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Suffering Quotes by Pema Chödrön

44 Suffering quotes by Pema Chödrön

All Suffering quotes Pema Chödrön’s page

Pema Chödrön explains that holding onto anger makes you suffer, and that most spiritual growth begins with pain. She teaches that letting go of self‑attachment and accepting uncertainty can end suffering. She invites us to sit with our pain, notice the groundlessness beneath life, and stop fighting change.

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“be free of suffering and the root of suffering.”

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Resisting what is happening is a major cause of suffering.

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Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing.

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“strengthening habitual patterns of suffering. We begin to see this more and more clearly, and we begin to realize that we can…

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We can gradually drop our ideals of who we think we ought to be, or who we think we want to be,…

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Most spiritual experiences begin with suffering. They begin with groundlessness. They begin when the rug has been pulled out from under us.

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Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings.

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Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don't struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality.

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To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death.

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Somehow, in the process of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life.…

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

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Hold the sadness and pain of samsara [suffering, confusion] in your heart and at the same time the power and vision of…

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

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Instead of asking ourselves, 'How can I find security and happiness?' we could ask ourselves, 'Can I touch the center of my…

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Underneath our ordinary lives, underneath all the talking we do, all the moving we do, all the thoughts in our minds, there's…

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It isn't the things that are happening to us that cause us to suffer, it's what we say to ourselves about the…

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“Just as the Buddha taught, it’s important to see suffering as suffering. We are not talking about ignoring or keeping quiet. When…

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Come back to square one, just the minimum bare bones. Relaxing with the present moment, relaxing with hopelessness, relaxing with death, not…

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If you have rage and righteously act it out and blame it all on others, it's really you who suffers. The other…

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The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a…

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

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“The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe…

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On the journey of the warrior-bodhisattva, the path goes down, not up, as if the mountain pointed toward the earth instead of…

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We think that by protecting ourselves from suffering, we are being kind to ourselves. The truth is we only become more fearful,…

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“Thinking that we can find some lasting pleasure and avoid pain is what in Buddhism is called samsara, a hopeless cycle that…

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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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For arousing compassion, the nineteenth-century yogi Patrul Rinpoche suggested imagining beings in torment - an animal about to be slaughtered, a person…

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The second noble truth says that this resistance is the...mechanism of what we call ego, that resisting life causes suffering.

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

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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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If you work with your mind, that will alleviate all the suffering that seems to come from the outside.

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

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It isn't the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it's how we relate to the…

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It isn't what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it's what we say to ourselves about what happens.

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The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a…

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The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe…

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“When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can…

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So many of us start along the spiritual path because we are suffering. But you must realize that for real healing to…

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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…

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One very powerful and effective way to work with this tendency to push away pain and hold on to pleasure is the…

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More by Pema Chödrön

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

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

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“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…