What Others Have Said: Pema Chӧdrӧn

For Christmas this year, I once again built a book tree.  When I took it down, I started sorting the books.  There were some I had never read and some I didn’t even know where they came from.  And there were some I had read and loved. I've decided to look through some of these once-loved books and see what they still mean to me.  I may post a few passages from these books, maybe even previously posted passages.  The first one is from Pema Chӧdrӧn describing how to deal with negativity:

[D]rop the story line, which means—instead of acting out or repressing—use the situation as an opportunity to feel your heart, to feel the wound.  Use it as an opportunity to touch that soft spot.  Underneath all that craving or aversion or jealousy or feeling wretched about yourself, underneath all that hopelessness and despair and depression, there’s something extremely soft, which is called bodhichitta.  (Start Where You Are, 32)

I find this such helpful advice on the rare times when I remember it.