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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.

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
Choices
Scares
Lives
Kinder
Become
Increasingly
Make
Scare
Always
Choice
Circumstances
Harden
Afraid
Soften
Open
Resentful

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What you do for yourself, you're doing for others, and what you do for others, you're doing for yourself.
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We have two alternatives: either we question our beliefs - or we don't. Either we accept our fixed versions of reality- or we begin to challenge them. In Buddha's opinion, to train in staying open and curious - to train in dissolving our assumptions and beliefs - is the best use of our human lives.
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When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless.
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The wisdom, the strength, the confidence - the awakened heart and mind are always accessible -- here, now, always.
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Tonglen is a way for you to be with people who need you - beginning with yourself.
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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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It's hard to know whether to laugh or to cry at the human predicament. Here we are with so much wisdom and tenderness, and—without even knowing it—we cover it over to protect ourselves from insecurity. 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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This is the tendency of all living things: to avoid pain and to cling to pleasure.
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When there's a disappointment, I don't know if it's the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure.
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Lean into the sharp points and fully experience them. The essence of bravery is being without self-deception. Wisdom is inherent in (understanding) emotions.
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Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum and don't interrupt our patterns slightly. When we feel betrayed or disappointed, does it occur to us to practice?
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We feel that we have to be right so that we can feel good... The whole right and wrong business closes us down and makes our world smaller.
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Just where you are-that's the place to start!
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Compassion starts with making friends with ourselves.
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Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something they come from a sense of poverty. We can’t simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment. We feel that someone else knows what is going on, but that there is something missing in us, and therefore something is lacking in our world.
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The future is the result of what we do right now.
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Trying to change ourselves doesn't work in the long run because we're resisting our own energy. Self-improvemen t can have temporary results, but lasting transformation occurs only when we honor ourselves as the source of wisdom and compassion.
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Don’t get caught up in hopes of what you’ll achieve and how good your situation will be some day in the future. What you do right now is what matters.
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Buddhism itself is all about empowering yourself, not about getting what you want.
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The most important aspect of being on a spiritual path may be to just keep moving.
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