Taking A Walk #23
Taking A Walk with Pema Chodron
When Things Fall Apart
Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.
Pema Chodron
In When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron’s discusses several times in her life when things have fallen apart. She points out a truth that life is a continual series of falling apart and coming back together, falling apart and coming back together, and falling apart and coming back together. Falling apart can be the annihilation of all that we know and understand. She challenges us to stay tender and kind in the midst of falling apart. She describes falling apart as the testing the spiritual warrior needs to be awakened. In awakening, we find we are indestructible.
Intimacy with Fear
Fear is the natural reaction to moving closer to the truth
Pema Chodron
Pema Chodron begins When Things Fall Apart, Heart Advice For Difficult Times with a discussion of fear. She explains that we must get to know fear, “looking it right in the eye — not as a way to solve problems, but as the complete undoing of old ways of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and thinking.” It is about being present to fear, and considering fear as an invitation to courage. I am scared and angry right now. Many of us are. Many of us are faced with a level of fear that some have known for centuries for the first times in our lives. Being present to that is difficult.
This Very Moment Is The Perfect Teacher
We can meet our match with a poodle or a guard dog, but the interesting question is – what happens next?
Pema Chodron
The third chapter in Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart, “This Very Moment Is The Perfect Teacher,” further introduces the idea that the present moment, as fallen apart as it is, can be our teacher. That is a comforting and hopeful thought. Somewhere in that idea lives wisdom, peace, meaning.
Chodron tells the story of her teacher, Trungpa Rinpoche’s, response to being asked if he had ever been afraid. He explains that he was once confronted by a fierce guard dog. The people he was traveling with ran from the dog. He ran toward the dog. The dog was so surprised that he ran quickly away. Chodron views moments when fear and anxiety test us as moments to stop struggling and look directly at what is threatening. She explains: “The spiritual journey involves going beyond hope and fear, stepping in to unknown territory, continually moving forward. The most important aspect of being on the spiritual path may be to just keep moving.” She cautions, acknowledging how hard it can be to keep moving, “Rather than realizing it takes death for there to be birth, we just fight against the fear of death.”