The Dharma Changes Us
Ani Sangye Chodron Dharma is something that has to change us when we study it—which makes it not such an easy subject, since its job is to touch our most tender and protected places and uproot all the habits we cling to so dearly. It’s rather scary to sit down with a strong emotion or sensation and just look without reacting, thus its easy to come up with all sorts of ways to avoid doing so. The obvious trap of procrastination is our daily activities, but it seems that we have to know how to study, and if we don’t then the study itself becomes a more subtle way of procrastinating—that it is easy to get lost in the endless sea of topics to be known. The amount of study we can do for classes is endless, so learning how to apply study, reflection and mediation in an appropriate proportion is an invaluable skill. RYI has been very helpful in that regard this year. The first method of procrastinating, is remedied quite well by reflecting on the four thoughts that turn the mi