When people start to meditate or
to work with any kind of spiritual
discipline, they often think that
somehow they're going to improve,
which is a sort of subtle aggression
against who they really are.
It's a bit like saying, "If I jog, I'll be a
much better person." "If I could only
get a nicer house, I'd be a better person."
"If I could meditate and calm down,
I'd bee better person.
But loving-kindness - maitri -
toward ourselves doesn't mean
getting rid of anything.
Maitri means that we can still be
crazy after all these years. We can
still be angry after all these years.
We can still be timid or jealous or full
of feelirws of unworthiness. The point
is not to try to throw ourselves away
and become something better.
It's about befriending
who we are already.
The ground of practice is you or me or
whoever we are right now, just as we are.
That's the ground, that's what study,
that's what we come to know with
tremendous curiosity and interest.
— Pema Chodron,
The Wisdom ofNo Escape and
the Path of Loving-Kindness
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