drop all…

Instead of feeling we are stupid or someone else is unkind, we could drop all the complaints about ourselves and others. ~ Pema Chödrön 

Posted from WordPress for Android

An Innocent Misunderstanding

When the Buddha taught, he didn’t say that we were bad people or that there was some sin that we had committed—original or otherwise—that made us more ignorant than clear, more harsh than gentle, more closed than open. He taught that there is a kind of innocent misunderstanding that we all share, something that can be turned around, corrected, and seen through, as if we were in a dark room and someone showed us where the light switch was. It isn’t a sin that we are in a dark room. It’s just an innocent situation, but how fortunate that someone shows us where the light switch is. It brightens up our life considerably. We can start to read books, to see one another’s faces, to discover the colors of the walls, to enjoy the little animals that creep in and out of the room. ~ Pema Chodron

from The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chodron

 

It’s Monday….What are you reading?

What are you reading today?

Some you might know me well enough …that I read several books …or a better wording would be…I have several books going on.

 

I rarely just have one book that I read to exclusion of the others. I will read a little this one and then maybe some of that one…and so it goes.

For the sake of today’s post though….I will only focus on one book that *is* my primary read … No Time to Lose by Pema Chodron. I really enjoy it, her words are simple but profound. I am on Chapter 2. So far…I love it!

So? What are you reading?…and it does not have to be Buddhist reading. 🙂

Namaste…and be well,

Debra

An excerpt from Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron

LIGHTEN UP

Have you ever been caught in the heavy-duty scenario of feeling defeated and hurt, and then somehow, for no particular reason, you just drop it? It just goes, and you wonder why you made “much ado about nothing.” What was that all about?

I’d like to encourage us all to lighten up, to practice with a lot of gentleness. This compassion, this clarity, this openness are like something we have forgotten. Sitting here being gentle with ourselves, we’re rediscovering something. It’s like a mother reuniting with her child; having been lost to each other for a long, long time, they reunite. The way to reunite with bodhichitta (awakened heart) is to lighten up in your practice and in your life.

Start Where You Are By Pema Chodron

Things falling apart..

Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also akin of healing. ~ Pema Chodron