Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery

By the willingness to do tonglen, you find, after some time—a few days or a few months or a few years—that you have a teacup full of courage, that somehow, by doing the practice, you awaken your heart and you awaken your courage.

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Being on the spot, even if it hurts, is preferable to avoiding. As we practice moving into the present moment this way, we become more familiar with groundlessness, a fresh state of being that is available to us on an ongoing basis. This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted, and shaky—that’s calle

On the journey of the warrior-bodhisattva, the path goes down, not up, as if the mountain pointed toward the earth instead of the sky. Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward turbulence and doubt however we can. We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it t