When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron EPUB & PDF

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online

• Author: Pema Chodron
• Language: English
• Format: PDF / EPUB
• Size: 2 MB
• Price: Free
• Pages: 176

Intimacy with Fear
Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the
truth.
EMBARKING on the spiritual journey is like getting into a
very small boat and setting out on the ocean to search
for unknown lands. With wholehearted practice comes
inspiration, but sooner or later we will also encounter fear.
For all we know, when we get to the horizon, we are going
to drop off the edge of the world. Like all explorers, we are
drawn to discover what’s waiting out there without
knowing yet if we have the courage to face it.

If we become interested in Buddhism and decide to find
out what it has to offer, we’ll soon discover that there are
different slants on how we can proceed. With insight
meditation we begin practicing mindfulness, being fully
present with all our activities and thoughts. With Zen
practice we hear teachings on emptiness and are
challenged to connect with the open, unbounded clarity of
mind.

The vajrayana teachings introduce us to the notion of
working with the energy of all situations, seeing whatever
arises as inseparable from the awakened state. Any of
these approaches might hook us and fuel our enthusiasm to
explore further, but if we want to go beneath the surface
and practice without hesitation, it is inevitable that at some
point we will experience fear.

Fear is a universal experience. Even the smallest insect
feels it. We wade in the tidal pools and put our finger near
the soft, open bodies of sea anemones and they close up.
Everything spontaneously does that. It’s not a terrible thing
that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of
being alive, something we all share. We react against the
possibility of loneliness, of death, of not having anything to
hold on to. Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to
the truth.

If we commit ourselves to staying right where we are,
then our experience becomes very vivid. Things become
very clear when there is nowhere to escape.
During a long retreat, I had what seemed to me the
earth-shaking revelation that we cannot be in the present
and run our story lines at the same time! It sounds pretty
obvious, I know, but when you discover something like this
for yourself, it changes you.

Impermanence becomes vivid
in the present moment; so do compassion and wonder and
courage. And so does fear. In fact, anyone who stands on
the edge of the unknown, fully in the present without
reference point, experiences groundlessness. That’s when
our understanding goes deeper, when we find that the
present moment is a pretty vulnerable place and that this
can be completely unnerving and completely tender at the
same time.

When we begin our exploration, we have all kinds of
ideals and expectations. We are looking for answers that
will satisfy a hunger we’ve felt for a very long time. But the
last thing we want is a further introduction to the
boogeyman. Of course, people do try to warn us.

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