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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.

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
Practice
Away
Become
Better
Befriending
Trying
Mindfulness
Something
Throw
Meditation
Already

More quotes by Pema Chodron

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Discomfort of any kind becomes the basis for practice. We breathe in knowing our pain is shared.
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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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Sitting meditation gives us a way to move closer to our thoughts and emotions and to get in touch with our bodies.
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This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it's with us wherever we go.
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All situations teach you, and often it's the tough ones that teach you best.
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You build inner strength through embracing the totality of your experience, both the delightful parts and the difficult parts.
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Patience takes courage. It is not an ideal state of calm. In fact, when we practice patience we will see our agitation far more clearly.
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We practice to liberate ourselves from a burden.
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If your everyday practice is open to all your emotions, to all the people you meet, to all the situations you encounter, without closing down, trusting that you can do that - then that will take you are far as you can go. And then you'll understand all the teachings that anyone has ever taught.
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When we protect ourselves so we won't feel pain, that protection becomes like armor, like armor that imprisons the softness of of the heart.
Pema Chodron
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So 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.
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If you work with your mind, that will alleviate all the suffering that seems to come from the outside.
Pema Chodron
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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.
Pema Chodron
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Use your life to wake you up.
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In the most ordinary terms, egolessness is a flexible identity. It manifests as inquisitiveness , as adaptability, as humor, as playfulness. It is our capacity to relax with not knowing, not figuring everything out, with not being at all sure who we are, or who anyone else is, either.
Pema Chodron
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My experience with forgiveness is that it sort of comes spontaneously at a certain point and to try to force it it's not really forgiveness. It's Buddhist philosophy or something spiritual jargon that you're trying to live up to but you're just using it against yourself as a reason why you're not okay.
Pema Chodron
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Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away.
Pema Chodron
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Holding on to anything blocks wisdom.
Pema Chodron
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Allow situations in your life to become your teacher.
Pema Chodron
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If you see a homeless person on the street, and they need food, housing, medical attention - if you can give that, do it. But at the same time, work with tonglen, because that is how you start dissolving the barrier between you and them.
Pema Chodron