Pema Chödrön Quotes

183 Sourced Quotes

We can gradually drop our ideals of who we think we ought to be, or who we think we want to be, or who we think other people think we want to be or ought to be.

Pema Chödrön
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.

Pema Chödrön
Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future. In other words, if we're going to be more cheerful in the future, it's because of our aspiration and exertion to be cheerful in the present. What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.

Pema Chödrön
If your mind is expansive and unfettered, you will find yourself in a more accommodating world, a place that's endlessly interesting and alive. That quality isn't inherent in the place but in your state of mind.

Pema Chödrön
Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

Pema Chödrön
Compassion isn't some kind of self-improvement project or ideal that we're trying to live up to. Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves, all those imperfections that we don't even want to look at.

Pema Chödrön
If you follow your heart, you're going to find that it is often extremely inconvenient.

Pema Chödrön
Only in an open, nonjudgmental space can we acknowledge what we are feeling. Only in an open space where we're not all caught up in our own version of reality can we see and hear and feel who others really are, which allows us to be with them and communicate with them properly.

Pema Chödrön
As we learn to have compassion for ourselves, the circle of compassion for others - what and whom we can work with, and how - becomes wider.

Pema Chödrön
How do we cultivate the conditions for joy to expand? We train in staying present.

Pema Chödrön
Just pausing for two to three breaths is a perfect way to stay present. This is a good use of our life. Indeed, it is an excellent, joyful use of our life. Instead of getting better and better at avoiding, we can learn to accept the present moment as if we had invited it, and work with it instead of against it, making it our ally rather than our enemy.

Pema Chödrön
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.

Pema Chödrön
If we're willing to give up hope that insecurity and pain can be eliminated, then we can have the courage to relax with the groundlessness of our situation. This is the first step on the path.

Pema Chödrön
This genuine heart of sadness can teach us great compassion. It can humble us when we're arrogant and soften us when we are unkind.

Pema Chödrön
The wisdom, the strength, the confidence - the awakened heart and mind are always accessible -- here, now, always.

Pema Chödrön
Maybe the most important teaching is to lighten up and relax. It's such a huge help in working with our crazy mixed-up minds to remember that what we're doing is unlocking a softness that is in us and letting it spread. We're letting it blur the sharp corners of self-criticism and complaint.

Pema Chödrön
Anyone who stands on the edge of the unknown, fully in the present without reference point, experiences groundlessness. That's when our understanding goes deeper, when we find that the present moment is a pretty vulnerable place and that this can be completely unnerving and completely tender at the same time.

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

Pema Chödrön
If there's any possibility for enlightenment, it's right now, not at some future time. Now is the time.

Pema Chödrön
At some point, we realize that what we do for ourselves benefits others, and what we do for others benefits us.

Pema Chödrön
We don't experience the world fully unless we are willing to give everything away. Samaya means not holding anything back, not preparing our escape route, not looking for alternatives, not thinking that there is ample time to do things later

Pema Chödrön
Don't get caught up in hopes of what you'll achieve and how good your situation will be some day in the future. What you do right now is what matters.

Pema Chödrön
Our neurosis and our wisdom are made out of the same material. If you throw out your neurosis, you also throw out your wisdom.

Pema Chödrön
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.

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

Pema Chödrön
Peace isn't an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it's an experience that's expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.

Pema Chödrön
Feel the wounded heart that's underneath the addiction, self-loathing, or anger.

Pema Chödrön
When you have made good friends with yourself, your situation will be more friendly too.

Pema Chödrön
We see how beautiful and wonderful and amazing things are, and we see how caught up we are. It isn't that one is the bad part and one is the good part, but that it's a kind of interesting, smelly, rich, fertile mess of stuff. When it's all mixed up together, it's us: humanness.

Pema Chödrön
The truth is that good and bad coexist; sour and sweet coexist. They aren't really opposed to each other.

Pema Chödrön