Top 280 Pema Chödrön Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share.”

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

155. “To live is to be willing to die over and over again.”

— Pema Chödrön

156. “When we feel left out, inadequate, or lonely, can we take a warrior’s perspective and contact bodhichitta?”

— Pema Chödrön

157. “True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings.”

— Pema Chödrön

158. “The only way to ease our pain is to experience it fully. Learn to stay with uneasiness, learn to stay with the tightening, so that the habitual chain reaction doesn’t continue to rule your life.”

— Pema Chödrön

159. “In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves.”

— Pema Chödrön

160. “Awareness is the key. Do we see the stories that we’re telling ourselves and question their validity?”

— Pema Chödrön

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

161. “There isn’t anything except your own life that can be used as ground for your spiritual practice. Spiritual practice is your life, twenty-four hours a day.”

— Pema Chödrön

162. “Whatever you are doing, take the attitude of wanting it directly or indirectly to benefit others. Take the attitude of wanting it to increase your experience of kinship with your fellow beings.”

— Pema Chödrön

163. “By becoming intimate with how we close down and how we open up, we awaken our unlimited potential.”

— Pema Chödrön

164. “The real thing that we renounce is the tenacious hope that we could be saved from being who we are.”

— Pema Chödrön

Featured in: Real Quotes

165. “The essence of practice is always the same: instead of falling prey to a chain reaction of revenge or self-hatred, we gradually learn to catch the emotional reaction and drop the story lines.”

— Pema Chödrön

166. “Being preoccupied with our self-image is like being deaf and blind. It’s like standing in the middle of a vast field of wildflowers with a black hood over our heads. It’s like coming upon a tree of singing birds while wearing earplugs.”

— Pema Chödrön

167. “Surrendering, letting go of possessiveness, and complete nonattachment-all are synonyms for accumulating merit.”

— Pema Chödrön

168. “Honesty without kindness, humor, and goodheartedness can be just mean.”

— Pema Chödrön

169. “Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there’s anywhere to hide.”

— Pema Chödrön

170. “As long as our orientation is toward perfection or success, we will never learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find compassion.”

— Pema Chödrön

171. “Generosity is an activity that loosens us up. By offering whatever we can – a dollar, a flower, a word of encouragement – we are training in letting go.”

— Pema Chödrön

172. “Life’s work is to wake up, to let the things that enter your life wake you up rather than put you to sleep.”

— Pema Chödrön

173. “Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die.”

— Pema Chödrön

174. “The Buddha taught that we’re not actually in control, which is a pretty scary idea. But when you let things be as they are, you will be a much happier, more balanced, compassionate person.”

— Pema Chödrön

175. “Until we stop clinging to the concept of good and evil, the world will continue to manifest as friendly goddesses and harmful demons.”

— Pema Chödrön

176. “How do we cultivate the conditions for joy to expand? We train in staying present.”

— Pema Chödrön

177. “The point is that our true nature is not some ideal that we have to live up to. It’s who we are right now, and that’s what we can make friends with and celebrate.”

— Pema Chödrön

178. “We are all capable of becoming fundamentalists because we get addicted to other people’s wrongness.”

— Pema Chödrön

179. “In meditation, you learn how to get out of your own way long enough for there to be room for your wisdom to manifest.”

— Pema Chödrön

180. “Feel the wounded heart that’s underneath the addiction, self-loathing, or anger.”

— Pema Chödrön

181. “Rejoicing in the good fortune of others is a practice that can help us when we feel emotionally shut down and unable to connect with others. Rejoicing generates good will.”

— Pema Chödrön

182. “If there’s any possibility for enlightenment, it’s right now, not at some future time. Now is the time.”

— Pema Chödrön

183. “Patience is not learned in safety.”

— Pema Chödrön

184. “There’s nothing more important on our spiritual path than developing gentleness to oneself.”

— Pema Chödrön

185. “Obstacles are our friends: they teach us where we’re stuck.”

— Pema Chödrön

186. “Don’t worry about achieving. Don’t worry about perfection. Just be there each moment as best you can. When you realize you’ve wandered off again, simply very lightly acknowledge that. This light touch is the golden key to reuniting with our openness.”

— Pema Chödrön

187. “The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment.”

— Pema Chödrön

188. “It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play.”

— Pema Chödrön

189. “We can stop thinking that good practice is when it’s smooth and calm, and bad practice is when it’s rough and dark. If we can hold it all in our hearts, then we can make a proper cup of tea.”

— Pema Chödrön

190. “But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.”

— Pema Chödrön

191. “Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future.”

— Pema Chödrön

192. “Simply be present with your own shifting energies and with the unpredictabilit y of life as it unfolds.”

— Pema Chödrön

193. “Use your life to wake you up.”

— Pema Chödrön

194. “Even if you don’t feel appreciation, just look. Feel what you feel; take an interest and be curious.”

— Pema Chödrön

195. “When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it’s bottomless.”

— Pema Chödrön

196. “When we touch the center of sorrow, when we sit with discomfort without trying to fix it, when we stay present to the pain of disapproval or betrayal and let it soften us, these are times that we connect with bohdichitta.”

— Pema Chödrön

197. “We cannot be present and run our story-line at the same time.”

— Pema Chödrön

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

198. “When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something.”

— Pema Chödrön

199. “Ego is like a room of your own, a room with a view with the temperature and the smells and the music that you like. You want it your own way. You’d just like to have a little peace, you’d like to have a little happiness, you know, just gimme a break.”

— Pema Chödrön

200. “Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?”

— Pema Chödrön