"Generally speaking, we regard discomfort in any form as bad news. But for practitioners or spiritual warriors--people who have a certain hunger to know what is true--feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we're holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we'd rather collapse and back away. They're like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we're stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it's with us wherever we are.""Those events and people in our lives who trigger our unresolved issues could be regarded as good news. We don't have to go hunting for anything. We don't need to try to create situations in which we reach our limit. They occur all by themselves, with clockwork regularity."
..."Awakeness is found in our pleasure and our pain, our confusion and our wisdom, available in each moment of our weird, unfathomable, ordinary everyday lives."
"When Things Fall Apart" by Pema Chodron Shambhala Publishing, Boston 2002 --p. 16-17, p.23
You know, reading this here struck me more than when I read it in the book itself!
ReplyDeleteAnd I was just writing a very similar post earlier this week after my yoga teacher said that we should thank those areas of our body that are tight or wobbly when we practice. "They will be our greatest teachers" she said!
Spoken from the true inner being, I know I do not have to do anything -- and life's lessons are as near as my heart beat.
ReplyDeleteAll that snow and cold..what vines are you growing?
Thank you for that nice comment on my blog-- it is part true and part myth, a similar house with a resident ghost part was true, I changed the story line to fit the prompt. Although the real story was interesting in itself.
Joanny
Very wise and relevant words, thank-you for sharing them. And thank-you for stopping by my blog and leaving your comment. I really appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteCrystal
Thank you all so much for the kind words. It just seems that the lessons that I am faced with somehow to relevant to most of us and I see similar posts on other's blogs.
ReplyDeleteJoanny--the vines are from the vineyard right down the road from where I live. The workers have been trimming them lately to get stock for planting more grapes and fortunately they did not do the major pruning yet (although I am not sure the cold would harm them or not). We live in an area that has really cool nights and in the summer gets pretty hot so I guess this climate is good for grapes. There is no actual winery here, just the vines. But, we have been told that they are some of the best grapes around and many of the really good vineyards purchase the grapes for their wines. California is really loaded with vineyards these days; really there is a glut of grapes lately.
Have just been reading about the zen philosophy of Japan-- the simple moments, the very moment of every day-- are the important ones
ReplyDeleteThe minute I started reading that quote, I thought Pema? Thank you for this. Yes yes yes. Love her. She has helped me through so much and here she is again via wonderful you!
ReplyDelete