45 Motivational Pema Chodron Quotes For Success In Life

Pema Chödrön is an American Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, the former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism, and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Chödrön has written several dozen books and audiobooks and is the principal teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, Canada. This Pema Chodron Quotes on fear, karma, love will motivate you.

Best Pema Chodron Quotes

1. The next time you lose heart and you can’t bear to experience what you’re feeling, you might recall this instruction: change the way you see it and lean in. Instead of blaming our discomfort on outer circumstances or on our own weakness, we can choose to stay present and awake to our experience, not rejecting it, not grasping it, not buying the stories that we relentlessly tell ourselves. This is priceless advice that addresses the true cause of suffering—yours, mine, and that of all living beings. ~ Pema Chodron
2. Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. ~ Pema Chodron
3. Loving-kindness towards ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. It means we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. ~ Pema Chodron

4. You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather. ~ Pema Chodron

5. Difficult things provoke all your irritations and bring your habitual patterns to the surface. And that becomes the moment of truth. You have the choice to launch into your lousy habitual patterns or to stay with the rawness and discomfort of the situation and let it transform you. ~ Pema Chodron
6. It isn’t what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it’s what we say to ourselves about what happens. ~ Pema Chodron
7. Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity. ~ Pema Chodron
8. Feel the feelings and drop the story. ~ Pema Chodron Quotes

9. Be kinder to yourself. And then let your kindness flood the world. ~ Pema Chodron

10. Deep down in the human spirit, there is a reservoir of courage. It is always available, always waiting to be discovered. ~ Pema Chodron
11. 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. ~ Pema Chodron
12. Times are difficult globally; awakening is no longer a luxury or an ideal. It’s becoming critical. We don’t need to add more depression, more discouragement, or more anger to what’s already here. It’s becoming essential that we learn how to relate sanely with difficult times. The earth seems to be beseeching us to connect with joy and discover our innermost essence. This is the best way that we can benefit others. ~ Pema Chodron

13. Let your curiosity be greater than your fear. ~ Pema Chodron

14. Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away. ~ Pema Chodron
15. We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy. (10) ~ Pema Chodron
16. Generosity is an activity that loosens us up. By offering whatever we can – a dollar, a flower, a word of encouragement – we are training in letting go. ~ Pema Chodron
17. Our true nature is like a precious jewel: although it may be temporarily buried in mud, it remains completely brilliant and unaffected. We simply have to uncover it. ~ Pema Chodron
18. When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment ~ Pema Chodron

19. All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do. ~ Pema Chodron

20. The peace that we are looking for is not peace that crumbles as soon as there is difficulty or chaos. Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises. Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened. ~ Pema Chodron
21. All situations teach you, and often it’s the tough ones that teach you best. ~ Pema Chodron
22. Every moment is unique, unknown, completely fresh. ~ Pema Chodron
23. Openness doesn’t come from resisting our fears but rather from getting to know them well. ~ Pema Chodron
24. Whatever happens in your life, joyful or painful, do not be swept away by reactivity. Be patient with yourself and don’t lose your sense of perspective. ~ Pema Chodron

25. Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions ~ Pema Chodron

26. Instead of asking ourselves, ‘How can I find security and happiness?’ we could ask ourselves, ‘Can I touch the center of my pain? Can I sit with suffering, both yours and mine, without trying to make it go away? Can I stay present to the ache of loss or disgrace-disappointment in all its many forms-and let it open me?’ This is the trick. ~ Pema Chodron
27. Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior’s world. ~ Pema Chodron
28. So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications. ~ Pema Chodron
29. When we are willing to stay even a moment with uncomfortable energy, we gradually learn not to fear it. ~ Pema Chodron

30. The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new. ~ Pema Chodron

31. 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. ~ Pema Chodron
32. If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher. ~ Pema Chodron
33. If someone comes along and shoots an arrow into your heart, it’s fruitless to stand there and yell at the person. It would be much better to turn your attention to the fact that there’s an arrow in your heart. ~ Pema Chodron
34. Being satisfied with what we already have is a magical golden key to being alive in a full, unrestricted, and inspired way. ~ Pema Chodron
35. To stay with that shakiness-to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge-that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic-this is the spiritual path. ~ Pema Chodron

36. Usually, we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear. ~ Pema Chodron

37. The best spiritual instruction is when you wake up in the morning and say, ‘I wonder what’s going to happen today.’ And then carry that kind of curiosity through your life. ~ Pema Chodron
38. So many of us start along the spiritual path because we are suffering. But you must realize that for real healing to occur, there must first be deep compassion for yourself, especially the parts of yourself you dislike or consider ugly. ~ Pema Chodron Quotes
39. It isn’t the things that are happening to us that cause us to suffer, it’s what we say to ourselves about the things that are happening. The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new. ~ Pema Chodron
40. We think that by protecting ourselves from suffering, we are being kind to ourselves. The truth is we only become more fearful, more hardened, and more alienated. We experience ourselves as being separate from the whole. This separateness becomes like a prison for us – a prison that restricts us to our personal hopes and fears, and to caring only for the people nearest to us. Curiously enough, if we primarily try to shield ourselves from discomfort, we suffer. Yet, when we don’t close off when we let our hearts break, we discover our kinship with all beings. ~ Pema Chodron

41. All the wars, all the hatred, all the ignorance in the world come out of being so invested in our opinions. ~ Pema Chodron

42. For one day, or for one day for a week, refrain from something you habitually do to run away, to escape. Pick something concrete, such as overeating or excessive sleeping or overworking or spending too much time texting or checking e-mails. Make a commitment to yourself to gently and compassionately work with refraining from this habit for this one day. Really commit to it. Do this with the intention that it will put you in touch with the underlying anxiety or uncertainty that you’ve been avoiding. Do it and see what you discover. ~ Pema Chodron
43. Each person’s life is like a mandala – a vast, limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle, and everything we see, hear and think forms the mandala of our life … everything that shows up in your mandala is a vehicle for your awakening. ~ Pema Chodron Quotes
44. You build inner strength through embracing the totality of your experience, both the delightful parts and the difficult parts. ~ Pema Chodron
45. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic-this is the spiritual path. ~ Pema Chodron

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