Pema Chodron
Pema Chodron
Pema Chödrönis an American, Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, acharya and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Chodron has written several books and is the director of the Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, Canada...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth14 July 1936
CountryUnited States of America
teacher thinking painful-experiences
Over time, as the thinking mind begins to settle [through the practice of meditation], we’ll start to see our patterns and habits far more clearly. Sometimes this can be a painful experience. I can’t overestimate the importance of accepting ourselves exactly as we are right now, not as we wish we were or think we ought to be. By cultivating nonjudgmental openness to ourselves and to whatever arises, to our surprise and delight we will find ourselves genuinely welcoming the never-pin-downable quality of life, experiencing it as a friend, a teacher, and a support, and no longer as an enemy.
inspire needs wretchedness
Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us.
spiritual practice four
There isn't anything except your own life that can be used as ground for your spiritual practice. Spiritual practice is your life, twenty-four hours a day.
love teaching practice
If your everyday practice is open to all your emotions, to all the people you meet, to all the situations you encounter, without closing down, trusting that you can do that - then that will take you are far as you can go. And then you'll understand all the teachings that anyone has ever taught.
real space meditation
When we sit down to meditate, we connect with something unconditional - a state of mind, a basic environment that does not grasp or reject anything. Meditation is probably the only activity that doesn't add anything to the picture. Everything is allowed to come and go without further embellishment. Meditation is a totally nonviolent, non aggressive occupation. Not filling the space, allowing for the possibility of connecting with unconditional openness - this provides the basis for real change.
heart mind heart-and-mind
The wisdom, the strength, the confidence - the awakened heart and mind are always accessible -- here, now, always.
people becoming capable
We are all capable of becoming fundamentalists because we get addicted to other people's wrongness.
warrior training discomfort
The central question of a warrior's training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort.
reality bravery way
The Process of becoming unstuck requires tremendous bravery, because basically we are completely changing our way of perceiving reality...
teacher situation
Allow situations in your life to become your teacher.
buddhism suffering trying
Somehow, in the process of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life. We tend to forget that we are part of the natural scheme of things.
inspirational motivational attitude
True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings.
curiosity welcome moments
Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. Why? Because it is all we ever have.
pain moving emotional
When we practice generating compassion, we can expect to experience our fear of pain. Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allow ourselves to move gently toward what scares us. The trick to doing this is to stay with emotional distress without tightening into aversion, to let fear soften us rather than harden into resistance.