Path of the bohisattva-warrior

Thought I would share what I read this morning from The Pocket by Pema Chodron:

Wherever we are, we can train as a warrior. The practices of meditation, loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity are our tools. With the helps of these practices, we can uncover the soft spot of bodhichitta, the tenderness of awakened heart. We will find that tenderness in sorrow and in gratitude. We will find it behind the hardness of rage and in the shakiness of fear. It is available in loneliness as well as in kindness.
Many of us prefer practices that will not cause discomfort, yet the same time we want to be healed. But bodhichitta training doesn't work that way. A warrior accepts that we can never know what will happen to us next. We can try to control the uncontrollable by looking for security and predictability, always hoping to be comfortable and safe. But the truth is that we can never avoid uncertainty. This not knowing is part of the adventure, and it's also what makes us afraid.
Bodhichitta training offers no promise of happy endings. Rather, this "i" who wants to find security--who wants something to hold on to--can finally learn to grown up. The central question of a warrior's training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort. How do we practice with difficulty , with our emotions, with the unpredictable encounters of an ordinary day?--Pema Chodron, The Pocket


In between reading the texts I have to finish by April for the teacher training/workshop; I am fitting in some Dharma books. (And I am fitting in bits and pieces of Yoga Body, Buddha Mind...which I really like)

Learning about Buddhism; currently listening and reading Dharma books in relation to Tibetan Buddhism; it can be overwhelming. There is a lot that details the belief system of the Tibetan Buddhist. I believe next on my list is Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh. Denver is reading a different book by him currently and really enjoys his teachings. So we are just dipping our big toe in to see how it resonates with us. But there are some texts that you read an your like “yeah…that makes total sense to me.”

The excerpt above is one of those texts.

Yoga related:

Tonight is Mysore with Manju! I am excited and nervous. But I will take whatever body shows up on my mat tonight…stiff, open, tired or irritated. I will work with what I bring to the mat.

I am also going to dedicate my practice to my dear friends sister Carrie who has been fighting cancer and had some irregularity show up on an MRI.

I am also going to dedicate my practice to my husband in hopes that we somehow figure out what is his body is doing. They keep running tests to see why his legs and joints are loosing their mobility.

Please keep them both in your thoughts and prayers.