Last week I said that pretending you are or thinking you should be different is one of the top two time waters. (The other one is resentment.) This week, I received the following quote via email from Oceans of Dharma Quotes of the Week:
We get angry with ourselves, saying, “I could do better than this. What’s wrong with me? I seem to be getting worse. I’m going backwards.” We’re angry at the whole world, including ourselves. Everything we see is an insult. The universe becomes the expression of total insult. One has to relate with that. If you are going to exert your power and energy to walk on the path, you have to work with yourself.
The first step is to make friends with yourself. That is almost the motto of shamatha [mindfulness meditation] experience. Making friends with yourself means accepting and acknowledging yourself. You work with your subconscious gossip, fantasies, dreams — everything. And everything that you learn about yourself you bring back to the technique, to the awareness of the breathing, which was taught by the Buddha.
From “The 4th Moment” in the SHAMBHALA SUN magazine, March 2006, page 46.
