This Sunday, Joey led a timely discussion on how to deal with the challenges of acting with wisdom when the whole world (or even just one event) seems set against us. She played excerpts from talks given by Pema Chodron after the September 11th attacks which may be just as relevant today. The talks were from a retreat called “Fully Alive”.
We live in difficult times. Life sometimes seems like a roiling and turbulent river threatening to drown us. Why, in the face of that, shouldn’t we cling for safety to the certainty of the shore—to our comfortably familiar patterns and habits? Because, Pema Chödrön teaches, that kind of fear-based clinging leads only to even greater suffering.
Burlington Buddhist Sangha 