One of the major obstacles to what is traditionally called enlightenment is resentment, feeling cheated, holding a grudge about who you are, where you are, what you are. Basically, making friends with yourself is making friends with all those people too, because when you come to have this kind of honesty, gentleness, and goodheartedness, combined with clarity about yourself, there’s no obstacle to feeling loving-kindness for others as well. You would wince quite often and say “Ugh!” You probably would see that you do all those things for which you criticize all those people you don’t like in your life, all those people that you judge. If, at the end of each day, someone were to play a video of you back to yourself and you could see it all. We can endure a lot of pain and pleasure for the sake of finding out who we are and what this world is. “If I could meditate and calm down, I’d be a better person.”ĭevelop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our inquisitiveness is bitter or sweet. People often think that somehow they’re going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are. Powerful thoughts on not running, distracting, or escaping, but sticking with something all the way through.

Go to the Amazon page for details and reviews.

The Wisdom of No Escape - by Pema Chödrön

Pema chodron taking the leap download