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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Welcoming the Unwelcome summary
Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World
18 mins
Brief summary
Welcoming the Unwelcome by Pema Chödrön is a guide to confronting and transforming negative experiences with compassion and openness. It teaches us how to embrace our discomfort and use it as a tool for personal growth and transformation.
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Welcoming the Unwelcome
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Key idea 1 of 6
Seeking enlightenment begins with a commitment to awakening your heart and mind.
With any project, including a personal one of self-improvement or enlightenment, it’s valuable to have a main goal in mind. For this, you can look to the bodhicitta, the traditional Buddhist path to fully awaken your mind and heart – both in an effort to help yourself and to be of better service to the people in your life.
Buddha teaches that everyone has an essential basic goodness within them. This includes a fundamental desire to help others. But fear, confusion, and hard-to-break habits get in the way of this desire. This is why the first step toward bodhicitta is having the aspiration and commitment to free yourself from those things that stand in the way of helping others.
Having a commitment is important. Enlightenment requires the difficult work of looking deep within to fully know yourself and gain the wisdom that will give you unobscured access to your basic goodness.
In fact, a commitment to bodhicitta takes bravery. It involves facing uncomfortable feelings like loneliness, sadness and heartache. Rather than face these feelings, we commonly distract ourselves with such things as entertainment and work. But the path of enlightenment requires us to retrain our brains to stop blocking or avoiding these feelings and become more familiar with them.
Within every feeling of failure or of being unwanted there is a doorway to bodhicitta and to awakening your heart and mind. So you can take your first step right now by thinking of a past event that left you with sadness, longing, or a broken heart.
One of the author’s teachers, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, explained that “the way to arouse bodhicitta is to begin with a broken heart.” He recalled being a seven-year-old child in Tibet and witnessing a dog being stoned to death by a group of laughing young boys. He has stayed close to the sadness of this event, and he credits it with sparking an urgency in his life to be of service and help to others.
Pushing away or hiding your pain may feel like the right thing to do, but this really only serves to make matters worse in the long run as the unwelcome feelings tend to manifest as anger or other emotional outbursts. To understand your true nature, and to appreciate humanity in all its wonder, you must spend time with heartbreak as well as happiness.
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What is Welcoming the Unwelcome about?
Welcoming the Unwelcome (2019) offers a practical introduction to some of the principles of Buddhism that can help people better cope with the challenges of everyday life. Author Pema Chödrön provides useful insight into Buddhist teachings as well as practices and techniques that anyone can use.
Welcoming the Unwelcome Review
Welcoming the Unwelcome (2019) by Pema Chödrön is an insightful exploration of embracing discomfort and finding peace in difficult times. Here's why this book is worth reading:
- It offers practical wisdom and guidance on how to navigate and transform challenging emotions, fostering personal growth and resilience.
- The book combines Buddhist teachings, personal anecdotes, and mindfulness practices in a way that is both accessible and deeply thought-provoking.
- With its compassionate and empathetic approach, the book reminds us of the power of acceptance and opens up new possibilities for healing and self-discovery.
Who should read Welcoming the Unwelcome?
- People interested in Buddhist teachings
- Depressed or anxious people looking for advice
- People coping with life’s difficulties
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Welcoming the Unwelcome FAQs
What is the main message of Welcoming the Unwelcome?
The main message of Welcoming the Unwelcome is embracing discomfort as a path to inner growth and peace.
How long does it take to read Welcoming the Unwelcome?
The reading time for Welcoming the Unwelcome varies, but it typically takes several hours. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is Welcoming the Unwelcome a good book? Is it worth reading?
Welcoming the Unwelcome is worth reading as it offers valuable insights on finding peace amidst challenging situations.
Who is the author of Welcoming the Unwelcome?
Pema Chödrön is the author of Welcoming the Unwelcome.
What to read after Welcoming the Unwelcome?
If you're wondering what to read next after Welcoming the Unwelcome, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön
- Start Where You Are by Pema Chödrön
- Bittersweet by Susan Cain
- The Art of Letting Go by Nick Trenton
- Getting Past Your Breakup by Susan J. Elliott
- No Self, No Problem by Chris Niebauer
- Conscious Uncoupling by Katherine Woodward Thomas
- The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Translated and commentated on by Sri Swami Satchidananda
- The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
- Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach