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One way to practice staying present is to simply sit still for a while and listen. For one minute, listen to the sounds close to you. For one minute, listen to the sounds at a distance. Just listen attentively.

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
Still
Listening
Buddhist
Way
Listen
Staying
Minutes
Minute
Present
Sounds
Simply
Distance
Practice
Meditation
Sound
Sitting
Stills
Close
Attentively

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Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.
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Never underestimate the desire to bolt.
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Surrendering, letting go of possessiveness, and complete nonattachment-all are synonyms for accumulating merit.
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Openness doesn’t come from resisting our fears but rather from getting to know them well.
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This is the tendency of all living things: to avoid pain and to cling to pleasure.
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My moods are continuously shifting like the weather.
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To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death.
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To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.
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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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The central question of a warrior's training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort.
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In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves.
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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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Resistance to unwanted circumstances has the power to keep those circumstances alive and well for a very long time.
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One can appreciate & celebrate each moment — there’s nothing more sacred. There’s nothing more vast or absolute. In fact, there’s nothing more!
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Although we have the potential to experience the freedom of a butterfly, we mysteriously prefer the small and fearful cocoon of ego.
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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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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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When we are willing to stay even a moment with uncomfortable energy, we gradually learn not to fear it.
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