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 Copy Share Image
Blaming is a way to protect your heart, trying to protect what is soft and open and tender in yourself. — Pema Chodron 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
We're not trying to be something we aren't; rather, we're reconnecting with who we are. — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
If you work with your mind, instead of trying to change everything on the outside... that's how your temper will cool down. — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Trying to run away is never the answer to being a fully human. Running away from the immediacy of our experience is… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
“IN practicing meditation, we’re not trying to live up to some kind of ideal—quite the opposite.” — Pema Chödrön Copy Share Image
Instead of asking ourselves, 'How can I find security and happiness?' we could ask ourselves, 'Can I touch the center of my… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Compassion isn't some kind of self-improvement project or ideal that we're trying to live up to. Having compassion starts and ends with… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
It is a commitment to respect whatever life brings that we develop wholehearted determination to use discomfort as an opportunity for awakening,… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
When we touch the center of sorrow, when we sit with discomfort without trying to fix it, when we stay present to… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Rather than becoming more relaxed, you start pulling down the shades and locking the door. When you do go out, you find… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Trying to change ourselves doesn't work in the long run because we're resisting our own energy. Self-improvemen t can have temporary results,… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Meditation is not a matter of trying to achieve ecstasy, spiritual bliss, or tranquillity, nor is it attempting to become a better… — Pema Chodron 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. The ground… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
At least once a year, I imagine that I am about to die. Looking back as truthfully as I can at my… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Loving kindness towards ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. It means we can still be crazy after all these years. We… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
The happiness we seek cannot be found through grasping, trying to hold on to things. It cannot be found through getting serious… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
We think that by protecting ourselves from suffering, we are being kind to ourselves. The truth is we only become more fearful,… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Our wisdom is all mixed up with what we call our neurosis. Our brilliance, our juiciness, our spiciness, is all mixed up… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
Meditation is about seeing clearly the body that we have, the mind that we have, the domestic situation that we have, the… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
On the journey of the warrior-bodhisattva, the path goes down, not up, as if the mountain pointed toward the earth instead of… — 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
Somehow, in the process of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life.… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
I equate ego with trying to figure everything out instead of going with the flow. That closes your heart and your mind… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
We spend all our energy and waste our lives trying to re-create these zones of safety, which are always falling apart. That's… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
There is no cultivation of patience when your pattern is to just try to seek harmony and smooth everything out. Patience implies… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
My experience with forgiveness is that it sort of comes spontaneously at a certain point and to try to force it it's… — Pema Chodron Copy Share Image
The sad part is that all we're trying to do is not feel that underlying uneasiness. The sadder part is that we… — 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… — 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
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
