Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing?
PEMA CHODRONOnly to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.
More Pema Chodron Quotes
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Every moment is unique, unknown, completely fresh.
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The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.
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We have a choice. We can spend our whole life suffering because we can’t relax with how things really are, or we can relax and embrace the open-endedness of the human situation, which is fresh, unfixated, unbiased.
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Our true nature is like a precious jewel: although it may be temporarily buried in mud, it remains completely brilliant and unaffected. We simply have to uncover it.
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Never give up on yourself. Then you will never give up on others.
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When things fall apart in your life, you feel as if your whole world is crumbling. But actually it’s your fixed identity that’s crumbling. And as Chögyam Trungpa used to tell us, that’s cause for celebration.
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Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.
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Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior’s world.
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Resisting what is happening is a major cause of suffering.
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Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.
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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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So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.
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Each person’s life is like a mandala – a vast, limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle, and everything we see, hear and think forms the mandala of our life … everything that shows up in your mandala is a vehicle for your awakening.
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To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.
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We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.
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