Pondering Pema's words

[sabrinamari]

From Early Morning Buddhist Meditations

"HOW TO WORK WITH ADDICTIONS

So specifically the process is: When you are frantically eating, smoking, grabbing for a valium or whatever it is and it occurs to you to try this, first you pause. The traditional teaching when we are all caught up is to bring to mind something which stops us, such as the face of our teacher or of someone who really loves us. But it could be anything that works for us. For example:

Uneasy feelings come up and we say to ourselves something like: "I am not afraid of what is coming up. I have worked with feelings like this before. I can feel them. They are workable. They will teach me something. I know from experience I can trust this process." This is the first stage: maitri. Then we let go of our words about it, for example, "just this one won't hurt me," "I have to have this now because... "and just be open to the space. It is as if the words were playing in a tiny little corner of the space or it's as if you are in an airplane looking down on them. Then we communicate with the feelings that are left which are now wordless and move outward, as if the feelings weren't specifically ours but were shared with the whole human race. They are changed to a warmth for the whole human race. They are changed to a warmth and tenderness for the whole human condition. You are really feeling with all of humanity and your heart could melt from the intensity of the pain or longing.

The process can actually be quite fast, but we may have to artificially slow it down the first few times we do it.

Pema Chodron"

Where can I get a small picture of Pema for my main altar?

I never understood this practice before. I always saw framed photos of gurus on people's altars and quietly shook my head, thinking," No human should be venerated this way. Only the gods should appear on altars."

Only now do I get it: it's not about worship, it's about inspiration. When I am tired, or grumpy, or whatever, and I just can't get myself to do the hard thing (meditate, work out, stop feeling sorry for myself, whatever) I think about Pema as I saw her in those videos. And I feel inspired. I feel the desire to live up to her example. I want to be a person that she would be proud of. Even though she will probably never know who I am. I just want to be a person who is really pushing hard to be the most beautiful example of maitri, of full-human-beingness, that I can. And thinking of her smiling at me with her silly, unassuming Harry Potter glasses, her good cheer and her rather inelegant buzz cut just makes me think, "Well, *Pema* thinks I can do it! She thinks we can all do it! So, damn it, I must be able to do it!" And then I just do it. I just do it.

Comments

[effloresense.livejournal.com]

Maybe print <a href="http://www.kagyu.org/karmapa/tea/tea-imgs/tea-19.jpeg>this</a> on a color printer? It was the largest image I could find on the net...

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

You found the same one I found:



But I remembered my closing quote mark. ;-)

Seriously, Sabrina, for better than this, you might try a color copy enlargement off the jacket of one of her books. Or call her publisher and pretend to be doing a local promotion of her work, and ask them for a promotional photo.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

I love the color enlargement idea. For now, I'll use my color printer (thank you, Christopher bunny) to make a beautiful image for my altar.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

Wow...this is gorgeous! I need to learn to use/think of the net more often. Thank you.

[krkhst.livejournal.com]

I love Pema, because she can speak to native English speakers in a much more accesible way about Buddhism. She doesn't have to grasp for the words to make us understand. Not that someone like Thich Nhat Hahn (whom I also love), doesn't do a wonderful job, but there is an *ease* to Pema that makes it easier for me to understand.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

i feel exactly the same way. there are so many words and concepts in Buddhism that are actively hard to understand----and many that seem to have been translated by folks who had a loose grasp of meanings and referents. Or maybe the ideas are just too complex to repackage in a single term in English. But Pema really knows how to ease all of that and make it simple, just as you've said.