 |
Sunflowers in Botswana
http://500px.com/photo/ |
Heartfelt Teachings & Quotes from Pema Chödrön
The
most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we
can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and
the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.
The
only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that
they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane
enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and
compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about
looking into someone else's eyes.
Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.
Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?
To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.
If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.
People
get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are
going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being
punished. That's not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you
continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. To the
degree that you didn't understand in the past how to stop protecting
your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you're given this gift
of teachings in the form of your life, to give you everything you need
to open further.
Compassion
is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a
relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can
we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when
we recognize our shared humanity.
You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment