is an dedicated and recommended contribution to contemporary Buddhist Studies collections and offers students of Buddhism and practitioners of Buddhist philosophies and lifestyles a transforming and profound exploration of an enduring Buddhist spirituality for a new generation.