Quotes from Pema Chodron

It's hard to know whether to laugh or to cry at the human predicament. Here we are with so much wisdom and tenderness, and—without even knowing it—we cover it over to protect ourselves from insecurity. Although we have the potential to experience the freedom of a butterfly, we mysteriously prefer the small and fearful cocoon of ego.

The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.

It isn't the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it's how we relate to the things that happen to us that causes us to suffer.

NOT CAUSING HARM obviously includes not killing or robbing or lying to people. It also includes not being aggressive—not being aggressive with our actions, our speech, or our minds. Learning not to cause harm to ourselves or others is a basic Buddhist teaching on the healing power of nonaggression. Not harming ourselves or others in the beginning, not harming ourselves or others in the middle, and not harming ourselves or others in the end is the basis of enlightened society.

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.

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.

Relaxing with the present moment, relaxing with hopelessness, relaxing with death, not resisting the fact that things end, that things pass, that things have no lasting substance, that everything is changing all the time—that is the basic message.

Don't let life harden your heart.

Pain is not a punishment, pleasure is not a reward.

Things are as bad and as good as they seem. There's no need to add anything extra.

One can appreciate & celebrate each moment — there's nothing more sacred. There's nothing more vast or absolute. In fact, there's nothing more!

Everything is fresh, the essence of realization.

Patience is the training in abiding with the restlessness of our energy and letting things evolve at their own speed.

We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings.

we can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.

Affirmations are like screaming that you're okay in order to overcome this whisper that you're not... maybe you're not okay. Well, no big deal. None of us is okay and all of us are fine.

In a nutshell, when life is pleasant, think of others. When life is a burden, think of others.

LIFE'S work is to wake up, to let the things that enter into your life wake you up rather than put you to sleep. The only way to do this is to open, be curious, and develop some sense of sympathy for everything that comes along, to get to know its nature and let it teach you what it will.

The truth you believe in and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

Interrupting our destructive habits and awakening our heart is the work of a lifetime.

Patience is not learned in safety.

Nothing in its essence is one way or the other.

The more we make friends with ourselves, the more we can see that our ways of shutting down and closing off are rooted in the mistaken thinking that the way to get happy is to blame somebody else.

If your mind is expansive and unfettered, you will find yourself in a more accommodating world, a place that's endlessly interesting and alive. That quality isn't inherent in the place but in your state of mind.