Awareness is the key. Do we see the stories that we're telling ourselves and question their validity? When we are distracted by… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
It has a lot to do with developing patience, not with the check-out person so much, but with your own pain that… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
The essence of practice is always the same: instead of falling prey to a chain reaction of revenge or self-hatred, we gradually… — Pema Chodron 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
One way to practice staying present is to simply sit still for a while and listen. For one minute, listen to the… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
“We train in the bodhichitta practices in order to become so open that we can take the pain of the world in,… — Pema Chödrön Copy Share Image
Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum. We don't interrupt our patterns even slightly. With practice, however, we learn to stay… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Rejoicing in the good fortune of others is a practice that can help us when we feel emotionally shut down and unable… — 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
Discomfort of any kind becomes the basis for practice. We breathe in knowing our pain is shared. — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
When you refrain from habitual thoughts and behavior, the uncomfortable feelings will still be there. They don’t magically disappear. Over the years,… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
We could learn to stop when the sun goes down and when the sun comes up. We could learn to listen to… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
The painful thing is that when we buy into disapproval, we are practicing disapproval. When we buy into harshness, we are practicing… — Pema Chodron 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
To cultivate equanimity we practice catching ourselves when we feel attraction or aversion, before it hardens into grasping or negativity. — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
“In sitting meditation, our practice is to watch our thoughts arise, label them "thinking", and return to the breath.” — Pema Chödrön Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. — 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
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
Are you experiencing restlessness? Stay! Are fear and loathing out of control? Stay! Aching knees and throbbing back? Stay! What's for lunch?… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
It's helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing. — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
“Once I had an opportunity to talk with Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, about the fact that I was not able to do my… — Pema Chödrön 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
When we start out on a spiritual path we often have ideals we think we're supposed to live up to. We feel… — Pema Chodron 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 Image
Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing? — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
