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Saturday, November 14, 2015

Keep breaking your heart until it opens

"Keep breaking your heart until it opens" - I have read this quote some time ago and it has risen an immediate disagreement with me. Why should anyone break their heart - on purpose? Isn't it plain stupid? Isn't a broken heart just a consequence of stupid actions, unjustified beliefs, and eventually a plain rejection of the reality?
I kept the image with the quote on my cellphone, partially as a reminder that at least someone thinks that such stupidity has some benefit in it. Well, someone also said that we learn from our mistakes, but somehow a "broken heart" category seems to be hard to learn from. Despite our beliefs about classifications, situations and people are so different that it is hard to generalise.
And now I am reading Pema Chodron, and she gives such a beautiful answer: A "..broken heart.." is "..our link with all those who have ever loved". Indeed, here's the meaning, here's why it is not a loss, not a stupidity. You may lose one person but connect with everyone who suffers. Pain, loss, grief - these experiences are not unique. Thousands of people are suffering right now. If you are suffering yourself, you are not alone. You are just a part of this universe, where joy and sorrow are just present.
“The experience of being free of fixed mind often happens because of trauma or crisis,” says Pema Chodron. And this is another gift of a tragedy. It is that moment when the perceptions fall and life remains just as it is: momentous, unglorified, uncertain.
“When you feel bad, let it be your link to others’ suffering. When you feel good, let it be your link with others’ joy.”(Pema Chodron).

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