This hard to take in lesson today from Pema Chodron in When Things Fall Apart:
“[W]hat we habitually regard as obstacles are not really our enemies, but rather our friends. What we call obstacles are really they way the world and our entire experience teach us where we’re stuck…. Maybe the only enemy is that we don’t like the way reality is now and therefore wish it would go away fast. But what we find…is that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.”
This is the same sentiment in Rumi’s The Guest House as translated by Coleman Barker:
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be cleaning you out
for some new delight….
Be grateful for whoever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
It occurs to me that I am not sure which is stronger here – my urge to resist these thoughts or my begrudging recognition of them as truths. Onward.
It occurs to me... 