Karmic Opening

People get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That’s not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. To the degree that you didn’t understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you’re given this gift of teachings in the form of your life, to give you everything you need to open further.
-- Pema Chodron

In the current session of my covenant group, we are talking about being at home with ourselves. The opening reading, by Mary Feagan, is a poem about how we can embrace our whole selves, be at home with our essential nature.

I’m finding this session particularly challenging, because I’m not at home with myself right now. It’s all part of a big package of transitions: transitions in marriage, transitions in career, transitions in lifestyle, transitions in identity.

Pema Chodron’s quote about karma is perhaps what I need to hear. Is my life lesson that I need to open fully and completely? Is that fact that I’m being thrown challenge after challenge, to the point where I’m brought to my knees, because I am not fully open?

Something to ponder.