There’s no way to make a dreadful situation pretty. But we can use the pain of it to recognize our sameness with other people. Shantideva said that since all sentient beings suffer from strong, conflicting emotions, and all sentient beings get what they don’t want and can’t hold on to what they do want, and all sentient beings have physical distress, why am I making such a big deal about just me? Since we’re all in this together, why am I making such a big deal about myself? The attitude of the ferryman is that whatever usually drags us down and causes us to withdraw into ourselves is the stepping-stone for awakening our compassion and for contacting the vast, unbiased mind of the warrior.

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:

• What are you doing when you are unhappy
• The real cause of our suffering
• Beyond our comfort zone
• The mandala of our life
• Just our personal viewpoint
• We Have a Choice
• Difficult relationships
• Groundlessness
• Holding a diversity party in our living room
• Building Inner Strength
• A Wall of Truth
• Unfettered mind
• Everything and everyone is in process
• Forever in flux
• Embracing the groundlessness of our situation
• The knack of refraining
• Renouncing one thing
• The detox period
• Practicing with Strong Emotions