Boss, coworker, spouse, roommate, mother, father, child—who are the people you
really dislike and wish would simply go away? Be grateful to them: they’re your
own special gurus, showing up right on time to keep you honest. It’s the
troublemakers in your life who cause you to see that you’ve shut down, that
you’ve armored yourself, that you’ve hidden your head in the sand. If you didn’t
get angry at them, if you didn’t get fed up with them, you would never be able
to cultivate patience. If you didn’t envy them, if you weren’t jealous of them,
you would never think to stretch beyond your mean-spiritedness and try to
rejoice in their good fortune. If you never met your match, you might think you
were better than everybody else and arrogantly criticize their neurotic behavior
rather than do something about your own.
Excerpt above from Pema Chodron's new book Living Beautifully (Shambhala Publications).
-- Janet
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