Meditation Quotes by Pema Chödrön

“Meditation is a totally nonviolent, nonaggressive occupation.”

— Pema Chödrön

“Sitting meditation begins with good posture.”

— Pema Chödrön

It's helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing.

— Pema Chodron

The more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain.

— Pema Chodron

“In sitting meditation, we train in mindfulness and unconditional friendliness: in being steadfast with our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts.”

— Pema Chödrön

We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.

— Pema Chodron

If you ask why we meditate, I would say it's so we can become more flexible and tolerant to the present moment.

— Pema Chodron

“Many religions have meditations on death to let it penetrate our thick skulls that life doesn’t last forever.”

— Pema Chödrön

“But in this meditation technique, we are with the out-breath; there's no particular instruction about what to do until the next out-breath.”

— Pema Chödrön

“The path of meditation and the path of our lives altogether ha to do with curiosity, inquisitiveness.”

— Pema Chödrön

“Meditation practice is how we discover basic goodness and learn to cultivate bodhichitta. With this view, practice, and activity, even the most…

— Pema Chödrön

One way to practice staying present is to simply sit still for a while and listen. For one minute, listen to the…

— Pema Chodron

“At the root of all the harm we cause is ignorance. Through meditation, that’s what we begin to undo. If we see…

— Pema Chödrön

In meditation and in our daily lives there are three qualities that we can nurture, cultivate, and bring out. We already possess…

— Pema Chodron

Meditation is not a matter of trying to achieve ecstasy, spiritual bliss, or tranquillity, nor is it attempting to become a better…

— Pema Chodron

Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground…

— Pema Chodron

The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having…

— Pema Chodron

One of the main discoveries of meditation is seeing how we continually run away from the present moment, how we avoid being…

— Pema Chodron

Meditation is about seeing clearly the body that we have, the mind that we have, the domestic situation that we have, the…

— Pema Chodron

When you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dynamic nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity…

— Pema Chodron

The mind is very wild. The human experience is full of unpredictability and paradox, joys and sorrows, successes and failures. We can't…

— Pema Chodron

“Even though peak experiences might show us the truth and inform us about why we are training, they are essentially no big…

— Pema Chödrön

…feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach…

— Pema Chodron

While we are sitting in meditation, we are simply exploring humanity and all of creation in the form of ourselves. We can…

— Pema Chodron

Well, it starts with being willing to feel what we are going through. It starts with being willing to have a compassionate…

— Pema Chodron

“The principle of nowness is very important to any effort to establish an enlightened society. You may wonder what the best approach…

— Pema Chödrön

“One evening Milarepa returned to his cave after gathering firewood, only to find it filled with demons. They were cooking his food,…

— Pema Chödrön

“In other words, you could endlessly try to have suffering cease by dealing with outer circumstances—and that’s usually what all of us…

— Pema Chödrön

“In meditation we discover our inherent restlessness. Sometimes we get up and leave. Sometimes we sit there but our bodies wiggle and…

— Pema Chödrön

“The ground of not causing harm is mindfulness, a sense of clear seeing with respect and compassion for what it is we…

— Pema Chödrön

“It helps to remember that our spiritual practice is not about accomplishing anything—not about winning or losing—but about ceasing to struggle and…

— 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 Chodron

“The meditation technique itself cultivate precision, gentleness, and the ability to let go - qualities that are innate within us.”

— Pema Chödrön

“In order to work with difficult outer circumstances, we need to gather our inner strength. If even ten or twenty minutes of…

— Pema Chödrön

“Meditation is an invitation to notice when we reach our limit and to not get carried away by hope and fear.”

— Pema Chödrön

“We're here to get to know and study ourselves. The path, the way to do that, our main vehicle, is going to…

— Pema Chödrön

In practicing meditation, we're not trying to live up to some kind of ideal -- quite the opposite. We're just being with…

— Pema Chodron

While we are sitting in meditation, we are simply exploring humanity and all of creation in the form of ourselves.

— Pema Chodron

“One of the main discoveries of meditation is seeing how we continually run away from the present moment, how we avoid being…

— Pema Chödrön

“As the twelfth-century Tibetian yogi Milarepa said when he heard of his student Gampopa's peak experiences, 'They are neither good nor bad.…

— Pema Chödrön