Equanimity

"When the energy simply flows through us, just as it flows through the grass and the trees and the ravens and the bears and the moose and the ocean and the rocks, we discover that we are not solid at all.  And if we sit still like the mountain Gampo Lhatse in a hurricane, if we don't protect ourselves from the trueness and the vividness and the immediacy and the lack of confirmation of simply being part of life, then we are not this separate being who has to have things turn out our way."  Pema Chodron

Heart

"We may think that by closing the heart we'll protect ourselves from feeling the pain of the world, but instead we isolate ourselves even more from joy."  Elizabeth Lesser

Armor

"The same armor that accumulates over the years to defend against the pain and fear becomes the same armor that keeps us from healing, from experiencing joy, from feeling love.   This armoring is the accumulation of all the moments we have given ourselves and others so little mercy.   We are so hard on ourselves, so hard on each other.  Healing begins when we soften our stance toward our own tender self."  Stephen Levine

Promises and Commitments

"It is uncomfortable when someone perceives us as breaking faith with past promises.   Yet, if we live fully, it is inevitable that this will sometimes happen, because change in inevitable, and commitments, if they are to remain vital, must be remade and renewed.   Often we protect ourselves from the knowledge of broken promises by pretending nothing has changed."  Oriah

Solitude in Relationship

"I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protect the solitude of the other."  Rilke

Gaurding

"Instead of guarding yourself, instead of pushing things away, begin to get in touch with the fact that there's a very soft spot under all that armor, and blame is probably one of the most well-perfected armors that we have." Pema Chondron

Karma

"People get into heavy sin and guilt trips, feeling that if things are going wrong, that they are being punished.  That is not the idea at all.   The idea of Karma is that you continually get the teaching that you need to open your heart.   To the degree that you didn't understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you're given this gift of teachings in the form of your life, to give your everything you need to open further."  Pema Chondron

Guilt and Fear...the Lie

"People were given to believe that they were naturally bad and sinful.   They let this toxic idea into their minds and it gradually poisoned their whole way of seeing themselves.   Sin was in every corner and probable damnation waited at the end of the road.   People were drafted into blasphame against their own nature.  You could not let yourself go.   Any longing to claim your nature or pursue your wildness would lead to ruin.   This corrupted the innocence of people's sensual lives and broke the fluency of their souls.   Rather than walk the path with the encouraging companionship of your protecting angel beside you and the passionate creativity of the Holy Spirit at your deepest core you were trapped between guilt and fear."   John O' Donahue