Quote

Whatever you are doing, take the attitude of wanting it directly or indirectly to benefit others. Take the attitude of wanting it to increase your experience of kinship with your fellow beings.

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
Take
Fellows
Increase
Benefits
Indirectly
Beings
Kinship
Attitude
Directly
Whatever
Benefit
Experience
Wanting
Others
Fellow

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All the wars, all the hatred, all the ignorance in the world come out of being so invested in our opinions.
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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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Mindfulness is loving all the details of our lives, and awareness is the natural thing that happens: life begins to open up, and you realize that you're always standing at the center of the world.
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Finding the courage to go to the places that scare us cannot happen without compassionate inquiry into the workings of ego... Openness doesn't come from resisting our fears but from getting to know them well.
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Appreciate everything, even the ordinary... Especially the ordinary.
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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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The biggest obstacle to taking a bigger perspective on life is that our emotions capture and blind us.
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It has a lot to do with developing patience, not with the check-out person so much, but with your own pain that arises, the rawness and the vulnerability, and sending some kind of warmth and love to that rawness and soreness. I think that's how we have to practice.
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As Buddhism moved to the West, one of the big characteristics was the strong place of women. That didn't exist in the countries of origin. It's just a sign of our culture.
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The essence of practice is always the same: instead of falling prey to a chain reaction of revenge or self-hatred, we gradually learn to catch the emotional reaction and drop the story lines.
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Feel the feelings and drop the story.
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Our neurosis and our wisdom are made out of the same material. If you throw out your neurosis, you also throw out your wisdom.
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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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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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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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We see how beautiful and wonderful and amazing things are, and we see how caught up we are. It isn’t that one is the bad part and one is the good part, but that it’s a kind of interesting, smelly, rich, fertile mess of stuff. When it’s all mixed up together, it’s us: humanness.
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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.
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Are you experiencing restlessness? Stay! Are fear and loathing out of control? Stay! Aching knees and throbbing back? Stay! What's for lunch? Stay! I can't stand this another minute! Stay!
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When we feel left out, inadequate, or lonely, can we take a warrior’s perspective and contact bodhichitta?
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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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