Pema Chodron is a bhikkhuni which means she is an ordained member of a monastic order of Buddhists. As a nun, Chodron is a disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a master of meditation in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism. These days, Chodron is among the leading teachers at Gampo Abbey, a Western Buddhist monastery that is located in Nova Scotia, Canada. Chodron has lived in the Gampo Abbey community since 1984 and became one of its directors in 1986. During the summer months, Chodrom often resides in Berkley, California where she teaches a course entitled 'Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life'. She has written numerous articles and books about her Buddhist beliefs, some of which have been made into audiobooks, too.
Born in 1953, Tara Brach is an advocate of the healing nature of certain aspects of Buddhism, specifically focussing on the in the Vipassana meditation tradition. This form of meditative Buddhism centres on prajñā, something that approximately translates as achieving insight into the true nature of reality. In addition to her work as a teacher and advocate of this form of healing and mental well-being, Tara Brach is a PhD level psychologist. She gained her qualification in clinical psychology from the Fielding Institute years after attending Clark University, in Massachusetts, where she gained bachelors degrees in psychology and political science. As such, she is one of the growing number of Buddhists in the West who combine their understanding of Eastern traditions, such as mindfulness, with their knowledge of psychology and science in their work, writing and teaching.
In an attempt to work out how people view themselves and the world around them, introspective self-reporting questionnaires have been used by psychologists and psychotherapists since the times of Karl Jung. The Myers-Briggs personality test was developed from these original methods to form a structure around which people would be able to identify as one of sixteen distinct personality types. These are made up of four so-called dichotomies each which can be interpreted in two ways, thereby allowing for a total of sixteen possible combinations that correspond to the aforementioned personality types. The Myers-Briggs personality test was developed in the Second World War and after it to allow psychologists to determine the personalities of individuals according to the examples outlined in the Myers-Briggs personality indicator.
