Pema Chodron Quotes

How sweet it would be to treat men and things, for an hour, for just what they are!

Whatever the situation, just take it for what it is. You don't have to make it worse or better than it is. It just is what it is. Always deal with the honesty, the truth of what something is, and then you've got all kinds of choices.

Our job is not to set things right but to see them right.

I sing to the realists; people who accept it like it is.

I don't make things complicated, that's the way they get all by themselves.

One has to view things realistically.

I used to try to figure out precisely what I was seeing all the time, until I discovered that I didn't need to. If the thing is true, why there it is.

As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can't see how it is.

What's happening is merely what's happening. How you feel about it is another matter.

Reality is apparent when one ceases to compare.

We cannot pretend that reality is different from what it is.

Reality isn't the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens.

To increase our objectivity, we must learn to switch off the mini-movies. Objectivity requires us to be mindful, present in the moment, and experiencing what is happening without judgment.

I think we ought to take the world as it is and not as we would like to have it.

Reality seems so simple. We just open our eyes and there it is. But that doesn't mean it is simple.

I do try to write in ways that reflect reality, and I think that reality is rarely simple.

Facts are many, but the truth is one.

I am determined to live without illusions. I want to look at reality straight. Without hiding.

You are meant to play the ball as it lies, a fact that may help to touch on your own objective approach to life.

We must take the world as it is and not as we would like it to be.

Recognizing truth requires selflessness. You have to leave yourself out of it so you can find out the way things are in themselves, not the way they look to you or how you feel about them or how you would like them to be.

Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.