Holding Your Seat teaching

Image is of a saddle

"Living with ourselves is like riding a fickle horse" - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

But we can hold our seat.  We don't need to be thrown off the horse; the horse doesn't need to run away with us.

Staying present in present time

The message of holding your seat is "don't exaggerate".

Don't escalate.  Just stay on the dot with what's happening right now.

Synchronize body and mind.  Just keep coming back gently to the present.  Feel your heart.

- Pema Chodron
from the "Smile at Fear" audio cds

Reservoir of Trust teaching

You can trust that whatever you say or do, you'll get a response from the world.

Joy comes from realizing nothing is ever a dead end.

No feeling is final.  - Rilke

There will always be communication coming back to you.  The world will always be giving you the information you need to open.

You begin to feel that it's a very rich world; one that never runs out of messages.

A bank of richness.

A reservoir that never dries up.

There will always be communication from your world and you can always be learning how to go forward.

Trust in the richness of the world.

- Pema Chodron
from the cd collection "Smile at Fear"

Open Like the Sun teaching

Notice that you're closing, then open.
Notice that you're tightening, then lighten up.
Notice that your mind is judging, then let go.

Try to experience a place beyond solid mind.

The practice is like the sun because there are no exceptions; there is no time when you don't apply it.

Opening instead of closing.

How to do that?  That's your question.

- Pema Chodron
from the cd collection "Smile at Fear"