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Practice Quotes by Pema Chödrön

53 Practice quotes by Pema Chödrön

All Practice quotes Pema Chödrön’s page

Patience is a brave act that reveals our own agitation clearly. The quotes explain that meditation isn’t about becoming perfect later, but about staying present and breathing into heart when pain appears. They also note that practice helps us see the difference between fantasy and reality.

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“The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are.”

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We practice to liberate ourselves from a burden.

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“Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better.”

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As we practice, we begin to know the difference between our fantasy and reality.

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

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

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Discomfort of any kind becomes the basis for practice. We breathe in knowing our pain is shared.

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“We train in the bodhichitta practices in order to become so open that we can take the pain of the world in,…

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There isn't anything except your own life that can be used as ground for your spiritual practice. Spiritual practice is your life,…

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The essence of practice is always the same: instead of falling prey to a chain reaction of revenge or self-hatred, we gradually…

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We can stop thinking that good practice is when it’s smooth and calm, and bad practice is when it’s rough and dark.…

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

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

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If your everyday practice is open to all your emotions, to all the people you meet, to all the situations you encounter,…

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When we practice generating compassion, we can expect to experience our fear of pain. Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to…

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The Buddha’s principal message that day was that holding on to anything blocks wisdom. Any conclusion that we draw must be let…

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The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we…

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“IMPERMANENCE means that the essence of life is fleeting. Some people are so skillful at their mindfulness practice that they can actually…

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Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum. We don't interrupt our patterns even slightly. With practice, however, we learn to stay…

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

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We could learn to stop when the sun goes down and when the sun comes up. We could learn to listen to…

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“This meditation is called nontheistic, which doesn't have anything to do with believing in God or not believing in God, but means…

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Many people hope a spiritual practice will let them avoid what they are ashamed of. But when you hide something from yourself,…

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The painful thing is that when we buy into disapproval, we are practicing disapproval. When we buy into harshness, we are practicing…

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When we start out on a spiritual path we often have ideals we think we're supposed to live up to. We feel…

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Over time, as the thinking mind begins to settle [through the practice of meditation], we’ll start to see our patterns and habits…

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In tonglen practice, when we see or feel suffering, we  breathe in with the notion of completely feeling it, accepting it, and…

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“Once I had an opportunity to talk with Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, about the fact that I was not able to do my…

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Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us.

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Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum and don't interrupt our patterns slightly. When we feel betrayed or disappointed, does it…

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Tonglen practice begins to dissolve the illusion that each of us is alone with this personal suffering that no one else can…

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Patience takes courage. It is not an ideal state of calm. In fact, when we practice patience we will see our agitation…

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“Meditation practice is not about later, when you get it all together and you’re this person you really respect.”

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“An interesting practice that combines mindfulness and refraining is just to notice your physical movements when you feel uncomfortable.”

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To cultivate equanimity we practice catching ourselves when we feel attraction or aversion, before it hardens into grasping or negativity.

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Are you experiencing restlessness? Stay! Are fear and loathing out of control? Stay! Aching knees and throbbing back? Stay! What's for lunch?…

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“What I have realized through practicing is that practice isn't about beng the best horse or the good horse or the poor…

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“For an aspiring bodhisattva, the essential practice is to cultivate maitri, or loving-kindness.”

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Our patterns are well established, seductive, and comforting. Just wanting for them to be ventilated isn't enough. Those of us who struggle…

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“In sitting meditation, our practice is to watch our thoughts arise, label them "thinking", and return to the breath.”

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More by Pema Chödrön

“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.…

Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing?

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…

The essence of generosity is letting go. Pain is always a sign that we are holding on to something - usually ourselves.

“If the object of meditation were something concrete, something solid and graspable - an image or a statue or a dot on the floor…

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…

“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…

If we run a hundred miles an hour to the other end of the continent in order to get away from the obstacle, we…

“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.”

“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. Nothing ever really attacks us except our own confusion. Perhaps…

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…

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…

“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…

Every day is a new opportunity to work with what you have inside toward enlightenment.

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…