Droplets from "the places that scare you" by Pema Chodron

I took action, yay, and bought myself the book, only £1.50 second hand, I'm pretty easy to please :-) Already on page 1 there were two quotes I wanted to share so I kept a running collection of them, which is why this blog post has taken a while to materialize.

It is very much a book centred around Buddhist teaching, so if that's not for you, maybe you wouldn't enjoy this book. However I'd recommend it any way, for as Suzuki Roshi is quoted as saying at the start on having an open mind - " In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few".

As a beginner, the book contains a fair few concepts that I've not been able to get my head round. I have a friend who may be willing to help me understand the Buddhist teachings better than I managed on my own reading of this book. Lots to think about tho. And she writes: "If we put it [a drop of water] on a rock in the sunshine, it will soon evaporate. If we put it in the ocean, however, it will never be lost. Thus the wish is made that we not keep the teachings to ourselves but use them to benefit others"
Now of course technically nothing is ever lost in the closed water cycle, it merely converts to another form. But I like how it can symbolise for us that putting our learning alongside that of others is better than staking it out as exclusively our own.

There's lots on how we create fear as we seek stability rather than accept how things are, in a constant state of change. As she says, "there is no cure for hot and cold." Later in the book there's a similar call to seek equanimity rather than be pulled to hope or fear. I've had to reexamine already my predilection towards hope so this interests me. I understand what she is saying, that we can get caught in a cycle of attraction and aversion, and can see merit in "the vast mind that doesn't narrow reality into for and against"

In the chapter on strength I like her call to a "commitment to use our lives to dissolve the indifference, aggression and grasping that separates us from one another... to respect whatever life brings... to use discomfort as an opportunity for awakening, rather than trying to make it disappear". The end of the book focuses on our pull towards comfort. It's been interesting, but has taken some effort. I already have my next non fiction book lined up, "The love languages of God" by Gary Chapman. I wonder if you'll get to hear about that too?