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Softening what is rigid in our hearts.

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
Softening
Rigid
Hearts
Heart

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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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Most of us do not take these situations as teachings. We automatically hate them. We run like crazy. We use all kinds of ways to escape - all addictions stem from this moment when we meet our edge and we just can't stand it. We feel we have to soften it, pad it with something, and we become addicted to whatever it is that seems to ease the pain.
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Enlightenment is a direct experience with reality.
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Each time you stay present with fear and uncertainty, you're letting go of a habitual way of finding security and comfort.
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Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior's world.
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The idea is to develop sympathy for your own confusion.
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It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play.
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Discomfort of any kind becomes the basis for practice. We breathe in knowing our pain is shared.
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It isn't what happens to us that causes us to suffer it's what we say to ourselves about what happens.
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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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The third noble truth says that the cessation of suffering is letting go of holding on to ourselves.
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Anything we experience, no matter how challenging, can become an open pathway to awakening.
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