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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
Heart
Softening
Rigid
Hearts

More quotes by Pema Chodron

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The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe that things last—that they don’t disintegrate, that they can be counted on to satisfy our hunger for security.
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Only in an open, nonjudgmental space can we acknowledge what we are feeling. Only in an open space where we're not all caught up in our own version of reality can we see and hear and feel who others really are, which allows us to be with them and communicate with them properly.
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Patience takes courage. It is not an ideal state of calm. In fact, when we practice patience we will see our agitation far more clearly.
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All situations teach you, and often it's the tough ones that teach you best.
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Even if you don't feel appreciation, just look. Feel what you feel take an interest and be curious.
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If it's painful, you become willing not just to endure it but also to let it awaken your heart and soften you. You learn to embrace it.
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Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.
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The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.
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The next step is to learn to communicate with the people that you feel are causing your pain and misery- not to learn how to prove them wrong and yourself right but how to communicate from the heart.
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All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do.
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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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Things are as bad and as good as they seem. There's no need to add anything extra.
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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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Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings.
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Our patterns are well established, seductive, and comforting. Just wanting for them to be ventilated isn't enough. Those of us who struggle with this know.
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Obstacles are our friends: they teach us where we're stuck.
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Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic-this is the spiritual path.
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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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You see, there really is no separation between you and everyone else.
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Never give up on yourself. Then you will never give up on others.
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