"Patience is the training in abiding with the restlessness of our energy and letting things evolve at their own speed."
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Quote collection
Pema Chodron quotes (page 19 of 23)
453 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"We are undoing a pattern... It's the human pattern: we project onto the world a zillion possibilities of attaining resolution."
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"Maybe the most important teaching is to lighten up and relax. It's such a huge help in working with our crazy mixed-up minds to remember that what we're doing is unlocking a softness that is in us and letting it spread. We're letting it blur the sharp corners of self-criticism and complaint."
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"The most complete and true happiness comes in moments when you feel right there, completely present, with no ideas about good and bad, right and wrong - just a sense of open heart and open mind."
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"It is only when we begin to relax with ourselves that meditation becomes a transformative process. Only when we relate with ourselves without moralizing, without harshness, without deception, can we let go of harmful patterns. Without maitri (metta), renunciation of old habits becomes abusive. This is an important point."
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"Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us."
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"Nothing in its essence is one way or the other."
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"The real thing that we renounce is the tenacious hope that we could be saved from being who we are."
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"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."
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"The second noble truth says that this resistance is the...mechanism of what we call ego, that resisting life causes suffering."
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"Holding on to beliefs limits our experience of life. That doesn't mean that beliefs or ideas or thinking is a problem; the stubborn attitude of having to have things be a particular way, grasping on to our beliefs and thoughts, all these cause the problems. To put it simply, using your belief system this way creates a situation in which you choose to be blind instead of being able to see, to be deaf instead of being able to hear, to be dead rather than alive, asleep rather than awake."
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"Things are as bad and as good as they seem. There's no need to add anything extra."
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"Remind yourself, in whatever way is personally meaningful, that it is not in your best interest to reinforce thoughts and feelings of unworthiness. Even if you've already taken the bait and feel the familiar pull of self-denigration, marshal your intelligence, courage, and humor in order to turn the tide. Ask yourself: Do I want to strengthen what I'm feeling now? Do I want to cut myself off from my basic goodness? Remind yourself that your fundamental nature is unconditionally open and free."
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"All ego really is, is our opinions, which we take to be solid, real, and the absolute truth about how things are."
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"The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a relief. Finally somebody told the truth. Suffering is part of life, and we don’t have to feel it’s happening because we personally made the wrong move. In reality, however, when we feel suffering, we think that something is wrong. As long as we’re addicted to hope, we feel that we can tone our experience down or liven it up or change it somehow, and we continue to suffer a lot."
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"Being preoccupied with our self-image is like being deaf and blind. It's like standing in the middle of a vast field of wildflowers with a black hood over our heads. It's like coming upon a tree of singing birds while wearing earplugs."
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"When we touch the center of sorrow, when we sit with discomfort without trying to fix it, when we stay present to the pain of disapproval or betrayal and let it soften us, these are times that we connect with bohdichitta."
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"The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have."
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"It becomes increasingly clear that we won’t be free of self-destructive patterns unless we develop a compassionate understanding of what they are."
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"What happens with you when you begin to feel uneasy, unsettled, queasy? Notice the panic, notice when you instantly grab for something. (51)"
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