Pema Chödrön

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Pema Chödrön (པདྨ་ཆོས་སྒྲོན། padma chos sgron “lotus dharma lamp”; born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, July 14, 1936) is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Chödrön has written several dozen books and audiobooks, and was principal teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia until recently. She retired in 2020.

Quotes from Pema Chödrön

Honesty without kindness, humor, and goodheartedness can be just mean.

—Pema Chödrön in When Things Fall Apart

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True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings.

—Pema Chödrön

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kinship compassion help

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You have to want to lose your appetite for violence or aggression. And to do that, you have to lose your self-righteousness.

—Pema Chödrön

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desire violence aggression self-righteousness

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Spiritual awakening is frequently described as a journey to the top of a mountain. We leave our attachments and our worldliness behind and slowly make our way to the top. At the peak we have transcended all pain. The only problem with this metaphor is that we leave all the others behind. . . . In the process of discovering our true nature, the journey goes down, not up. . . . Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward the turbulence and doubt. . . . We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we will let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, our companions in awakening from fear. At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of compassion. Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die.

—Pema Chödrön

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truth spirituality love reality compassion pain death suffering doubt aggression transcendence healing attachments worldliness turbulence insecurity

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Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for joy.

—Pema Chödrön

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The only reason that we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.

—Pema Chödrön

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others clear-seeing perspective hearts compassion eyes confidence fearlessness sanity confusion minds

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Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.

—Pema Chödrön

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humanity presence relationship compassion equality darkness healer wounded similarity

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How did I get so lucky to have my heart awakened to others and their suffering?

—Pema Chödrön

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It's also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that's sitting right here right now... with its aches and it pleasures... is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive.

—Pema Chödrön

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If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.

—Pema Chödrön

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others learning heart openness

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Books

Pema Chödrön has the following books quoted on Quodid:

When Things Fall Apart