Pema Chodron Quotes

The more intense the nature of a man, the more readily will he find meditation, and the more successfully will he practice it.

Self-awareness is not the same thing as self-approval, any more than imagination is the same thing as day-dreaming.

Anything that needs to be accessed is within me. Even if it's in a circumstance that seems outrageous, I can still just go back to the basic human experience and it's all there.

I meditate. I need that time to stay true to who I am.

From the moment we are born, people tell us that the world is like this and like that, this way, that way. It is natural that - for a certain period of time - we end up believing what we are told. But we must soon push these ideas aside and discover our own way of living reality.

Meditation is not a withdrawal from life. Meditation is a process of understanding oneself.

Through faithful practice, layer after layer of the mind opens before us, and each reveals new facts to us.

Your mind doesn't know the difference between reality and fantasy. Your mindacts on what you feed it. Feed it good thoughts.

If the image one holds of one's self contains elements that don't square with reality, one is best advised to let go of them, however difficult that may be.

In fact, a person always finds when he begins to practice meditation that all sorts of problems are brought out. Any hidden aspects of your personality are brought out into the open, for the simple reason that for the first time you are allowing yourself to see your state of mind as it is.

Individuals who were submerged in reality, merely feeling their needs, emerge from reality and perceive the causes of their needs.

Meditation is another dimension of natural beauty. People talk about appreciating natural beauty-climbing mountains, seeing giraffes and tigers in Africa, and all sorts of things. But nobody seems to appreciate this kind of natural beauty of ourselves. This is actually far more beautiful than flora and fauna, far more fantastic, far more painful and colorful and delightful.

Meditation is a microcosm, a model, a mirror. The skills we practice when we sit are transferable to the rest of our lives.

Reminding people what in reality it is all about, giving them a theme on which to ponder, creating a shock within them, pulling them out of the delusion of non authenticity, enabling them to become aware of their true possibilities.

...dreams were dreams and reality was reality and she felt people were better off understanding the difference.

Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively.

When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others. Inner peace is not found by staying on the surface of life, or by attempting to escape from life through any means. Inner peace is found by facing life squarely, solving its problems, and delving as far beneath its surface as possible to discover its verities and realities.

A lot of people experience the world with the same incredulity as when a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat.…We know that the world is not all sleight of hand and deception because we are in it, we are part of it. Actually we are the white rabbit being pulled out of the hat. The only difference beween us and the white rabbit is that the rabbit does not realize it is taking part in a magic trick.

Knowing yourself is to be rooted in Being, instead of lost in your mind.

To successfully open the door to heightened awareness, we must open it inward.

Learn to be one with who you are in Reality, and the waves of a thousand passing worlds cannot wash you away.

The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.

It is not only useless, it is harmful, to believe in oneself until one truly knows oneself. And to know oneself means to accept our moments of insanity, of eccentricity, of childishness and blindness.

Identify your painful thought, question it, and wake yourself up. No one else can.