Anything we experience, no matter how challenging, can become an open pathway to awakening.
PEMA CHODRONSo many of us start along the spiritual path because we are suffering. But you must realize that for real healing to occur, there must first be deep compassion for yourself, especially the parts of yourself you dislike or consider ugly.
More Pema Chodron Quotes
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Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.
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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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All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do.
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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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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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Never give up on yourself. Then you will never give up on others.
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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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Feel the feelings and drop the story.
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All the wars, all the hatred, all the ignorance in the world come out of being so invested in our opinions.
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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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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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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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Appreciate everything, even the ordinary. Especially the ordinary.
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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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