An excerpt from a teaching called How Buddhists Think by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
When you hear unfamiliar Buddhist ideas, don’t get tightly wrapped up and constipated about them. You’ve been going in a different direction for lo, these many aeons. Just relax, be okay. You have that choice. You can hear the teachings. You can utilize them to the best of your ability. On the other hand, don’t let yourself get away with thoughts that block you from utilizing the teachings. Such thoughts will pop up for you.
You were brought up in a materialist society, and its imprint is on your mind. You may therefore have a tendency to think: “Well, that idea doesn’t sound right to me” or “That sounds foreign to me.” Don’t let yourself be stopped by tripping over your own brain.
When you embark on a spiritual path, you should expect to be challenged. You should expect that because you are on a path that necessitates change. Or else, you are choosing to remain as you are, an ordinary sentient being in cyclic existence, with all its pervasive suffering.
If you are considering the Buddhist Path, you are considering that which leads to Enlightenment. If your goal is supreme Realization, if you want to be free of the suffering of cyclic existence, then change you must. So get used to that word “change.” It’s going to be your best friend––at times. Allow yourself the fluidity and spaciousness you need.
© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo
To download the complete teaching, clickhereand scroll down to How Buddhists Think
