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Saturday, June 07, 2008

lessons from pema chodren

a fellow tranquil space teacher just returned from a weekend with the lovely pema chodren and shared these lessons with me:

1) seeing the basic sanity/basic goodness that we all have
2) seeing our neorosis and how we tend to get caught up in our habits
3) seeing we aren't our habits, neurosis, and other people are not theirs either, thus, we can see behind and cut through the agression others have towards us/themselves and we have towards others/ourselves. this leads to compassion towards others
4) seeing then that everything is the path, everything can be a chance to wake up. we just have to be open, curious and playful with what's around us and what happens in our lives
5) with this openness and compassionwe can see we're all in the same boat (the theme of the weekend)
6) we can connect with others and their suffering by practicing tonglen
7) this leads to "sacred outlook" turning back to seeing that everyone and everything is basically sane, and perfect just the way it is.

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3 comments:

Cecilia Orphan said...

"seeing then that everything is the path, everything can be a chance to wake up." What an immensely encouraging and beautiful thing to realize and embody! -Cecilia

Anonymous said...

Beautiful, or as you say in the htc podcast #99 (posted 9.9.07), buddha-ful! I recently downloaded that wonderful episode from last fall and find it instructive and inspirational. And, I've added Pema Chodron to my reading list ... so much wisdom.

Ananda said...

this was so timely. tyou for sharing.