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Pema Chodron Quotes - Page 9

All Quotes Acceptance Acting Addiction Appreciation Attitude Awakening Awareness Belief Bravery Buddhism Certainty Challenges Change Character Children Choices Clarity Commitment Compassion Confusion Curiosity Desire Determination Disappointment Drama Earth Ego Empathy Energy Enlightenment Experience Fear Feelings Finding Yourself Freedom Giving Giving Up Grief Happiness Healing Heart Honesty Humanity Hurt Identity Ignorance Insecurity Inspirational Inspiring Journey Joy Justice Karma Kindness Learning Letting Go Life Loneliness Meditation Mindfulness Opportunity Pain Peace Peace Of Mind Perfection Perspective Pleasure Prejudice Quality Reality Resentment Revenge Running Sadness Sleep Sorrow Spirituality Struggle Suffering Teaching Train Training Understanding Waiting Warrior Water Wisdom

Share the wealth. Be generous with your joy. Give away what you most want. Be generous with your insights and delights.

Share the wealth. Be generous with your joy. Give away what you most want. Be generous with your insights and delights.

Giving, Joy, Delight

Pema Chodron (2007). “Always Maintain a Joyful Mind: And Other Lojong Teachings on Awakening Compassion and Fearlessness”, p.9, Shambhala Publications

To live is to be willing to die over and over again.

Willing, Willing To Die, Dies

Pema Chodron (2000). “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”, p.93, Shambhala Publications

That could be applied to whatever you feel. Maybe anger is your thing. You just go out of control and you see red, and the next thing you know you're yelling or throwing something or hitting someone. At that time, begin to accept the fact that that's "enraged buddha." If you feel jealous, that's "jealous buddha." If you have indigestion, that's "buddha with heartburn." If you're happy, "happy buddha"; if bored, "bored buddha." In other words, anything that you can experience or think is worthy of compassion; anything you could think or feel is worthy of appreciation.

Appreciation, Jealous, Maturity

If your everyday practice is open to all your emotions, to all the people you meet, to all the situations you encounter, without closing down, trusting that you can do that - then that will take you are far as you can go. And then you'll understand all the teachings that anyone has ever taught.

Love, Teaching, Practice

I dedicate the merit of the occasion to all beings. This gesture of universal friendship has been likened to a drop of fresh spring water. If we put it on a rock in the sunshine, it will soon evaporate. If we put it in the ocean, however, it will never be lost. Thus the wish is made that we not keep the teachings to ourselves but to use them to benefit others.

Spring, Ocean, Teaching

This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it's with us wherever we go.

Teacher, Irritation, Perfect

If right now our emotional reaction to seeing a certain person or hearing certain news is to fly into a rage or to get despondent or something equally extreme, it's because we have been cultivating that particular habit for a very long time.

Emotional, Long, News

Pema Chodron (2009). “Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears”, p.7, Shambhala Publications

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.

Experience, Alive, Nests

Pema Chodron (2000). “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”, p.93, Shambhala Publications

The ego seeks to divide and separate. Spirit seeks to unify and heal.

Ego, Spirit, Heal

"Comparison Is the Voice of the Ego" by Hera Bosley, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 22, 2015.

Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It's the kind of place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid.

Inspirational, Heartbreak, Spiritual

In tonglen practice, when we see or feel suffering, we  breathe in with the notion of completely feeling it, accepting it, and owning it. Then we breathe out, radiating compassion, lovingkindness, freshness - anything that encourages relaxation and openness.  So you're training in softening, rather than tightening, your heart. In this practice, it's not uncommon to find yourself blocked, because you come face to face with your own fear, resistance, or whatever your personal "stuckness" happens to be at that moment.

Heart, Compassion, Practice

You're the only one who knows when you're using things to protect yourself and keep your ego together and when you're opening and letting things fall apart, letting the world come as it is - working with it rather than struggling against it. You're the only one who knows.

Struggle, Fall, Ego

Pema Chodron (2001). “Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living”, p.126, Shambhala Publications

Unconditional good heart toward others is not even a possibility unless we attend to our own demons.

Heart, Demon, Possibility

Pema Chodron (2002). “The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times”, p.64, Shambhala Publications

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 takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, companions in awakening from fear.

Pain, Moving, Warrior

Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.

Real, Compassion, Empathy

Pema Chodron (2003). “Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion”, p.73, Shambhala Publications

We are all capable of becoming fundamentalists because we get addicted to other people's wrongness.

People, Becoming, Capable

Enlightenment is a direct experience with reality.

Reality, Enlightenment, Spirituality

Remind yourself, in whatever way is personally meaningful, that it is not in your best interest to reinforce thoughts and feelings of unworthiness. Even if you've already taken the bait and feel the familiar pull of self-denigration, marshal your intelligence, courage, and humor in order to turn the tide. Ask yourself: Do I want to strengthen what I'm feeling now? Do I want to cut myself off from my basic goodness? Remind yourself that your fundamental nature is unconditionally open and free.

Meaningful, Taken, Cutting

Pema Chodron (2008). “The Pocket Pema Chodron”, p.46, Shambhala Publications

Although we have the potential to experience the freedom of a butterfly, we mysteriously prefer the small and fearful cocoon of ego.

Butterfly, Ego, Cocoons

Pema Chodron (2002). “The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times”, p.12, Shambhala Publications

The mind is very wild. The human experience is full of unpredictability and paradox, joys and sorrows, successes and failures. We can't escape any of these experiences in the vast terrain of our existence. It is part of what makes life grand-and it is also why our minds take us on such a crazy ride. If we can train ourselves through meditation to be more open and more accepting toward the wild arc of our experience, if we can lean into the difficulties of life and the ride of our minds, we can become more settled and relaxed amid whatever life brings us.

Crazy, Meditation, Joy

The next time you encounter fear, consider yourself lucky. This is where the courage comes in. Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear. When I was first married, my husband said I was one of the bravest people he knew. When I asked him why, he said because I was a complete coward but went ahead and did things anyhow.

Husband, Thinking, People

When we sit down to meditate, we connect with something unconditional - a state of mind, a basic environment that does not grasp or reject anything. Meditation is probably the only activity that doesn't add anything to the picture. Everything is allowed to come and go without further embellishment. Meditation is a totally nonviolent, non aggressive occupation. Not filling the space, allowing for the possibility of connecting with unconditional openness - this provides the basis for real change.

Real, Space, Meditation

Pema Chodron (2008). “The Pocket Pema Chodron”, p.79, Shambhala Publications

The only way to ease our pain is to experience it fully. Learn to stay with uneasiness, learn to stay with the tightening, so that the habitual chain reaction doesn't continue to rule your life.

Pain, Ease, Way

Pema Chodron (2009). “Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears”, p.28, Shambhala Publications

Constantly apply cheerfulness, if for no other reason than because you are on this spiritual path. Have a sense of gratitude to everything, even difficult emotions, because of their potential to wake you up.

Spiritual, Gratitude, Wakes You

Pema Chodron (2007). “Always Maintain a Joyful Mind: And Other Lojong Teachings on Awakening Compassion and Fearlessness”, p.43, Shambhala Publications

Even if you don't feel appreciation, just look. Feel what you feel; take an interest and be curious.

Appreciation, Looks, Curious

Pema Chodron (2001). “Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living”, p.33, Shambhala Publications

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