Top 280 Pema Chödrön Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “Being fully present isn’t something that happens once and then you have achieved it; it’s being awake to the ebb and flow and movement and creation of life, being alive to the process of life itself.”

— Pema Chödrön

102. “At some point, we realize that what we do for ourselves benefits others, and what we do for others benefits us.”

— Pema Chödrön

103. “The biggest obstacle to taking a bigger perspective on life is that our emotions capture and blind us.”

— Pema Chödrön

104. “I equate ego with trying to figure everything out instead of going with the flow. That closes your heart and your mind to the person or situation that’s right in front of you, and you miss so much.”

— Pema Chödrön

105. “That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, is the first mark of existence. Everything is in process.”

— Pema Chödrön

106. “When we are willing to stay even a moment with uncomfortable energy, we gradually learn not to fear it.”

— Pema Chödrön

107. “We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.”

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

109. “Trying to run away is never the answer to being a fully human. Running away from the immediacy of our experience is like preferring death to life.”

— Pema Chödrön

110. “Although we have the potential to experience the freedom of a butterfly, we mysteriously prefer the small and fearful cocoon of ego.”

— Pema Chödrön

111. “When you have made good friends with yourself, your situation will be more friendly too.”

— Pema Chödrön

112. “We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.”

— Pema Chödrön

113. “When resistance is gone, the demons are gone.”

— Pema Chödrön

114. “Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already.”

— Pema Chödrön

115. “In meditation and in our daily lives there are three qualities that we can nurture, cultivate, and bring out. We already possess these, but they can be ripened: precision, gentleness, and the ability to let go.”

— Pema Chödrön

116. “All the terrible things we do to ourselves and others from alcoholism to character assignation to abuse to murder come from one cause: the inability to stay present with an uncomfortable feeling in the body and seek short-term relief.”

— Pema Chödrön

117. “To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death.”

— Pema Chödrön

118. “Constantly apply cheerfulness, if for no other reason than because you are on this spiritual path. Have a sense of gratitude to everything, even difficult emotions, because of their potential to wake you up.”

— Pema Chödrön

119. “The approach is that the best way to use unwanted circumstances on the path of enlightenment is not to resist but to lean into them.”

— Pema Chödrön

120. “We don’t experience the world fully unless we are willing to give everything away. Samaya means not holding anything back, not preparing our escape route, not looking for alternatives, not thinking that there is ample time to do things later.”

— Pema Chödrön

121. “Things become clear when there is no escape.”

— Pema Chödrön

122. “Deep down in the human spirit, there is a reservoir of courage. It is always available, always waiting to be discovered.”

— Pema Chödrön

123. “When there’s a disappointment, I don’t know if it’s the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure.”

— Pema Chödrön

124. “Clarity and decisiveness come from the willingness to slow down, to listen to and look at what’s happening.”

— Pema Chödrön

125. “All situations teach you, and often it’s the tough ones that teach you best.”

— Pema Chödrön

126. “Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings.”

— Pema Chödrön

127. “The wisdom, the strength, the confidence – the awakened heart and mind are always accessible – here, now, always.”

— Pema Chödrön

128. “People get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That’s not the idea at all.”

— Pema Chödrön

129. “We can drop the fundamental hope that there is a better “me” who one day will emerge. We can’t just jump over ourselves as if we were not there.”

— Pema Chödrön

130. “It isn’t what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it’s what we say to ourselves about what happens.”

— Pema Chödrön

131. “Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.”

— Pema Chödrön

132. “Treat yourself as your own beloved child.”

— Pema Chödrön

133. “It is a commitment to respect whatever life brings that we develop wholehearted determination to use discomfort as an opportunity for awakening, rather than trying to make it disappear.”

— Pema Chödrön

134. “Everybody loves something, even if it’s only tortillas.”

— Pema Chödrön

135. “Every moment is unique, unknown, completely fresh.”

— Pema Chödrön

136. “Hell is just resistance to life.”

— Pema Chödrön

137. “Enlightenment is a direct experience with reality.”

— Pema Chödrön

138. “We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.”

— Pema Chödrön

139. “Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. Why? Because it is all we ever have.”

— Pema Chödrön

140. “Without loving-kindness for ourselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others.”

— Pema Chödrön

141. “A warrior accepts that we can never know what will happen to us next.”

— Pema Chödrön

142. “When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it’s bottomless, that it doesn’t have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.”

— Pema Chödrön

143. “Unconditional good heart toward others is not even a possibility unless we attend to our own demons.”

— Pema Chödrön

144. “When we protect ourselves so we won’t feel pain, that protection becomes like armor, like armor that imprisons the softness of of the heart.”

— Pema Chödrön

145. “Let the hard things in life break you. Let them effect you. Let them change you. Let these hard moments inform you. Let this pain be your teacher. 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 covers. Lean into it.”

— Pema Chödrön

146. “At the root of all the harm we cause is ignorance.”

— Pema Chödrön

147. “One of the deepest habitual patterns that we have is to feel that now is not enough.”

— Pema Chödrön

148. “The root of compassion, is compassion for oneself.”

— Pema Chödrön

149. “In a nutshell, when life is pleasant, think of others. When life is a burden, think of others.”

— Pema Chödrön

150. “Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us.”

— Pema Chödrön