So last night amidst Blogger Woes...and a Huge Skycracking Thunderstorm, I fell asleep on my son's floor reading Pema Chodrun by a dim flashlight...so I thought I would share some of her wisdom with you....I had wanted to write a post about Buddhism since CNN is doing a special this weekend called "Buddha's Warriors", but this post is all I have gathered for now due to circumstances well beyond my control. Last Night was definently a lesson in Patience with the Flow...So I give this post for you to ponder...and you can sit in my 3 Dollar Urban Oasis (my backyard garden) and listen to the music of Enigma while you reflect and soak in Pema Chodrun. Namaste.
"It's also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that's sitting right here right now... with its aches and it pleasures... is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive."
"An analogy for bodhichitta is the rawness of a broken heart. Sometimes this broken heart gives birth to anxiety and panic, sometimes to anger, resentment, and blame. But under the hardness of that armor there is the tenderness of genuine sadness. This is our link with all those who have ever loved. This genuine heart of sadness can teach us great compassion. It can humble us when we’re arrogant and soften us when we are unkind. It awakens us when we prefer to sleep and pierces through our indifference. This continual ache of the heart is a blessing that when accepted fully can be shared with all.”
" We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves."
" When we start out on a spiritual path we often have ideals we think we're supposed to live up to. We feel we're supposed to be better than we are in some way. But with this practice you take yourself completely as you are. Then ironically, taking in pain - breathing it in for yourself and all others in the same boat as you are - heightens your awareness of exactly where you're stuck."
" If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher."
Music by ENIGMA...Return to Innocence...with really soothing video:
Pema Chodrun Books:
(1) The Places that Scare You : A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (Shambhala Classics)
(2) Practicing Peace in Times of War
Mini Biography on her ( from multiple Internet sources-pieced together):
"Pema Chodron, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher, was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown. She studied Buddhism in the French Alps and London, where she was ordained. She worked with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche from 1974 until 1987. She was ordained in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong. Since 1984 she served as the director of Gampo Abbey in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She has taught lectured widely and has written several books on meditation practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition."
