Top 280 Pema Chödrön Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “We have a choice. We can spend our whole life suffering because we can’t relax with how things really are, or we can relax and embrace the open-endedness of the human situation, which is fresh, unfixated, unbiased.”

— Pema Chödrön

52. “Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear.”

— Pema Chödrön

53. “The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a relief.”

— Pema Chödrön

54. “Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.”

— Pema Chödrön

55. “The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.”

— Pema Chödrön

56. “The root of suffering is resisting the certainty that no matter what the circumstances, uncertainty is all we truly have.”

— Pema Chödrön

57. “There comes a time when the bubble of ego is popped and you can’t get the ground back for an extended period of time. Those times, when you absolutely cannot get it back together, are the most rich and powerful times in our lives.”

— Pema Chödrön

58. “To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.”

— Pema Chödrön

59. “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 Chödrön

60. “It’s a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately filling up space.”

— Pema Chödrön

61. “If you aren’t feeding the fire of anger or the fire of craving by talking to yourself, then the fire doesn’t have anything to feed on.”

— Pema Chödrön

62. “Don’t worry about achieving. Don’t worry about perfection. Just be there each moment as best you can.”

— Pema Chödrön

63. “If it’s painful, you become willing not just to endure it but also to let it awaken your heart and soften you. You learn to embrace it.”

— Pema Chödrön

64. “We don’t set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people’s hearts.”

— Pema Chödrön

65. “Don’t get caught up in hopes of what you’ll achieve and how good your situation will be some day in the future. What you do right now is what matters.”

— Pema Chödrön

66. “The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.”

— Pema Chödrön

67. “Most spiritual experiences begin with suffering. They begin with groundlessness. They begin when the rug has been pulled out from under us.”

— Pema Chödrön

68. “The future is the result of what we do right now.”

— Pema Chödrön

69. “Lower your standards and relax as it is.”

— Pema Chödrön

70. “The more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain.”

— Pema Chödrön

71. “Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person.”

— Pema Chödrön

72. “By not knowing, not hoping to know and not acting like we know what’s happening, we begin to access our inner strength.”

— Pema Chödrön

73. “So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.”

— Pema Chödrön

74. “Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior’s world.”

— Pema Chödrön

75. “Without giving up hope – that there’s somewhere better to be, that there’s someone better to be – we will never relax with where we are or who we are.”

— Pema Chödrön

76. “You build inner strength through embracing the totality of your experience, both the delightful parts and the difficult parts.”

— Pema Chödrön

77. “All ego really is, is our opinions, which we take to be solid, real, and the absolute truth about how things are.”

— Pema Chödrön

78. “When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment.”

— Pema Chödrön

79. “Never give up on yourself. Then you will never give up on others.”

— Pema Chödrön

80. “The teacher will never give up on the student no matter how mixed up he or she might be.”

— Pema Chödrön

81. “Whatever happens in your life, joyful or painful, do not be swept away by reactivity. Be patient with yourself and don’t lose your sense of perspective.”

— Pema Chödrön

82. “Like all explorers, we are drawn to discover what’s out there without knowing yet if we have the courage to face it.”

— Pema Chödrön

83. “Feeling irritated, restless, afraid, and hopeless is a reminder to listen more carefully.”

— Pema Chödrön

84. “Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.”

— Pema Chödrön

85. “Remember that this is not something we do just once or twice. Interrupting our destructive habits and awakening our heart is the work of a lifetime.”

— Pema Chödrön

86. “Allow situations in your life to become your teacher.”

— Pema Chödrön

87. “The best spiritual instruction is when you wake up in the morning and say, ‘I wonder what’s going to happen today.’ And then carry that kind of curiosity through your life.”

— Pema Chödrön

88. “Our neurosis and our wisdom are made out of the same material. If you throw out your neurosis, you also throw out your wisdom.”

— Pema Chödrön

89. “In practicing meditation, we’re not trying to live up to some kind of ideal – quite the opposite. We’re just being with our experience, whatever it is.”

— Pema Chödrön

90. “The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought.”

— Pema Chödrön

91. “When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions we do not allow the wound to heal.”

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

93. “You must learn to sit with the restless, painful energy and not let the momentum pull you under and cause you to do the same thing over and over that’s ruining your life and the lives of those around you.”

— Pema Chödrön

94. “Meditation takes us just as we are, with our confusion and our sanity. This complete acceptance of ourselves as we are is called maitri, or unconditional friendliness, a simple, direct relationship with the way we are.”

— Pema Chödrön

95. “Openness doesn’t come from resisting our fears but rather from getting to know them well.”

— Pema Chödrön

96. “Never underestimate the desire to bolt.”

— Pema Chödrön

97. “If we Pause and breathe in and out, then we can have the experience of timeless presence, of the inexpressible wisdom and goodness of our own minds. We can look at the world with fresh eyes and hear things with fresh ears.”

— Pema Chödrön

98. “This genuine heart of sadness can teach us great compassion. It can humble us when we’re arrogant and soften us when we are unkind.”

— Pema Chödrön

99. “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.”

— Pema Chödrön

100. “The third noble truth says that the cessation of suffering is letting go of holding on to ourselves.”

— Pema Chödrön