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The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.

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
Deception
Bravery
Essence
Without
Self

More quotes by Pema Chodron

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Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings.
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The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.
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Softening what is rigid in our hearts.
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We practice to liberate ourselves from a burden.
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There is no cultivation of patience when your pattern is to just try to seek harmony and smooth everything out. Patience implies willingness to be alive rather than trying to seek harmony.
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Clarity and decisiveness come from the willingness to slow down, to listen to and look at what’s happening.
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Surrendering, letting go of possessiveness, and complete nonattachment-all are synonyms for accumulating merit.
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The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a relief.
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Wholeheartedly do what it takes to awaken your clear-seeing intelligence, but one day at a time, one moment at a time. If we live that way, we will benefit this earth.
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Rather than becoming more relaxed, you start pulling down the shades and locking the door. When you do go out, you find the experience more and more unsettling and disagreeable. You become touchier, more fearful, more irritable than ever. The more you try to get it your way, the less you feel at home.
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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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If you’re aggressive in your dealings, that’s how you’ll be regarded in the world. You might smile and give generously, but if you frequently explode in anger, people never feel comfortable in your presence and you’ll never have peace of mind.
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When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions we do not allow the wound to heal.
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Anything we experience, no matter how challenging, can become an open pathway to awakening.
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We tend to forget that we are part of the natural scheme of things.
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To cultivate equanimity we practice catching ourselves when we feel attraction or aversion, before it hardens into grasping or negativity.
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Everything in our lives has the potential to wake us up or put us to sleep. Allowing it to awaken us is up to us.
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Never underestimate the power of compassionately recognizing what's going on.
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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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But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.
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