Pema Chodron Quotes

If you cannot get along with yourself, you'll never be able to get along with other people.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

Patience doesn't mean making a pact with the devil of denial, ignoring our emotions and aspirations. It means being wholeheartedly engaged in the process that's unfolding, rather than ripping open a budding flower or demanding a caterpillar hurry up and get that chrysalis stage over with.

I'm trying to get a thicker skin. I like to be aware of people's perceptions of me, but when you put it as a priority, as a means to judging your worth, that's when it can be dangerous.

It's hard for me to characterise myself. I think I'm balanced. Some people might say I'm cold-hearted.

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.

A soul which knows that it is loved, but does not itself love, betrays its sediment: its dregs come up.

A mind that practices love cannot love.

Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

If you are an enemy to your own mind, other people have to become enemies too, sooner or later. Until you understand, until you can love the thoughts that appear in your mind, then you can love the rest of us. You work with the projector -the mind - not the projected world. I can't really love you until I question the mind that thinks it sees you outside itself . . .

Many of us have a need to be right. We then set out to make ourselves right by making someone else wrong. We must get right with ourselves. Once we do, we will have so much to do, we will not have time to keep track of who is wrong.

Patience has nothing to do with suppression. In fact, it has everything to do with a gentle, honest relationship with yourself.

Our capacity to make peace with another person and with the world depends very much on our capacity to make peace with ourselves.

The great power of separating the watching mind from the thinking mind is that the watching mind is innately loving. Some call this part of the psyche the 'compassionate witness.' Sharing our difficult feelings with a compassionate witness is the crucial step that heals the infinite small wounds inflicted upon the soul by everyday life.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

Humility is nothing else but a right judgment of ourselves.

You must first get along with yourself before you can get along with others.

After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life.

There has to be a balance between power and vulnerability. That's something I feel I have in my own life, something I struggle with and - on a good day - like about myself.

Success and failure are emotional and physiological experiences. We need to deal with them in a way that is present and calm.

Our entire life - consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are.

Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

Feeling compassion for ourselves in no way releases us from responsibility for our actions. Rather, it releases us from the self-hatred that prevents us from responding to our life with clarity and balance.

Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist.

Self-awareness is value-free. It isn't scary. It doesn't imply that you will subject yourself to needless pain.