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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.

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
Well
Happen
Scare
Getting
Compassionate
Doesn
Fears
Happens
Ego
Cannot
Findings
Workings
Wells
Finding
Resisting
Come
Places
Openness
Without
Courage
Inquiry

More quotes by Pema Chodron

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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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We don't set out to save the world we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts.
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Softening what is rigid in our hearts.
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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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Treat yourself as your own beloved child.
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When you have made good friends with yourself, your situation will be more friendly too.
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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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Openness doesn’t come from resisting our fears but rather from getting to know them well.
Pema Chodron
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If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.
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Never underestimate the desire to bolt.
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The approach is that the best way to use unwanted circumstances on the path of enlightenment is not to resist but to lean into them.
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We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.
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The essence of generosity is letting go. Pain is always a sign that we are holding on to something - usually ourselves.
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Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us.
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It isn't the things that are happening to us that cause us to suffer, it's what we say to ourselves about the things that are happening. The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.
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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.
Pema Chodron
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If you're invested in security and certainty, you are on the wrong planet.
Pema Chodron
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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.
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How will we experience the world a month, a year, or five years from now? Will we be even angrier, more grasping and fearful, or will some shift have occurred? This depends entirely on the tendencies we reinforce today.
Pema Chodron
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The idea is to develop sympathy for your own confusion.
Pema Chodron