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 from Pema Chödrön

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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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

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More quotations tagged with “overcoming”

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.

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Will is the means by which we overcome the problems that life or genes have handed us. Without it, there is no true character.

—Jacob Needleman

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There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.

—Albert Camus

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History

23 Nov 2014 Added