Pema Chodron Way Quotations

Take three conscious breaths. Just pause. Let it be a contrast to being all caught up. Let it be like popping a bubble. Let it be just a moment in time, and then go on. Maybe you are on your way to whatever you need to do for the day. You are in your car, or on the bus, or standing in line. But you can still create that gap by taking three conscious breaths and being right there with the immediacy of your experience, right there with whatever you are seeing, with whatever you are doing, with whatever you are feeling.

Nothing in its essence is one way or the other.

The approach is that the best way to use unwanted circumstances on the path of enlightenment is not to resist but to lean into them.

One way to practice staying present is to simply sit still for a while and listen. For one minute, listen to the sounds close to you. For one minute, listen to the sounds at a distance. Just listen attentively.

In meditation, you learn how to get out of your own way long enough for there to be room for your wisdom to manifest

Blaming is a way to protect your heart, trying to protect what is soft and open and tender in yourself.

Each time you stay present with fear and uncertainty, you're letting go of a habitual way of finding security and comfort.

The only way to ease our pain is to experience it fully. Learn to stay with uneasiness, learn to stay with the tightening, so that the habitual chain reaction doesn't continue to rule your life.

The Process of becoming unstuck requires tremendous bravery, because basically we are completely changing our way of perceiving reality...

Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do. The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice.

We sow the seeds of our future hells or happiness by the way we open or close our minds right now.