Quote

The essence of generosity is letting go. Pain is always a sign that we are holding on to something - usually ourselves.

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
Always
Letting
Generosity
Holding
Sign
Essence
Usually
Pain
Something

More quotes by Pema Chodron

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Let your curiosity be greater than your fear.
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To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death.
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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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Treat yourself as your own beloved child.
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At some point, we realize that what we do for ourselves benefits others, and what we do for others benefits us.
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Obstacles are our friends: they teach us where we're stuck.
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Difficult people are the greatest teachers.
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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.
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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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One can appreciate & celebrate each moment — there’s nothing more sacred. There’s nothing more vast or absolute. In fact, there’s nothing more!
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If we begin to get in touch with whatever we feel with some kind of kindness, our protective shells will melt, and we'll find that more areas of our lives are workable. AS we learn to have compassion for ourselves, the circle of compassion for others-what and whom we can work with, and how-becomes wider.
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Sticking with uncertainty is how we learn to relax in the midst of chaos, how we learn to be cool when the ground beneath us suddenly disappears. We can bring ourselves back to the spiritual path countless times every day simply by exercising our willingness to rest in the uncertainty of the present moment—over and over again.
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Feel the feelings and drop the story.
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None of us is ever OK, but we all get through everything just fine.
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The most important aspect of being on a spiritual path may be to just keep moving.
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Whole-heartedn ess is a precious gift, but no one can actually give it to you. You have to find the path that has heart and then walk it impeccably....It' s like someone laughing in your ear, challenging you to figure out what to do when you don't know what to do. It humbles you. It opens your heart.
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We can gradually drop our ideals of who we think we ought to be, or who we think we want to be, or who we think other people think we want to be or ought to be.
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It's not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share.
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Openness doesn’t come from resisting our fears but rather from getting to know them well.
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What you do for yourself, any gesture of kindness, any gesture of gentleness, any gesture of honesty and clear seeing toward yourself, will affect how you experience your world. In fact, it will transform how you experience the world. What you do for yourself, you’re doing for others, and what you do for others, you’re doing for yourself.
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