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A lovely quote to enjoy

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is
invisible to the eye." -- Antoine de Saint Exupery

When I was about six years old, I received the essential bodhichitta
teaching from an old woman sitting in the sun. I was walking by her house
one day feeling lonely, unloved and mad, kicking anything I could find.
Laughing, she said to me, "Little girl, don't you go letting life harden
your heart."

Right there, I received this pith instruction: We can let the circumstances
of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid,
or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares
us. We always have this choice.

If we were to ask the Buddha, "What is bodhichitta?" He might tell us that
this world is easier to understand than to translate. He might encourage us
to seek out ways to find its meaning in our own lives. He might tantalize
us by adding that it is only bodhichitta that heals, that bodhichitta is
capable of transforming the hardest of hearts and the most prejudiced and
fearful minds.

Chitta means "mind" and also "heart" or "attitude." Bodhi means "awake,"
"enlightened," or "completely open." Sometimes the completely open heart
and mind of bodhichitta is called the soft spot, a place as vulnerable and
tender as an open wound. It is equated, in part, with our ability to love.
Even the cruelest people have this soft spot. Even the most vicious animals
love their offspring. As Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche put it, "Everybody loves
something, even if it's only tortillas."

Bodhichitta is also equated, in part, with compassion-our ability to feel
the pain that we share with others. Without realizing it, we continually
shield ourselves from this pain because it scares us. We put up protective
walls made of opinions, prejudices and strategies, barriers that are built
on a deep fear of being hurt. These walls are further fortified by emotions
of all kinds: anger, craving, indifference, jealousy and envy, arrogance
and pride. But fortunately for us, the soft spot-our innate ability to love
and to care about things-is like a crack in these walls we erect. It's a
natural opening in the barriers we create when we're afraid. With practice
we can learn to find this opening. We can learn to seize that vulnerable
moment-love, gratitude, loneliness, embarrassment, inadequacy-to awaken
bodhichitta.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Part 1 of 8; "The Awakened Heart: Pema Chodron on the Excellence of
Bodhichitta;" Shambala Sun, 9/01 - From The Places That Scare You: A Guide
to Fearlessness in Difficult Times; 2001, Pema Chodron, Shambhala
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