When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (Shambhala Classics)

by Pema Chödrön

The first five transcendent actions are generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, and meditation. These are inseparable from the sixth—the prajna that makes it impossible to use our actions as ways of becoming secure.

The more we experience fundamental richness, the more we can loosen our grip. This fundamental richness is available in each moment. The key is to relax:

Be present to relax and relax in the presence

caught with both the upliftedness of our ideas and the rawness of what’s happening in front of our eyes—that is indeed a very fruitful place.

There are three traditional methods for relating directly with difficult circumstances as a path of awakening and joy. The first method we’ll call no more struggle; the second, using poison as medicine; and the third, seeing whatever arises as enlightened wisdom. These are three techniques for working with chaos, difficulties, and unwanted events in our daily lives.

There really is no better time than right now; there is no higher state of consciousness than this one.

From the point of view of samaya, we could say that looking for alternatives is the only thing that keeps us from realizing that we’re already in a sacred world.

We could say that, at the level of mind, breaking samaya is feeling that we must come up with a solution to a problem—or feeling that there is a solution or a problem at all.

We don’t experience the world fully unless we are willing to give everything away. Samaya means not holding anything back, not preparing our escape route, not looking for alternatives, not thinking that there is ample time to do things later.

The key is changing our habits and, in particular, the habits of our mind.

My experience is that by practicing without “shoulds,” we gradually discover our wakefulness and our confidence. Gradually, without any agenda except to be honest and kind, we assume responsibility for being here in this unpredictable world, in this unique moment, in this precious human body.

The path is uncharted. It comes into existence moment by moment and at the same time drops away behind us.

This is a very encouraging teaching, because it says that the source of wisdom is whatever is going to happen to us today. The source of wisdom is whatever is happening to us right at this very instant.

What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.