In case you thought you understood “Examine the nature of unborn awareness,” let go even of that understanding, that poise, that security, that sense of ground. Let go even of the idea of emptiness, of openness, of space…so whenever you come up with a solid conclusion, let the rug be pulled out. You can pull out your own rug, and you can also let life pull it out for you.

So if you think that everything is solid, that’s one trap, and if you change that for a different belief system, that’s another trap. We have to pull out the rug from under our belief systems altogether. We can do that by letting go of our beliefs, and also our sense of what is right and wrong, by just going back to the simplicity and the immediacy of our present experience, resting in the nature of alaya.

Pema Chödron

from the book Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living

Read a random quote or see all quotes by Pema Chödron.

Further quotes from the book Start Where You Are:

• You are guaranteed to be burned
• The happiness we seek is already here
• Teachings 24/7
• Communication without agenda
• Compassion along the path
• Moving away from comfort and security
• Bottomless heart
• Underneath there’s something extremely soft
• Where Do Thoughts Come From
• Learning from everything
• Gloriousness and wretchedness