The Wisdom of No Escape: How to love yourself and your world

by Pema Chödrön

I’m just talking about seeing how you always do the same habitual things when bad feelings – uneasiness, depression, fear – start coming up. You always do the same thing; you shut down in some habitual, very old way. According to the law of karma, every action has a result. If you stay in bed all day with the covers over your head, if you overeat for the millionth time in your life, if you get drunk, if you get stoned, you know that’s going to depress you and make you more discouraged, if it’s just this habitual thing that you think is going to make you feel better. The older you get, the more you know how it just makes you feel more wretched. The law of karma says, ‘Well, how do you want to feel tomorrow, next week, next year, five years from now, ten years from now?’ It’s up to you how to use your life.