Читать книгу Summary: When Things Fall Apart. Heart Advice for Difficult Times. Pema Chödrön - Smart Reading, Ольга Ганкова - Страница 2

Before she became a Buddhist nun, Pema Chӧdrӧn worked as a primary school teacher and was married with three children at home. Everything started to change on the fateful day when her husband came home from work and told her he was having an affair. Responding to the question how she came to Buddhism, Pema jokes that it was because she was so outraged at her husband. In reality, when her marriage ended, she tried to put her life back together in the usual way, but it didn’t work. Then she realized that the only way out was to leave the old, dependent version of herself behind and allow her ego to be completely destroyed so she could work with was left of her once indestructible self.

"When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times" was first published in 1997 and included lectures and presentations that Pema Chӧdrӧn delivered between 1987 and 1994. This was many years ago, but the content of this book is as relevant as ever. During times of turbulence, uncertainty, and an unclear future, all of us feel fear, pain and anxiety. Apart from major global catastrophes there are still both big and small tragedies happening in all of our lives. We face loss and disappointment, and we live through personal crises and difficult family and career stages. How do you cope with all this pain? How do you preserve the ability to love and feel compassion, and for yourself as well?

Pema Chӧdrӧn answers the question like this: "Life is our best teacher and friend." If we opt not to run away from life’s lessons, if we refuse to hide from what our fate brings us and, do the opposite, open up to pain, let ourselves feel all these emotions, negative ones included, truly let ourselves linger on the edge of an abyss, we can learn. We learn to relax in the very heart of chaos, keep calm and treat all living beings close to us and distant from us with sincere compassion and kindness.

In her book, Pema Chӧdrӧn provides practical techniques and instructions to help calm the mind, treat the wounds of the heart and turn the poison of suffering into a healing elixir. Such moments, when the ground crumbles under your feet and the familiar world falls apart, can become turning points in our lives. This is the way we learn that absence of stability is actually the key to life. The moment we accept this, we start healing from illusions and unconsciousness. There is room for everything in life, grief and joy, tension and relief, sorrow and bliss. And, fortunately for us, we indeed don’t know what’ll come next. The death of our hopes may become a starting point for something new and beautiful.