Quotes from Pema Chodron

the difference between what is neurosis and what is wisdom is very hard to perceive, because somehow the energy underlying both of them is the same.

The meditation technique itself cultivate precision, gentleness, and the ability to let go - qualities that are innate within us.

Reaching our limit is not some kind of punishment. It's actually a sign of health that, when we meet the place where we are about to die, we feel fear and trembling. A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us.

We fail to see that like the weather, we are fluid, not solid.

The mind is always seeking zones of safety, and these zones of safety are continually falling apart. Then we scramble to get another zone of safety back together again.

Rather than living a life of resistance and trying to disprove our basic situation of impermanence and change, we could contact the fundamental ambiguity and welcome it. We don't like to think of ourselves as fixed and unchanging, but emotionally we're very invested in it. We simply don't want the frightening, uneasy discomfort of feeling groundless.

A fresh attitude starts to happen when we look to see that yesterday was yesterday, and now it is gone; today is today and now it is new. It is like that—every hour, every minute is changing. If we stop observing change, then we stop seeing everything as new. —DZIGAR KONGTRUL RINPOCHE

This genuine heart of sadness can teach us great compassion. It can humble us when we're arrogant and soften us when we are unkind.

A fundamentalist mind is a mind that has become rigid. First the heart closes, then the mind becomes hardened into a view, then you can justify your hatred of another human being because of what they represent and what they say and do.

Klesha mara is characterized by strong emotions. Instead of letting feelings be, we weave them into a story line, which gives rise to even bigger emotions.

Bodhichitta exists on two levels. First there is unconditional bodhichitta, an immediate experience that is refreshingly free of concept, opinion, and our usual all-caught-upness.

With unfailing kindness, your life always presents what you need to learn. Whether you stay home or work in an office or what ever, the next teacher is going to pop right up. —CHARLOTTE JOKO BECK

we might realize that we are on the verge of something. We might realize that this is a very vulnerable and tender place, and that tenderness can go either way.

As Trungpa Rinpoche put it, "Everybody loves something, even if it's only tortillas." Bodhichitta

Second there is relative bodhichitta, our ability to keep our hearts and minds open to suffering without shutting down.

The second noble truth says that resistance is the fundamental operating mechanism of what we call ego, that resisting life causes suffering.

We spend all our energy and waste our lives trying to re-create these zones of safety, which are always falling apart. That's the essence of samsara—the cycle of suffering that comes from continuing to seek happiness in all the wrong places.

Chögyam Trungpa had an image for our tendency to obscure the openness of our being; he called it "putting makeup on space." We can aspire to experience the space without the makeup. Staying open and receptive for even a short time starts to interrupt our deep-seated resistance to feeling what we're feeling, to staying present where we are.

You begin to have the clarity to see injustice happening, but you can also see that injustice, by its very definition, is harming everybody involved. It's harming the people who are being oppressed or abused, and it's harming those who are oppressing and abusing.

Wherever we are, we can train as a warrior. The practices of meditation, loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity are our tools. With the help of these practices, we can uncover the soft spot of bodhichitta.

weather" we've been trying to resist. The essence of the fourth noble truth is that we can use everything we do to help us to realize that we're part of the energy that creates everything.

In the middle of the river, with the shoreline out of view, the raft begins to disintegrate. We find ourselves with absolutely nothing to hold on to. From our conventional standpoint, this is scary and dangerous. However, one small shift of perspective will tell us that having nothing to hold on to is liberating. We could have faith that we won't drown. Holding on to nothing means we can relax with this fluid, dynamic world.

When inspiration has become hidden, when we feel ready to give up, this is the time when healing can be found in the tenderness of pain itself.

All too frequently we relate like timid birds who don't dare to leave the nest.