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Fear is a natural reaction of moving closer to the truth. If we commit ourselves to staying right where we are, then our experience becomes very vivid. Things become very clear when there is nowhere to escape.

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
Become
Escape
Truth
Commit
Right
Becomes
Vivid
Things
Clear
Reaction
Natural
Nowhere
Moving
Closer
Fear
Reactions
Experience
Staying

More quotes by Pema Chodron

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When people are hurting, what they really need is someone who is fully there for them - not someone who is condescending or officious. The only way for you to be there for them is by facing your fear or anger, whatever feelings cause you to shut down.
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Never give up on yourself. Then you will never give up on others.
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Appreciate everything, even the ordinary... Especially the ordinary.
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Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.
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Searching for happiness prevents us from ever finding it.
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Anything we experience, no matter how challenging, can become an open pathway to awakening.
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Life's work is to wake up, to let the things that enter your life wake you up rather than put you to sleep.
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If someone comes along and shoots an arrow into your heart, it's fruitless to stand there and yell at the person. It would be much better to turn your attention to the fact that there's an arrow in your heart.
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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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We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.
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Openness doesn’t come from resisting our fears but rather from getting to know them well.
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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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At the root of all the harm we cause is ignorance.
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It is only when we begin to relax with ourselves that meditation becomes a transformative process. Only when we relate with ourselves without moralizing, without harshness, without deception, can we let go of harmful patterns. Without maitri (metta), renunciation of old habits becomes abusive. This is an important point.
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We sow the seeds of our future hells or happiness by the way we open or close our minds right now.
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Come back to square one, just the minimum bare bones. Relaxing with the present moment, relaxing with hopelessness, relaxing with death, not resisting the fact that things end, that things pass, that things have no lasting substance, that everything is changing all the time-that is the basic message.
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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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The third noble truth says that the cessation of suffering is letting go of holding on to ourselves.
Pema Chodron
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The most important aspect of being on a spiritual path may be to just keep moving.
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I can't overestimate the importance of accepting ourselves exactly as we are right now, not as we wish we were or think we ought to be.
Pema Chodron