I is what I is
Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2013 10:35 amThis was posted on my FB today. Thought I'd share.
When people start to meditate, or work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they are 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 nice house, I'd be a better person", "If I could meditate and calm down I'd be a much 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 to not try to throw ourselves away and become something better, its 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, thats what we study, thats what we come to know with tremendous clarity and interest.
~Pema Chodron
When people start to meditate, or work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they are 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 nice house, I'd be a better person", "If I could meditate and calm down I'd be a much 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 to not try to throw ourselves away and become something better, its 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, thats what we study, thats what we come to know with tremendous clarity and interest.
~Pema Chodron
