Quote

It becomes increasingly clear that we won’t be free of self-destructive patterns unless we develop a compassionate understanding of what they are.

Pema Chodron

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Pema Chodron
Age: 88
Born: 1936
Born: July 14
Clergyman
Philosopher
Writer
New York City
New York
Deirdre Blomfield-Brow
Understanding
Increasingly
Free
Compassionate
Self
Destructive
Patterns
Develop
Unless
Becomes
Clear

More quotes by Pema Chodron

Image
Each of us has a soft spot: the place in our experience where we feel vulnerable and tender. This soft spot is inherent in appreciation and love, and it is equally inherent in pain.
Pema Chodron
Image
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.
Pema Chodron
Image
Opening to the world begins to benefit ourselves and others simultaneously. The more we relate with others, the more quickly we discover where we're blocked.
Pema Chodron
Image
Difficult people are the greatest teachers.
Pema Chodron
Image
All the wars, all the hatred, all the ignorance in the world come out of being so invested in our opinions.
Pema Chodron
Image
The truth is that good and bad coexist sour and sweet coexist. They aren't really opposed to each other.
Pema Chodron
Image
If you see a homeless person on the street, and they need food, housing, medical attention - if you can give that, do it. But at the same time, work with tonglen, because that is how you start dissolving the barrier between you and them.
Pema Chodron
Image
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.
Pema Chodron
Image
At some point, we realize that what we do for ourselves benefits others, and what we do for others benefits us.
Pema Chodron
Image
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.
Pema Chodron
Image
To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death.
Pema Chodron
Image
If there's any possibility for enlightenment, it's right now, not at some future time. Now is the time.
Pema Chodron
Image
Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.
Pema Chodron
Image
I'm here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away.
Pema Chodron
Image
Meditation is not a matter of trying to achieve ecstasy, spiritual bliss, or tranquillity, nor is it attempting to become a better person. It is simply the creation of a space in which we are able to expose and undo our neurotic games, our self-deceptions, our hidden fears and hopes.
Pema Chodron
Image
Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something they come from a sense of poverty. We can’t simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment. We feel that someone else knows what is going on, but that there is something missing in us, and therefore something is lacking in our world.
Pema Chodron
Image
The third noble truth says that the cessation of suffering is letting go of holding on to ourselves.
Pema Chodron
Image
All situations teach you, and often it's the tough ones that teach you best.
Pema Chodron
Image
it is only to the extent that we are willing to expose ourselves again and again to annihilation that we are able to find that part of ourselves that is indestructible.
Pema Chodron
Image
Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there's anywhere to hide.
Pema Chodron