The Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path of Loving-Kindness

by Pema Chödrön

take someone running after you with a stick. But the more you open your heart, the more you make friends with your body, speech, mind, and the world that’s inside of your circle—your domestic situation, the people you live with, the house you find yourself eating breakfast in every day—the more you appreciate the fact that when you turn on the tap, water comes out. If you have ever lived without water, you really appreciate that. There are all kinds of miracles. Everything is like that, absolutely wonderful. Now. That’s the key. Now, now, now. Mindfulness trains you to be awake and alive, fully curious, about what? Well, about now, right? You sit in meditation and the out-breath is now and waking up from your fantasies is now and even the fantasies are now, although they seem to take you into the past and into the future. The more you can be completely now, the more you realize that you’re in the center of the world, standing in the middle of a sacred circle. It’s no small affair, whether you’re brushing your teeth or cooking your food or wiping your bottom. Whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it now.