The Forces That Oppose Us

A friend recently heard this quote at a Zen lecture at Green Gulch . I thought I would share:

"Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over again to annihilation can that which is indestructible rise within us. In this lies the dignity of daring. Thus, the aim of practice is not to develop an attitude which allows us to acquire a state of harmony and peace wherein nothing can ever trouble us. On the contrary, practice should teach us to let ourselves be assaulted, perturbed, moved, insulted, broken, and battered–that is to say, it should enable us to dare to let go our futile hankering after harmony, surcease from pain, and a comfortable life in order that we may discover, in doing battle with the forces that oppose us, that which awaits us beyond the world of opposites."