.authored by something.of.substance.
“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.”
-Pema Chödrön
.she always looks so peacefully happy.
Pema Chödrön (née Deirdre Blomfield-Brown) is a fully ordained Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition and a teacher in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa. The goal of her work is the ability to apply Buddhist teachings in everyday life. As such, the 72 year-old Pema has authored many popular books, presented global workshops, and interpreted teachings which helped provide the basis of Dialectic Behavorial Therapy (utilized for a range of high-emotion psychological disorders).
I first heard of her when studying the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa. However, I was too much of a neophyte in the philosophy to seriously consider more teachings than I was already attempting to tackle. Her book “The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times” found me, however. Going through a reprehensibly stubborn time in my life, I had wandered to the bookstore in the hope that I might hide in the stacks for several hours and escape into the fantasy of another life. I was depressed, dejected, rejected, and, most critically, I was giving up. I didn’t see any way out of my situation and, as such, I felt hopeless.
Cruising the aisles for some light-hearted social satire or possibly a murder mystery, I took a wrong turn and, instead of heading for the True Crime section, came face-to-face with Eastern Philosophy. Undaunted, I thought I’d take a peek at the titles to see if anything jumped out and her slate blue-colored paperback literally did. As I was bending over to read the titles at the bottom of the shelf, the hood of my coat brushed against a display and down toppled Pema’s book onto my head. Figuring it was like an animal in a shelter that needs to be uncaged and loved, I took the book home not expecting it to do much good. What I found, however, was the opposite.
Inspired by what I read, I began researching more of her writings and came across the above quote in her book “Comfortable with Uncertainty”.
The quote above had been looking for me. Almost exactly mirroring many of the thoughts that refuse to stop circulating inside my head, it is both my goal and my dream to be vulnerable yet strong. I need to learn to set-up boundries rather than barriers.
In Buddhist philosophy, it is said that the mind is the source of everything and the key to eliminating suffering is to train the mind. What you think is what you become.
I really believe this. When let loose, the mind has the ability to interpret, re-interpret, and mis-interpret any and every situation. The mind can take a perfectly clear and simple situation and re-arrange it to the point of limitation. We are limited by how our wild mind remolds our memories.
These memories are then recalled as reference to our future.
For example, if you have a memory of rejection, it is what your mind said about the rejection, rather than the act of being rejected itself, that affects how high of a wall you build around yourself. In essence, you are your own worst enemy.
Everyone is their own worst enemy. I have long-believed that it is a combination of fears, insecurities and past experiences that have produced the life i lead rather than simply being dropped on a path i’m forced to walk.
Before you can walk the path, you must become the path. All those things I want to let in, I must first embody. I must effuse them. Emit them. Only then, can I evoke them.
I am not fundamentally flawed. I do not deserve unhappiness any more than anyone else. But, when I believe it, it is my mind that says I do. My mind has tricked me into “protecting” myself from everything: including positivity and compassion and love. I can never thank her enough for stating this in such a way that made me finally believe it.
I don’t need to be baracaded. I need to be open. Empty. I will conquer my mind. I will become what I want to attract.
