Pema Chodron Quotes

Mind is a door that leads you outside in the world; meditation is the door that leads you to your interiority - to the very innermost shrine of your being.

My nature is... well... I'm a searcher by nature. I'm constantly searching for something; that's why I have a song called 'Looking for Something.' How do I do it? I read a lot of spiritual books; I meditate.

When I use the words 'inner journey', I simply mean that you have looked at one aspect of the journey in your life called 'outer', now try to look at another aspect of the journey called 'inner'. You have been running after money, now run after meditation. You have been running after power, now run after God. Both are running. Once you start running after meditation then one day I will tell you, 'Now drop meditation too. Now stop running.' And when you stop running then real meditation happens.

My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk.

I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself.

When you walk 10 hours, 11 hours a day by yourself, you are doing a walking meditation.

I'm always soul searching on a spiritual level.

Except witnessing, I don't teach anything else. So just witness your mind and the meditation will be happening. And once you have got in tune with your being, you know the way, you know the how. Then it does not matter where you are. Alone or in the crowd, in the silences of the forest or in the noises of a marketplace, it is all the same. You can simply close your eyes and disappear inwards.

Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new sweet earth and the Great Silence alone.

What I dislike least in my former self are the moments of prayer.

Strive to close the eyes of the body and open those of the soul and look into your own heart.

Meditation is the art of living with yourself. It is nothing else than that, simply that: the art of being joyously alone. A meditator can sit joyously alone for months, for years. He does not hanker for the other, because his own inner ecstasy is so much, is so overpowering, that who bothers about the other?

Meditation is a good starting point, or even a little bit of contemplative reflection, asking questions like: Who am I without my name or form? What is my purpose if there is one? What do I want out of my life? What am I grateful for? Just a little bit of reflection like that starts you on the journey.

Meditation is a way to be narcissistic without hurting anyone

To believe a thing is to see the cool crystal water sparkling in the cup. But to meditate on it is to drink of it. Reading gathers the clusters; contemplation squeezes forth their generous juice.

You grow your best thoughts in silence, solitude, and meditation. When you relax and think deeply, you are giving your inmost powers their best opportunity to disclose themselves.

You cultivate the subconscious by meditation, by sitting in silence and by not trying to control your thoughts. Then go someplace where you haven't been before, or go for a walk, a run, and look for signs of grace-an epiphany, something that comes to you.

Our souls need time to think, dream, and reflect.

I aspire only to silence.

We tend to think of meditation in only one way. But life itself is a meditation.

Contemplation and wisdom are highest achievements and man is not totally at home with them.

Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself.

I've never meditated in my life. I don't practice yoga nor any religion. I'm a tourist on the realm of stillness.

I've been practising Buddhism for forty years, and that's what has led me to this path of discovering my own humanity and recognizing the humanity in others.

I think I'm a spiritual person. I don't really go to church often when services are on, but I like going in when they are empty and quiet, and just sitting there and thinking for a little while.