Working with Where We Are

When people start to mediate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, the 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 be a 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 feelings 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 we study, that's what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.

--Pema Chodron

James: It's so difficult sometimes to just accept who we are already isn't it? We constantly yearn to be something else, something better--anything other then "us." Yet we can't be any better then we are in this present moment because this is the only moment we have. Radical acceptance is such an important lesson to learn in our spiritual journey.

~Peace to all beings~