“Our repetitive suffering… comes from rejecting our own energy when it comes in a form we don’t like.”
~ Pema Chodron, Taking the Leap
This line really jumped out at me while I was going over some older books on my shelf. I’ve been working with the principle of mirrors in my own spiritual practice for many years, but something about the way Pema Chodron phrases this so directly and succinctly really clicked for me.
Many spiritual traditions include the concept that our outer world experiences are an illusion which mirror to us energy we’re resonating. Our judgments, beliefs and emotions about those mirrors reveal what we are holding onto that is unhealed and out of alignment with divine truth.
But even with this understanding, we may still hold onto the perception of the mirror as that over there while this is me here. If I look closely, I may notice similarities, but I may still hold the belief in something “other”. This quote breaks that pattern and is a powerful reminder that the mirror and me are one and the same, presenting in unique forms. When I am in denial about something I’m resonating because of my judgment and fear, the mirror shines a light on it by showing it to me in a way that I might more easily identify or be more willing to see. Once we truly open ourselves to the divine truth underneath the illusion by looking at it directly, free of judgment, we are well on our way to healing the false reality of our separation from Source.
Pema Chodron follows up this raw truth about rejecting ourselves with some insights on how we can begin to heal that judgment and denial. I share a more expanded quote from the same section of her book, with gratitude for her wisdom and insight:
Our repetitive suffering… comes from rejecting our own energy when it comes in a form we don’t like. It comes from continually strengthening habits of grasping and aversion and distancing ourselves…
But if we choose to practice by acknowledging, pausing, abiding with the energy, and then moving on, the power of this is not just that it weakens old habits but that it burns up the propensity for these habits altogether. The truly wonderful aspect of living this way is that it leaves the space wide open for a completely fresh experience free of self-absorption. Right here, exactly where we are, we can live from a broader perspective, one that admits all experiences- pleasurable, painful, and neutral. (Chodron 36)
Chodron, Pema. Taking the Leap. Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2019.
Image by Paramjeet Singh from Pixabay