Weekly Quotes from Pema Chodron

June 5, 2019 Recognizing Our Interconnectedness

What is it that allows our goodwill to expand and our prejudice and anger to decrease? This is a significant question. Traditionally it is said that the root of aggression and suffering is ignorance. But what is it that we are ignoring? Entrenched in the tunnel vision of our personal concerns, what we ignore is our kinship with others. One reason we train as warrior-bodhisattvas is to recognize our interconnectedness—to grow in understanding that when we harm another, we are harming ourselves. So we train in recognizing our uptightness. We train in seeing that others are not so different from ourselves. We train in opening our hearts and minds in increasingly difficult situations.

Excerpted from:The Places That Scare YouA Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Timesby Pema Chödrön,page 41

Paul DiSegna June 5, 2019