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Start where you are
Jan. 30th, 2025 07:28 amToday I started a new Pema Chodron book, Start Where You Are, in part hoping for something I can give to a friend who is a Buddhism beginner. For that purpose I'm not sure. She does explain her terminology as she goes, but she uses a lot of it; it might be kind of off-putting to someone without a background.
I do like what I've read so far, though. Some of the themes are quite similar to The Places that Scare Your, which is really unsurprising. In the first chapter, she writes a lot about the importance of having compassion for yourself as the root of compassion for others. I'm going to quote extensively from the beginning, which I think is excellent:
"We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips we lay on ourselves--the heavy-duty fearing that we're bad and hoping that we're good, the identities we so dearly cling to, the rage, the jealousy and the addictions of all kinds--never touch our basic wealth. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and brilliance and light are right here. This is who we are. We are one blink of an eye from being fully awake."
This is obviously basic Mahayana teachings--we are already enlightened, we simply have to realize it--but I've never heard it put so starkly, and the guilty Catholic perfectionist in me finds it very helpful. She continues: "Looking at ourselves this way is very different from our usual habit. From this perspective you don't need to change: you can feel as wretched as you like, and you're still a good candidate for enlightenment. You can feel like the world's most helpless basket case, but that feeling is your wealth, not something to be thrown out or improved upon....With the practices in this book, you can start just where you are. If you're feeling angry, poverty stricken, or depressed, the practices described here were designed for you, because they will encourage you to use all the unwanted things in your life as the means for awakening compassion for yourself and others."
Later in the chapter she uses the metaphor of a homeless person finding they were sleeping on a pile of gold. I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to this radical self-compassion, but I am.
I do like what I've read so far, though. Some of the themes are quite similar to The Places that Scare Your, which is really unsurprising. In the first chapter, she writes a lot about the importance of having compassion for yourself as the root of compassion for others. I'm going to quote extensively from the beginning, which I think is excellent:
"We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips we lay on ourselves--the heavy-duty fearing that we're bad and hoping that we're good, the identities we so dearly cling to, the rage, the jealousy and the addictions of all kinds--never touch our basic wealth. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and brilliance and light are right here. This is who we are. We are one blink of an eye from being fully awake."
This is obviously basic Mahayana teachings--we are already enlightened, we simply have to realize it--but I've never heard it put so starkly, and the guilty Catholic perfectionist in me finds it very helpful. She continues: "Looking at ourselves this way is very different from our usual habit. From this perspective you don't need to change: you can feel as wretched as you like, and you're still a good candidate for enlightenment. You can feel like the world's most helpless basket case, but that feeling is your wealth, not something to be thrown out or improved upon....With the practices in this book, you can start just where you are. If you're feeling angry, poverty stricken, or depressed, the practices described here were designed for you, because they will encourage you to use all the unwanted things in your life as the means for awakening compassion for yourself and others."
Later in the chapter she uses the metaphor of a homeless person finding they were sleeping on a pile of gold. I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to this radical self-compassion, but I am.
