“There comes a time when the bubble of ego is popped and you can’t get the ground back for an extended period of time. Those times, when you absolutely cannot get it back together, are the most rich and powerful times in our lives.”

– from Shambhala Mountain Center’s Learning to Stay

Someone once asked of me, “Tara, what is the foundation of your practice?”

Foundation can be such a misleading word. By that, I mean, it presupposes that there is just one source. When in fact, there could be many; comprised of all those many times in which we sat ‘broken’ on the floor.

It’s right there, in those moments when we are most humbled – when our ego is ‘popped’, so to speak – that we find ourselves finally  willing to listen.

To listen to what our heart most needs to say.

Zen Master Suzuki Roshi once looked out at his students and said, “All of you are perfect just as you are….and….you could use a little improvement.”

This is the heart of the practice, now, isn’t it? To be graciously accepting of imperfections along our path, knowing – in time, they’ll soon prove their value.

As Pema Chodron explains, we have a lifetime of ‘ancient habits which we’ve been strengthening for a long time, and it’s going to take a while to unwind them.”

It’s these moments of ‘crumbling inward’, my darlings, in which the aperture of our world begins to expand.

We begin to ‘see’ in ways, unlike ever before…through eyes absent ego’s veil.

Instead of dreading the arrival of these troubles as an obstacle, why not view them “as the raw material necessary for awakening compassion” instead?

In looking past we might just find an opportunity to untangle those threads.

“Get out of your head and get into your Heart. Think less, feel more.” reminds Indian mystic, Osho

Indeed, to find the means to get out of your head; to think less, and feel MORE – my darlings, this is the foundation of any practice.