Quote

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

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All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do.
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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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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.
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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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I equate ego with trying to figure everything out instead of going with the flow. That closes your heart and your mind to the person or situation that's right in front of you, and you miss so much.
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Never give up on yourself. Then you will never give up on others.
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By becoming intimate with how we close down and how we open up, we awaken our unlimited potential.
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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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Being preoccupied with our self-image is like being deaf and blind. It's like standing in the middle of a vast field of wildflowers with a black hood over our heads. It's like coming upon a tree of singing birds while wearing earplugs.
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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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If you're invested in security and certainty, you are on the wrong planet.
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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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I'm here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away.
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Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear.
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Until we stop clinging to the concept of good and evil, the world will continue to manifest as friendly goddesses and harmful demons.
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Inner # peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your # emotions
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The Process of becoming unstuck requires tremendous bravery, because basically we are completely changing our way of perceiving reality.
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