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All the terrible things we do to ourselves and others from alcoholism to character assignation to abuse to murder come from one cause: the inability to stay present with an uncomfortable feeling in the body and seek short-term relief.

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
Body
Present
Senses
Come
Philosophy
Murder
Soma
Mind
Causes
Medicine
Alcoholism
Things
Feeling
Seek
Inability
Term
Short
Relief
Feelings
Cause
Psychology
Others
Stay
Uncomfortable
Character
Terrible
Abuse

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Obstacles are our friends: they teach us where we're stuck.
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By becoming intimate with how we close down and how we open up, we awaken our unlimited potential.
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I equate ego with trying to figure everything out instead of going with the flow. That closes your heart and your mind to the person or situation that's right in front of you, and you miss so much.
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Honesty without kindness, humor, and goodheartedness can be just mean. From the very beginning to the very end, pointing to our own hearts to discover what is true isn’t just a matter of honesty but also of compassion and respect for what we see.
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When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions we do not allow the wound to heal.
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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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You see, there really is no separation between you and everyone else.
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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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You build inner strength through embracing the totality of your experience, both the delightful parts and the difficult parts.
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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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Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear.
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Softening what is rigid in our hearts.
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It's not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is a part of being alive, something we all share. We react against the possibility of loneliness, of death, of not having anything to hold on to. Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.
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Somehow, in the process of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life. We tend to forget that we are part of the natural scheme of things.
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Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.
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Meditation isn't really about getting rid of thoughts, it's about changing the pattern of grasping on to things, which in our everyday experience is our thoughts.
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I'm here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away.
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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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The central question of a warrior's training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort.
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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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