Tarot Card by Timothy Lantz at Archon Tarot When people start to mediate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, the often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are. It's a bit like saying, "If I jog, I'll be a much better person." "If I could only get a nicer house, I'd be a better person." If I could meditate and calm down, I'd be a better person."... But loving-kindness--maitri--toward ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That's the ground, that's what we study, that's what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.
--, The Wisdom of No EscapPema Chodrone and the Path of Loving-Kindness
1 comment:
Dad, I haven't been to your blog for a while and it's good to see you finding ways to express what is important to you. The idea offered by Pema Chodrin I somewhat agree with and somewhat disagree with. I agree that self-love for who we intrinsicly are is very important and hard to do. I also believe we can be continually learning to accept ourselves more fully while also striving to become more conscious of the effects of our words, thought and actions. This awareness can allow us to live in the world and interact in deeper alignment with our true evolving selves. Hope you are well dad,
Eva
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