Pema Chodron Quotes

Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us.

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.

I do my best to allow myself to really feel it [emotional pain]. Cry. Get all in it. Really experience my experience so that I may move through it. And talk about it. I try not to let anything get brushed over and swept under the rug.

The door to my heart opens inward. I move through forgiveness to love.

Lincoln had internalized the pain of those around him-the wounded soldiers, the captured prisoners, the defeated Southerners. Little wonder that he was overwhelmed at times by a profound sadness that even his own resilient temperament could not dispel.

Of course people are afraid. But honestly facing that fear, seeing it for what it is, is the only way of putting it to rest.

I handle emotional pain by trying to understand that it's going to be painful and to allow for it instead of fighting it. Doesn't make it any easier, though.

Never underestimate what it takes to watch someone you love in pain.

Emotional pain makes me want to isolate. Or hit back. It's very tough to rise above my natural inclinations. I'm always working on this.

Keep your heart open for as long as you can, as wide as you can, for others and especially for yourself.

We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

I'm not really concerned about boundaries. I just follow my conscience and my heart. Follow your heart. That's what I do. Compassion is something I have a lot of, because I've been through a lot of pain in my life. Anybody who has suffered a lot of pain has a lot of compassion.

Live with your lips pressed against your fears, kissing your fears, neither pulling back nor aggressively violating them.

if we cultivate compassion for those who have hurt us, we have the possibility of overcoming our anger,pain, and fear. compassion is a great medicine.

Having been through a tremendous amount of emotional pain, to process it properly, to be able to have it make sense and then move it through your body, your mind, your spirit, and be done with it, you really have to address it head-on. Being able to really have the courage enough to truly face it, to truly look at it, to truly feel it.

The ego says, I shouldn't have to suffer, and that thought makes you suffer so much more.

I know how hard it is to live your life with your wounds exposed to heal other people

For me there's a need for balance - fulfilling the sensitive side, letting my guard down, holding back the warrior in me. And I have to be vulnerable which is very hard for me to do.

I believe that this neglected, wounded, inner child of the past is the major source of human misery.

We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time.

Shall I tell you what you have that other men don't?.... It's the courage of your own tenderness.

Past mistakes cannot create a present pain; no mistake in life has the power to make us ache any more than the echo of someone crying can shed tears.

With every physical pain, my moral fibre unravels a little.

Love had always issued out of the places that hurt the most.

Sometimes life seems so painful it hurts even to move my arms.