Pema Chodron quotes - page 3

Most of us do not take these situations as teachings. We automatically hate them. We run like crazy. We use all kinds of ways to escape - all addictions stem from this moment when we meet our edge and we just can't stand it. We feel we have to soften it, pad it with something, and we become addicted to whatever it is that seems to ease the pain. (Pema Chodron)
Nothing in its essence is one way or the other. View quote
Pema Chodron
"Be grateful to everyone" is about making peace with the aspects of ourselves that we have rejected... If we were to make a list of people we don't like - people we find obnoxious, threatening, or worthy of contempt - we would discover much about those aspects of ourselves that we can't face... other people trigger the karma that we haven't worked out. View quote
Pema Chodron
When there's a disappointment, I don't know if it's the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure. View quote
Pema Chodron
Once you create a self-justifying storyline, your emotional entrapment within it quadruples. View quote
Pema Chodron
Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. View quote
Pema Chodron
Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live. View quote
Pema Chodron
Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can't simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment. We feel that someone else knows what is going on, but that there is something missing in us, and therefore something is lacking in our world. View quote
Pema Chodron
When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something. We might realize that this is a very vulnerable and tender place, and that tenderness can go either way. We can shut down and feel resentful or we can touch in on that throbbing quality. (9) View quote
Pema Chodron
The essence of bravery is being without self-deception. View quote
Pema Chodron
The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently. (Pema Chodron)
No one ever tells us to stop running away from fear...the advice we usually get is to sweeten it up, smooth it over, take a pill, or distract ourselves, but by all means make it go away. (5) View quote
Pema Chodron
When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space. View quote
Pema Chodron
Without giving up hope-that there's somewhere better to be, that there's someone better to be-we will never relax with where we are or who we are. View quote
Pema Chodron
Things are as bad and as good as they seem. There's no need to add anything extra. View quote
Pema Chodron
One can appreciate & celebrate each moment - there's nothing more sacred. There's nothing more vast or absolute. In fact, there's nothing more! View quote
Pema Chodron
The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn't mean that something is wrong. What a relief. Finally somebody told the truth. Suffering is part of life, and we don't have to feel it's happening because we personally made the wrong move. In reality, however, when we feel suffering, we think that something is wrong. As long as we're addicted to hope, we feel that we can tone our experience down or liven it up or change it somehow, and we continue to suffer a lot. View quote
Pema Chodron
The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does or does not believe in God. . . Theism is a deep-seated conviction that there's some hand to hold: if we just do the right things, someone will appreciate us and take care of us. . . Nontheism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves. View quote
Pema Chodron
The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have. View quote
Pema Chodron
We insist on being Someone, with a capital S. We get security from defining ourselves as worthless or worthy, superior or inferior. We waste precious time exaggerating or romanticizing or belittling ourselves with a complacent surety that yes, that's who we are. We mistake the openness of our being-the inherent wonder and surprise of each moment-for a solid, irrefutable self. Because of this misunderstanding, we suffer. View quote
Pema Chodron
It isn't the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it's how we relate to the things that happen to us that causes us to suffer. (Pema Chodron)
This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it's with us wherever we go. View quote
Pema Chodron
We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. View quote
Pema Chodron
What happens with you when you begin to feel uneasy, unsettled, queasy? Notice the panic, notice when you instantly grab for something. (51) View quote
Pema Chodron
At the root of all the harm we cause is ignorance. View quote
Pema Chodron