I start every work day with the same ritual. Each morning, before my 8 o’clock client, I meditate for a period of time then I pick up my trusty Pocket Pema Chondron (2008) and hold it to my heart. I ask Pema for the grace of her delightful common-sense wisdom. Then I open the book to a random page and read. This is what she had to say to me this morning:
Let the things that enter your life wake you up
Life’s work is to wake up, to let the things that enter your life wake you up instead of put you to sleep. The only way to do this is to be open, be curious, and develop some sense of sympathy for everything that comes along, to get to know its nature and let it teach you what it will. It’s going to stick around until you learn your lesson, at any rate. You can leave your marriage, you can quit your job, you can only go where people are going to praise you, you can manipulate your world until you are blue in the face to try to make it always smooth, but the same old demons will always come up until finally you have learned your lesson, the lesson they came to teach you. Then those same demons will appear as friendly warm-hearted companions on the path. (pg. 107)
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