Life, Part Two Quotes

“There are two kinds of suffering: the suffering that leads to more suffering and the suffering that leads to the end of suffering. If you are not willing to face the second kind of suffering, you will surely continue to experience the first. —Ajahn Chah”
― David Chernikoff, Life, Part Two: Seven Keys to Awakening with Purpose and Joy as You Age

“If we truly want to live fully and love well during our limited time on earth, we must recognize the fact that the suffering of turning away from reality is ultimately greater than the suffering of surrendering to what is.”
― David Chernikoff, Life, Part Two: Seven Keys to Awakening with Purpose and Joy as You Age

“In the words of the religious scholar and mystic Andrew Harvey, Spiritual life has nothing to do with evading suffering. It has everything to do with opening to the full effects of suffering, and by that wild act of opening to suffering—not only in our own lives but in the lives of every being around us—by that act, discovering the mystery of the presence in and beyond suffering. This takes courage; this takes an absolute honesty; this takes a ferocious commitment to truth.”
― David Chernikoff, Life, Part Two: Seven Keys to Awakening with Purpose and Joy as You Age

“What’s important when exploring our vision is that we understand the difference between aspirations and expectations in the realm of spiritual training. Expectations, particularly of ourselves, are often unrealistically high. Like a reverberating echo deep in our psyches, there is often a voice that says with a tone of sadness, anger, or despair, Not good enough. Still not lovable. Something’s wrong with you. You are so broken. This “mood of unlove,” as transpersonal psychologist John Welwood dubbed it, is sometimes so deep-seated in the unconscious that we stopped noticing it long ago.”
― David Chernikoff, Life, Part Two: Seven Keys to Awakening with Purpose and Joy as You Age

“If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills, If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles, If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it, If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time, If you can overlook when people take things out on you when, through no fault of yours, something goes wrong, If you can take criticism and blame without resentment, If you can face the world without lies and deceit, If you can conquer tension without medical help, If you can relax without liquor, If you can sleep without the aid of drugs, Then you are probably a dog or a cat.”
― David Chernikoff, Life, Part Two: Seven Keys to Awakening with Purpose and Joy as You Age

“The good news is that we can learn to relinquish our obsession with the information, mastery, and control we imagine will assuage our existential anxiety. Opening to things as they are on a moment-to-moment basis, we gradually learn to trust our unfolding lives and to relax into the not-knowing that is ever present and ultimately unavoidable.”
― David Chernikoff, Life, Part Two: Seven Keys to Awakening with Purpose and Joy as You Age