Quotes by Pema Chodron

“A further sign of health is that we dont become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that its time to stop struggling and look directly at whats threatening us.”

“The still lake without ripples is an image of our minds at ease, so full of unlimited friendliness for all the junk at the bottom of the lake that we dont feel the need to churn up the waters just to avoid looking at whats there.”

“Whats encouraging about meditation is that even if we shut down, we can no longer shut down in ignorance. We see very clearly that were closing off. That in itself begins to illuminate the darkness of ignorance.”

“Compassionate action involves working with ourselves as much as working with others.”

“When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that its bottomless, that it doesnt have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.”

To be fully alive, fully human and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to always be in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.