Quotes Pema Chödrön - page 5
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It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play. That we take ourselves so seriously, that we are so absurdly important in our own minds, is a problem for us. We feel justified in being annoyed with everything. We feel justified in denigrating ourselves or in feeling that we are more clever than other people. Self-importance hurts us, limiting us to the narrow world of our likes and dislikes. We end up bored to death with ourselves and our world. We end up never satisfied.
When you open the door and invite in all sentient beings as your guests, you have to drop your agenda.
We can begin to open our hearts to others when we have no hope of getting anything back. We just do it for its own sake.
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Discomfort of any kind becomes the basis for practice. We breathe in knowing our pain is shared.
When you refrain from habitual thoughts and behavior, the uncomfortable feelings will still be there. They don’t magically disappear. Over the years, I’ve come to call resting with the discomfort the detox period, because when you don’t act on your habitual patterns, it’s like giving up an addiction. You’re left with the feelings you were trying to escape. The practice is to make a wholehearted relationship with that
We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts.
The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.
The real thing that we renounce is the tenacious hope that we could be saved from being who we are.
We can put our whole heart into whatever we do; but if we freeze our attitude into for or against, we're setting ourselves up for stress. Instead, we could just go forward with curiosity, wondering where this experiment will lead. This kind of open-ended inquisitiveness captures the spirit of enthusiasm, or heroic perseverance.
We are not given any promises that, because of our noble intentions, everything will be okay. We learn that what truly heals is gratitude and tenderness. We [need] to transform our minds and actions for the sake of other people and for the future of the world.
The still lake without ripples is an image of our minds at ease, so full of unlimited friendliness for all the junk at the bottom of the lake that we don't feel the need to churn up the waters just to avoid looking at what's there.
When you have made good friends with yourself, your situation will be more friendly too.
Until we stop clinging to the concept of good and evil, the world will continue to manifest as friendly goddesses and harmful demons.
Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. It is all we ever have, so we night as well work with it rather than struggling against it. We might as well make it our friend and teacher rather than our enemy.
Compassionate action involves working with ourselves as much as working with others.
