Life is glorious, but life is also wretched.
“Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both.
Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up,
gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if
that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on
others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being
really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The
gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand,
wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably.
Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another
person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into
somebody's eyes because you feel you haven't got anything to
lose--you're just there. The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but
if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We'd be
so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn't have enough
energy to eat an apple. Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other.
One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.”
―
Pema Chödrön,
Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living
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