Contemplative Monday

The following quote is from 'Heart Advice, Weekly Quotes From Pema Chodron'.

TAKING YOUR ARMOR OFF 

"Taking refuge in the Buddha means that we are willing to spend our life 

reconnecting with the quality of being continually awake.

Every time we feel like taking refuge in a habitual means of escape,

we take off more armor, undoing all the stuff  that covers over our wisdom

and our gentleness and our awake quality. We're not trying to be something we aren't;

rather, we're reconnecting with who we are.

So when we say, "I take refuge in the Buddha," that means I take refuge in the courage

and the potential of fearlessness, of removing all the armor

 that covers this awakeness of mine.

I am awake; I will spend my life taking this armor off. 

Nobody else can take it off because nobody else knows

where it's sewed up tight, where it's going to take a lot of work

to get that particular iron thread untied.

You have to do it alone."