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

by Pema Chödrön

It’s as if, curiously enough, instead of sitting still in the middle of the fire, we have developed this self-created device for fanning it, keeping it going. Fan that fire, fan that fire. “Well, what about if I don’t do this, then that will happen, and if that happens then this will happen, maybe I better get rid of such-and-such and get this and do that. I better tell so-and-so about this, and if I don’t tell them that, surely the whole thing is going to fall apart, and then what will happen? Oh, I think I want to die and I want to get out of here. This is horrible and—” Suddenly you want to jump out of your seat and go screaming out of the room. You’ve been fanning the fire. But at some point you think, “Wait a minute. Thinking.” Then you let go and come back to that original fluttering feeling that might be very edgy but is basically the wind, the fire, the earth, the water.