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Pema Chodron Quotes about Suffering

All Pema Chodron 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 quotes Teaching Train Training Understanding Waiting Warrior Water Wisdom

Resisting what is happening is a major cause of suffering.

Resisting what is happening is a major cause of suffering.

Suffering, Causes, Happenings

It isn't the things that are happening to us that cause us to suffer, it's what we say to ourselves about the things that are happening. The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

Believe, Suffering, Causes

We have a choice. We can spend our whole life suffering because we can't relax with how things really are, or we can relax and embrace the open-endedness of the human situation, which is fresh, unfixated, unbiased.

Choices, Suffering, Relax

Pema Chodron (2012). “Living Beautifully: with Uncertainty and Change”, p.14, Shambhala Publications

Instead of asking ourselves, 'How can I find security and happiness?' we could ask ourselves, 'Can I touch the center of my pain? Can I sit with suffering, both yours and mine, without trying to make it go away? Can I stay present to the ache of loss or disgrace-disapp ointment in all its many forms-and let it open me?' This is the trick.

Pain, Loss, Suffering

Pema Chodron (2008). “The Pocket Pema Chodron”, p.30, Shambhala Publications

When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into it’s dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment

Letting Go, Struggle, Suffering

Pema Chodron (2012). “Living Beautifully: with Uncertainty and Change”, p.6, Shambhala Publications

Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings.

Compassion, Medicine, Suffering

Come back to square one, just the minimum bare bones. Relaxing with the present moment, relaxing with hopelessness, relaxing with death, not resisting the fact that things end, that things pass, that things have no lasting substance, that everything is changing all the time-that is the basic message.

Buddhism, Squares, Suffering

Somehow, in the process of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life. We tend to forget that we are part of the natural scheme of things.

Work, Buddhism, Suffering

Pema Chodron (2000). “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”, p.78, Shambhala Publications

The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have.

Roots, Suffering, Matter

Pema Chodron (2003). “Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion”, p.17, Shambhala Publications

As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don't deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity.

Buddhist, Mind, Suffering

"When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times". Book by Pema Chodron, December 24, 1996.

Most spiritual experiences begin with suffering. They begin with groundlessness. They begin when the rug has been pulled out from under us.

Spiritual, Suffering, Has Beens

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.

Mistake, Self, Suffering

The second noble truth says that this resistance is the...mechanism of what we call ego, that resisting life causes suffering.

Ego, Suffering, Noble

Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there's anywhere to hide.

Buddhism, Acceptance, Suffering

Pema Chodron (2000). “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”, p.50, Shambhala Publications

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.

Spiritual, Perspective, Suffering

"On Faith & Reason" with Bill Moyers, www.pbs.org. August 4, 2006.

The third noble truth says that the cessation of suffering is letting go of holding on to ourselves.

Letting Go, Suffering, Noble

Pema Chodron (2001). “The Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path of Loving Kindness”, p.53, Shambhala Publications

The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe that things last—that they don’t disintegrate, that they can be counted on to satisfy our hunger for security.

Believe, Long, Suffering

The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a relief.

Mean, Suffering, Relief

Pema Chodron (2000). “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”, p.52, Shambhala Publications

Tonglen practice begins to dissolve the illusion that each of us is alone with this personal suffering that no one else can understand.

Practice, Suffering, Illusion

To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death.

Suffering, Noble, Impermanence

Pema Chodron (2003). “Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion”, p.53, Shambhala Publications

If you have rage and righteously act it out and blame it all on others, it's really you who suffers. The other people and the environment suffer also, but you suffer more because you're being eaten up inside with rage, causing you to hate yourself more and more

Hate, People, Suffering

Pema Chodron (2001). “Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living”, p.45, Shambhala Publications

If you work with your mind, that will alleviate all the suffering that seems to come from the outside.

Mind, Suffering, Alleviate

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