Pema Chodron’s teachings show how, though difficult to assimilate, life looks more like a large, fast and turbulent river than the placid lake that is sometimes imagined; however, as frightened beings, we cling tightly to the riverbank for fear of entering its turbulent waters, and it is precisely this fear that becomes an obstacle for the person to feel totally alive.
This Buddhist professor, author of several books, gives us three keys to learn to enter the turbulent river of life, in the face of chaos, uncertainty and change, these keys are called the three commitments and can be a good guide to “Present yourself with courage and fullness”. in this world that sometimes seems to want to drown us.
- We appreciate the certainties.
- Don’t we? However.
- We live in a world where change is constant.
- Little or nothing and everything is moving.
- So we often cling tightly to the utopia of a safe.
- Controllable and reliable life.
Uncertainty is able to generate terrible anxiety, trapping the person in beliefs of inability to overcome obstacles and making him a prisoner of her own thoughts about that fear. The chaos in which life develops can be summed up in three very simple concepts:
“Living is like getting on a ship that’s about to sail out to sea and sink. “Shunryu Suzuki Roshi?
Much of human unrest lies in this tendency to want to feel the ground safely under their feet and to maintain the dream of constant well-being, often people resist change because it removes that floor, which is a mirage that gives us security. .
However, this resistance to change causes a great lot of suffering and deprives us of the freedom to awaken and discover our true nature, but what if, instead of getting lost in ambiguity and uncertainty, we simply accept them as facts that we cannot change?What if we stop resisting change, what if we decided to sit down and enjoy the trip?
The teachings of Tibetan Buddhism shared by Professor Pema Chodron have keys in the form of vows or commitments with themselves. These are simple instructions at its core that help us embrace the chaotic, dynamic, stimulating and changing nature of life. Here are the three commitments:
These pema Chodron teachings are, in fact, tools to manage chaos, the unpredictability that can happen in life, they learn to deal with the uncertainty of not knowing what will come next, to be able to manage changes, help us develop certain skills. to face the many challenges that life has prepared for us.
We can cope with chaos by learning to transform our minds as changes occur. You can learn to improvise and trust that you will have all the colors in the pencil case. We can overcome uncertainty by accepting it instead of fighting it. surpassed, we will have a much better view of life. We can see that this is really a constant adventure.