Pema Chodron is an American Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, Acharya and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Chodron has written several books and is the director of the Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, Canada. May her quotes inspire you to let go and be so that you may live your dreams.
1. “Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.” Pema Chodron
2. “We sow the seeds of our future hells or happiness by the way we open or close our minds right now.” Pema Chodron
3. “Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves.” Pema Chodron
4. “Sometimes when things fall apart, well, that’s the big opportunity to change.” Pema Chodron
5. “The future is completely open, and we are writing it moment to moment.” Pema Chodron
6. “When we protect ourselves so we won’t feel pain, that protection becomes armor, like armor that imprisons the softness of the heart.” Pema Chodron
7. “Resistance to unwanted circumstances has the power to keep those circumstances alive and well for a very long time.” Pema Chodron
8. “If you are invested in security and certainty, you are on the wrong planet.” Pema Chodron
9. “The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.” Pema Chodron
10. “Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.” Pema Chodron
11. “Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” Pema Chodron
12. “You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.” Pema Chodron
13. “Completely let go.” Pema Chodron
14. “If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” Pema Chodron
15. “Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different from the way they are.” Pema Chodron
16. “To be fully alive, fully human and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-mans-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.” Pema Chodron
17. “A further sign of health is that we don’t become undone by fear and trembling but we take it as a message that it’s time to stop struggling and look directly at what’s threatening us.” Pema Chodron
18. “You must face annihilation over and over again to find what is indestructible in yourself.” Pema Chodron
19. “Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. 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 Chodron
20. “It isn’t the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it’s how we relate to the things that happen to us that causes us to suffer.” Pema Chodron
21. “Being open and receptive to whatever is happening is always more important than getting worked up and adding further aggression to the planet, adding further pollution to the atmosphere.” Pema Chodron
22. “Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away.” Pema Chodron
23. “We think that the point is to pass the test 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 misery, for joy.” Pema Chodron
24. “The root of resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstance, uncertainty is all we truly have.” Pema Chodron
25. “Just where you are – that’s the place to start.” Pema Chodron
26. “The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” Pema Chodron
27. “The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.” Pema Chodron
28. “Rather than being disheartened by the uncertainty of life, what if we accepted it and relaxed into it? What if we said, yes, this is the way it is; this is what it means to be human, and decided to sit down and enjoy the ride.” Pema Chodron
29. “The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart.” Pema Chodron
30. “This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted, and shaky – that’s called liberation.” Pema Chodron
31. “Learning not to panic – this is the spiritual path.” Pema Chodron
32. “Precision, gentleness and the ability to let go are not something that we have to gain, but something that we could bring out, cultivate, rediscover in ourselves.” Pema Chodron
33. “It’s a nice feeling to just be.” Pema Chodron
34. “The experiences of your life are trying to tell you something about yourself. Don’t cop out on that. Don’t run away and hide under your cover. Lean into it.” Pema Chodron
35. “Look ahead to the rest of your life and ask yourself what you want it to add up to.” Pema Chodron
