All the wars, all the hatred, all the ignorance in the world come out of being so invested in our opinions. And at bottom, those opinions are merely our efforts to escape the underlying uneasiness of being human, the uneasiness of feeling like we can’t get ground under our feet. So we hold on to our fixed ideas of this is how it is and disparage any opposing views. But imagine what the world would be like if we could come to see our likes and dislikes as merely likes and dislikes, and what we take to be intrinsically true as just our personal viewpoint.
Pema Chödron
from the book Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change
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Further quotes from the book Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change:
- Groundlessness
- Holding a diversity party in our living room
- Building Inner Strength
- A Wall of Truth
- Unfettered mind
- Stepping-stones for awakening our compassion
- What are you doing when you are unhappy
- The real cause of our suffering
- Beyond our comfort zone
- The mandala of our life
- We Have a Choice
- Difficult relationships
- Forever in flux
- Everything and everyone is in process
- Embracing the groundlessness of our situation
- The knack of refraining
- The detox period
- Renouncing one thing
- Practicing with Strong Emotions