"Start Where You Are"

One Buddhist(American) teacher, Pema Chodron, has a book called Start Where You Are.
This title says quite a lot about the nature of a psycho-spiritual approach to well being and wisdom that is in some fundamental way radically different - and I would say much healthier - from our more familiar way of experiencing the world and ourselves.

In this Buddhist view, the implication is that we can well afford to stop and look closely at ourselves, and that if we do this, we will probably not find something essentially evil or corrupt or bad. This is very different from our Western/Christian view of ourselves, which often is precisely the opposite; that is, that if we stop and look closely at ourselves, we will indeed find something evil and corrupt and bad. In the Buddhist view, we are essentially good, though ignorance and mis-guidedness can make things appear differently. In the Christian view, often, we are essentially corrupt, evil, "fallen", and our very existence is an affront to God.

It may not be too difficult to grasp the different psycho/spiritual/emotional implications of each of these world views. I have routinely seen the devastating results of the Western view in my work. Imagine the difference inherent in a more positive view of man, or get to know someone who's world view includes a more positive view of man, and a new world of psychic possibilities opens up. It might be appropriate to actually relate lovingly toward yourself, for example, instead of being burdened with a bottom line experience of self hatred.

What would change in your world if you were worthy, and felt that you were worthy, of love? What would change in your world if you were absolutely worthy and deserving of, and felt that you were worthy and deserving of nothing less than respect and consideration?

We like to think that our psychological and emotional makeup is difficult to understand. In fact, it is rather easy to understand. A follows B, so to speak. The implications of being treated this way or that way, of internalizing these messages or those about ourselves, of believing this or that about the world and about ourselves, are very clear. If you believe that you are most fundamentally bad, cosmically bad, bad in the eyes of God, you will feel and behave in certain fairly predictable ways, and these ways will not be conducive to your health and well being or to the health and well being of anyone or anything else.

Start where you are, even if where you are is pretty awful. The implication is that you can, ultimately, trust that because you are in fact good, good will come from your humble, confused, terrified starting place.

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