Pema Chödrön & Alice Walker in Conversation

"Interesting but nebulous" is the somewhat vague critical note I've scribbled on the side of my Big Chief writing pad, regarding this mostly enjoyable talk between Pema Chödrön, an American born Tibetan Buddhist nun and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, who contacted Chödrön after listening to and benefiting from one of her audiocassette programs during a period of personal loss. Taped at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, the conversation primarily revolves around the meditation practice of tonglen, in which people are encouraged to breathe in pain and suffering (one's own and others') and breathe out relief and compassion. On the "insert flap A into slot B" measurement scale, the instruction here is a bit on the wispy side (more detailed guidance is found in the accompanying booklet), but the fundamental premise--using meditation to acknowledge and work through grief and suffering--is sound. Too, the conversation often sparkles, such as when Walker confesses that she occasionally falls off the meditation wagon, and the easygoing Chödrön assures her that's a-ok, or when Chödrön admits the power of human anger when she allows that she did, in fact, throw a rock at her philandering soon-to-be ex-husband. Recommended. [Note: an audiocassette version is also available for $11.95.] Aud: P. (R. Pitman)