Go to places that scare you.

Padampa Sangye made a prophecy to the great female saint Machig Labdron, part of which includes:

Go to places that scare you.  In haunted places, seek the Buddha within yourself.  

He revealed to her that the fruit of her practice was to be found in those places that evoke a lot of emotional and mental discomfort.  Rangjung Dorje says:

Rest wherever your mind is afraid and terrified- that is a place of practice.  

Where do we encounter a lot of resistance in our lives?  What places really challenge us, push our buttons?  Where do we feel intense aversion and the impulse to leave?

Those are the places we should be applying our practice.

Our practice should include a place we can go for refuge and find peace and clarity, where we can rest in our natural buddhanature.  But it should also include places that scare us. 

Can we discover the Buddha within amidst fear and uncertainty?  We should try.