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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More quotations from Pema Chödrön

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

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

—Pema Chödrön

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

humanity presence relationship compassion equality darkness healer wounded similarity

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

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

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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More quotations tagged with “openness”

Monetary donations to a spiritual cause, contributions of physical labor, involvement with a particular guru, none of these necessarily mean that we have actually committed ourselves to openness. More likely these kinds of commitments are simply ways of proving that we have joined the side of "right.

—Chögyam Trungpa

spirituality religion right commitment openness

A woman's mind is cleaner than a man's: She changes it more often.

—Oliver Herford

change women men openness

I deserve passion. I deserve to be loved—in every way. I deserve a man who'll give his whole heart, not the part he isn't using at the moment.

—Loretta Chase in Silk Is For Seduction

honesty love relationships passion openness

It is sad not to love, but it is much sadder not to be able to love.

—Miguel de Unamuno

love sadness openness