Patience takes courage. It is not an ideal state of calm. In fact, when we practice patience we will see our agitation… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
When we practice generating compassion, we can expect to experience our fear of pain. Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
The Buddha’s principal message that day was that holding on to anything blocks wisdom. Any conclusion that we draw must be let… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
“But the instruction that the awareness is only twenty-five percent really brings home the idea that it's not a concentration practice -… — Pema Chödrön Copy Share Image
We can stop struggling with what occurs and see its true face without calling it the enemy. It helps to remember that… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
One very powerful and effective way to work with this tendency to push away pain and hold on to pleasure is the… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
“However, in this technique, because your eyes are open and because the gaze in not a tight gaze and because the whole… — Pema Chödrön Copy Share Image
If we want there to be peace in the world, we have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid in… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Instead of making others right or wrong, or bottling up right and wrong in ourselves, there's a middle way, a very powerful… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Over time, as the thinking mind begins to settle [through the practice of meditation], we’ll start to see our patterns and habits… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
In tonglen practice, when we see or feel suffering, we breathe in with the notion of completely feeling it, accepting it, and… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
“The essence of this practice is that when we encounter pain in our life we breathe into our heart with the recognition… — Pema Chödrön Copy Share Image
“LIFE’S work is to wake up, to let the things that enter into your life wake you up rather than put you to sleep.… — Pema Chödrön Copy Share
Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing? — Pema Chodron Copy Share
Buddhist words such as compassion and emptiness don't mean much until we start cultivating our innate ability simply to be there with pain with… — Pema Chodron Copy Share
The essence of generosity is letting go. Pain is always a sign that we are holding on to something - usually ourselves. — Pema Chodron Copy Share
“If the object of meditation were something concrete, something solid and graspable - an image or a statue or a dot on the floor… — Pema Chödrön Copy Share
It's a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately fill up the space. By waiting, we begin to connect with fundamental restlessness as… — Pema Chodron Copy Share
“The essence of life is that it’s challenging. Sometimes it is sweet, and sometimes it is bitter. Sometimes your body tenses, and sometimes it… — Pema Chödrön Copy Share
If we run a hundred miles an hour to the other end of the continent in order to get away from the obstacle, we… — Pema Chodron Copy Share
“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 Copy Share
“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. Nothing ever really attacks us except our own confusion. Perhaps… — Pema Chödrön Copy Share
So even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we sit with that restlessness when yesterday we couldn't sit for even… — Pema Chodron Copy Share
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… — Pema Chodron Copy Share
“When we realize that the path is the goal, there’s a sense of workability. Trungpa Rinpoche said, “Whatever occurs in the confused mind is… — Pema Chödrön Copy Share
Every day is a new opportunity to work with what you have inside toward enlightenment. — Pema Chodron Copy Share
If someone comes along and shoots an arrow into your heart, it’s fruitless to stand there and yell at the person. It would be… — Pema Chodron Copy Share