Pema Chodron Quotes About Heart

Quotes about: Heart

• 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

  Change, Encouraging, Spiritual

• Awareness is the key. Do we see the stories that we're telling ourselves and question their validity? When we are distracted by strong emotion, do we remember that it is our path? Can we feel the emotion and breathe it into our hearts for ourselves and everyone else? If we can remember to experiment like this even occasionally, we are training as a warrior. And when we can't practice when distracted but KNOW we can't, we are still training well. Never underestimate the power of compassionately recognizing what's going on.

  Pema Chodron

  Strong, Heart, Warrior

  Pema Chodron (2002). “The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times”, p.47, Shambhala Publications

• If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.

  Pema Chodron

  Teacher, Inspirational Love, Peace

• So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.

  Pema Chodron

  Peace, Buddhist, War

  Pema Chodron (2006). “Practicing Peace in Times of War”, p.26, Shambhala Publications

• Learning how to be kind to ourselves, learning how to respect ourselves, is important. The reason it's important is that, fundamentally, when we look into our own hearts and begin to discover what is confused and what is brilliant, what is bitter and what is sweet, it isn't just ourselves that we're discovering. We're discovering the universe.

  Pema Chodron

  Inspirational, Life, Spiritual

  Pema Chodron (2000). “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”, p.98, Shambhala Publications

• We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts.

  Pema Chodron

  Integrity, Heart, Compassion

• When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.

  Pema Chodron

  Love, Inspirational, Heart

  Pema Chodron (2001). “Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living”, p.128, Shambhala Publications

• Hold the sadness and pain of samsara [suffering, confusion] in your heart and at the same time the power and vision of the Great Eastern Sun [fundamental awake human nature]. Then the warrior [brave enough to look at & work with reality] can make a proper cup of tea.

  Pema Chodron

  Pain, Heart, Sadness

• Honesty without kindness, humor, and goodheartedness can be just mean. From the very beginning to the very end, pointing to our own hearts to discover what is true isn’t just a matter of honesty but also of compassion and respect for what we see.

  Pema Chodron

  Honesty, Kindness, Heart

  Pema Chodron (2000). “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”, p.98, Shambhala Publications

• 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.

  Pema Chodron

  Inspirational, Heart, Eye

  Pema Chodron (2008). “The Pocket Pema Chodron”, p.24, Shambhala Publications

• The wisdom, the strength, the confidence - the awakened heart and mind are always accessible -- here, now, always.

  Pema Chodron

  Heart, Mind, Heart And Mind

  Pema Chodron (2009). “Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears”, p.51, Shambhala Publications

• 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

  Broken Heart, Spiritual, Buddhist

  Pema Chodron (2000). “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times”, p.14, Shambhala Publications

• People get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That's not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. To the degree that you didn't understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you're given this gift of teachings in the form of your life, to give you everything you need to open further.

  Pema Chodron

  Karma, Buddhist, Teaching

• The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.

  Pema Chodron

  Peace, Buddhist, Heart

  Pema Chodron (2008). “The Pocket Pema Chodron”, p.118, Shambhala Publications

• 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

  Buddhist, Heart, Arrows

  Pema Chodron (2001). “Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living”, p.42, Shambhala Publications

• 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

  Truth, Fear, Heart

• When Things Fall Apart” and I quote “Life is a good teacher and a good friend. Things are always in transition, if we could only realize it. Nothing ever sums itself up in the way that we like to dream about. The off-center, in-between state is an ideal situation, a situation in which we don't get caught and we can open our hearts and minds beyond limit. It's a very tender, nonaggressive, open-ended state of affairs.

  Pema Chodron

  Dream, Hope, Teacher

• We can put our whole heart into whatever we do; but if we freeze our attitude into for or against, we're setting ourselves up for stress. Instead, we could just go forward with curiosity, wondering where this experiment will lead. This kind of open-ended inquisitiveness captures the spirit of enthusiasm, or heroic perseverance.

  Pema Chodron

  Perseverance, Attitude, Stress

  Pema Chodron (2007). “No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva”, p.226, Shambhala Publications

• If we want there to be peace in the world, we have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid in our hearts, to find the soft spot and stay with it. We have to have that kind of courage and take that kind of responsibility. That’s the true practice of peace.

  Pema Chodron

  Heart, Responsibility, Practice

• Unconditional good heart toward others is not even a possibility unless we attend to our own demons.

  Pema Chodron

  Heart, Demon, Possibility

  Pema Chodron (2002). “The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times”, p.64, Shambhala Publications

• If you follow your heart, you're going to find that it is often extremely inconvenient.

  Pema Chodron

  Heart, Follow Your Heart, Ifs

  Pema Chodron (2001). “The Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path of Loving Kindness”, p.123, Shambhala Publications

• Remember that this is not something we do just once or twice. Interrupting our destructive habits and awakening our heart is the work of a lifetime.

  Pema Chodron

  Heart, Awakening, Remember

  Pema Chodron (2002). “The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times”, p.46, Shambhala Publications

• When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless.

  Pema Chodron

  Soulmate, Heart, Opening Our Hearts

  Pema Chodron (2001). “Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living”, p.128, Shambhala Publications

• Meditation accepts us just as we are-in both our tantrums and our bad habits, in our love and commitments and happiness. It allows us to have a more flexible identity because we learn to accept ourselves and all of our human experience with more tenderness and openness. We learn to accept the present moment with an open heart. Every moment is incredibly unique and fresh, and when we drop into the moment, as meditation allows us to do, we learn how to truly taste this tender and mysterious life that we share together.

  Pema Chodron

  Commitment, Heart, Unique

• I equate ego with trying to figure everything out instead of going with the flow. That closes your heart and your mind to the person or situation that's right in front of you, and you miss so much.

  Pema Chodron

  Heart, Missing, Ego

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