This wonderful teaching package contains the insights, wisdom, and practices of Pema Chodron, an American Buddhist nun and one of the leading contemporary teachers of Tibetan Buddhism. Her paperback Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living is a classic work on practices for opening the heart. Included with it in this box are a 45-minute audio CD offering in-depth instruction in tonglen meditation, a compassion practice that involves breathing in suffering and breathing out relief and compassion.

A new and unique feature of this resource is a deck of 59 cards, a card stand, and instructions for using them as part of a daily practice. Each card presents one of the lojong slogans, mind-training teachings that offer reminders on ways to awaken our hearts in the midst of everyday life. They come from an old Tibetan text called The Root Text of the Seven Points of Training the Mind by Chekawa Yeshe Dorje. Chodron notes, "When I first read these slogans, I was struck by their unusual message: we can use everything we encounter in our lives — pleasant or painful — to awaken genuine, uncontrived compassion." On the back of each card, Pema Chodron has added new commentaries to show how these simple maxims encourage equanimity, mindfulness, compassion, and transformation. Here are a few examples.

• The card says: "Don't be swayed by external circumstances." Chodron's commentary is: "Whether you are sick or well, rich or poor, comfortable or uncomfortable, practice tonglen. Whatever is wanted, send that out for others to enjoy. Whatever is unwanted, breathe that in, experiencing it directly for yourself and all the others who are in the same boat."

• The card says: "Always meditate on whatever provokes resentment." Chodron's commentary is: "Do tonglen practice whenever you feel resentment. Do it with small things all the time. Then you will be prepared to work with the big ones when they arise."

• The card says: "Don't malign others." Chodron's commentary: "You speak badly of others thinking it will make you feel superior. This only sows seeds of meanness in your heart, causing others not to trust you and causing you to suffer."