Quote

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.

Pema Chodron

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Pema Chodron
Age: 88
Born: 1936
Born: July 14
Clergyman
Philosopher
Writer
New York City
New York
Deirdre Blomfield-Brow
Persons
Turn
Fruitless
Person
Stand
Shoots
Better
Attention
Yell
Heart
Turns
Arrow
Much
Fact
Arrows
Would
Comes
Mindfulness
Facts
Buddhist
Someone
Along

More quotes by Pema Chodron

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Meditation isn't really about getting rid of thoughts, it's about changing the pattern of grasping on to things, which in our everyday experience is our thoughts.
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Softening what is rigid in our hearts.
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Ego is like a room of your own, a room with a view with the temperature and the smells and the music that you like. You want it your own way. You'd just like to have a little peace, you'd like to have a little happiness, you know, just gimme a break.
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Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing?
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This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted and shaky - that's called liberation.
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Meditation takes us just as we are, with our confusion and our sanity. This complete acceptance of ourselves as we are is called maitri, or unconditional friendliness, a simple, direct relationship with the way we are.
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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.
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The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe that things last—that they don’t disintegrate, that they can be counted on to satisfy our hunger for security.
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Honesty without kindness, humor, and goodheartedness can be just mean.
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It's helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing.
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Someone needs to encourage us not to brush aside what we feel. Not to be ashamed of the love and grief that it arouses in us. Not to be afraid of pain. Someone needs to encourage us: that this soft spot in us could be awakened, and that to do this would change our lives.
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Clarity and decisiveness come from the willingness to slow down, to listen to and look at what’s happening.
Pema Chodron
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Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s the ground, that’s what we study, that’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.
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Openness doesn’t come from resisting our fears but rather from getting to know them well.
Pema Chodron
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By not knowing, not hoping to know and not acting like we know what's happening, we begin to access our inner strength.
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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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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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Patience is not learned in safety.
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Tonglen is a way for you to be with people who need you - beginning with yourself.
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Let your curiosity be greater than your fear.
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