By the way that we think and by the way that we believe in things, in that way our world is created.
PEMA CHODRONThe essence of generosity is letting go. Pain is always a sign that we are holding on to something – usually ourselves.
More Pema Chodron Quotes
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There’s nothing more important on our spiritual path than developing gentleness to oneself.
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Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. Even if we run a hundred miles an hour to the other side of the continent, we find the very same problem awaiting us when we arrive.
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The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment.
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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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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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We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.
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Be kinder to yourself. And then let your kindness flood the world.
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Don’t worry about achieving. Don’t worry about perfection. Just be there each moment as best you can.
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Obstacles are our friends: they teach us where we’re stuck.
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The best spiritual instruction is when you wake up in the morning and say, ‘I wonder what’s going to happen today.’ And then carry that kind of curiosity through your life.
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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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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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Feel the feelings and drop the story.
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I can’t overestimate the importance of accepting ourselves exactly as we are right now, not as we wish we were or think we ought to be.
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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 much better to turn your attention to the fact that there’s an arrow in your heart.
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If you follow your heart, you’re going to find that it is often extremely inconvenient.
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You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.
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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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The central question of a warrior’s training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort.
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Never give up on yourself. Then you will never give up on others.
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When we are willing to stay even a moment with uncomfortable energy, we gradually learn not to fear it.
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Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic-this is the spiritual path.
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Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.
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In meditation, you learn how to get out of your own way long enough for there to be room for your wisdom to manifest.
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In the end, that’s what we all need more than anything else: to be there for each other, in every kind of situation.
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