Pema Chödrön - Suffering Quotes

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We spend all our energy and waste our lives trying to re-create these zones of safety, which are always falling apart. That's the essence of samsara - the cycle of suffering that comes from continuing to seek happiness in all the wrong places.

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

Pema Chödrön
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.

Pema Chödrön
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.

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

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

Pema Chödrön
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

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

Pema Chödrön