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
words-of-wisdom reason goodness
There's a reason you can learn from everything: you have basic wisdom, basic intelligence, and basic goodness.
mind trying cool-down
If you work with your mind, instead of trying to change everything on the outside... that's how your temper will cool down.
revenge heart practice
Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum. We don't interrupt our patterns even slightly. With practice, however, we learn to stay with a broken heart, with a nameless fear, with the desire for revenge. Sticking with uncertainty is how we learn to relax in the midst of chaos, how we learn to be cool when the ground beneath us suddenly disappears.
compassion making-friends
Compassion starts with making friends with ourselves.
resistance hell
Hell is just resistance to life.
wisdom alive share
It's not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share.
change pain meditation
Well, it starts with being willing to feel what we are going through. It starts with being willing to have a compassionate relationship with the parts of ourselves that we feel are not worthy of existing on the planet. If we are willing through meditation to be mindful not only of what feels comfortable, but also of what pain feels like, if we even aspire to stay awake and open to what we're feeling, to recognize and acknowledge it as best we can in each moment, then something begins to change.
compassion self imperfection
Compassion isn't some kind of self-improvement project or ideal that we're trying to live up to. Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves, all those imperfections that we don't even want to look at.
compassion roots oneself
The root of compassion, is compassion for oneself.
patterns enough feels
One of the deepest habitual patterns that we have is to feel that now is not enough.
inspirational heart eye
When you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dynamic nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity to love and care about other people and your capacity to not be afraid. You're able to keep your eyes open, your heart open, and your mind open. And you notice when you get caught up in prejudice, bias, and aggression. You develop an enthusiasm for no longer watering those negative seeds, from now until the day you die. And, you begin to think of your life as offering endless opportunities to start to do things differently.
fall healing buddhism
Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing.
struggle anxiety challenges
Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It's the kind of place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid.
buddhism empowering getting-what-you-want
Buddhism itself is all about empowering yourself, not about getting what you want.