Jul
24th
Sun
24th
Many of us prefer practices that will not cause discomfort, yet at the same time we want to be healed. But boddhichitta training doesn’t work that way. A warrior accepts that we can never know what will happen to us next. We can try to control the uncontrollable by looking for security and predictability, always hoping to be comfortable and safe. But the truth is that we can never avoid uncertainty. This not knowing is part of the adventure, and it’s also what makes us afraid.
— Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You. “Warrior” keeps coming up in my Buddhist reading and I’m fascinated because the two seem, on the surface, antithetical, but I read from a book about being a warrior yesterday and am seeing that they aren’t at all, if we don’t equate “warrior” with “warlike.” Reading this book at a time when I’m so full of fear and doubt and self-hatred, which mingles with my ambition and pride and perseverance. I guess that’s life, all of those mixed up into one head/heart/day. Anyway, I recommend it.
