04/12/2023
Very wise words from Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Being friends with ourself is such an important, fundamental thing.
I had never thought of it as ego medicine before. Interesting
Sometimes it's not about me
And it is nice to be in a place of caring for others.
That healthy ego place is very nice when it happens...very nice.
I have just got back from a John Seed DeepEcology weekend.
What a lovely group of people.
Really Love ly
So inspiring
Ecozoic
Buddhism may seem to be mostly about fighting the ego, talking about non-self and emptiness, but in the beginning the Buddha said to become friends with yourself, because it is your ego that will have to walk the path. To develop deep understandings, we have to be friends with our ego.
We must forgive ourselves, love ourselves, and wish ourselves happiness. In other words, we must have a small, happy and healthy sense of self that will walk the path of non-self. This is very important. Otherwise, our self will not be able to walk on the path. If we break our leg, we cannot walk and all we do is think about how much it hurts. As soon as someone touches us, we feel pain. That leg is quite useless, because it is broken. But when the leg heals, we can jump, we can run, and we no longer think about our leg because it is healthy.
When our ego is sick, we are constantly thinking, “I, I, I... poor me, I am so stupid, hopeless, I am too this, too that.” It's just “I, I, I...” When instead we have a strong and healthy sense of self, when we are friends with ourselves, we don't think so much about ourselves and we are much more interested in others. We are free from self-obsession because we are healthy. The problem with some of these psychological approaches is that we end up in the spiral of ego. In many cases it can be easier to sit down and become friends with the self. Forgive yourself, and say, “It's OK.” Smile at yourself, and love yourself in a friendly way.
- Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Jetsunma at the Sakyadhita Conference in Australia (June 2019). Photo by Olivier Adam.
