Top 280 Pema Chödrön Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “In a nutshell, when life is pleasant, think of others. When life is a burden, think of others.”

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

153. “The very first noble truth of the Buddha points out that suffering is inevitable for human beings as long as we believe that things last – that they don’t disintegrate, that they can be counted on to satisfy our hunger for security.”

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

155. “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

156. “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

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

159. “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

160. “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

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

— Pema Chödrön

162. “What you do for yourself, you’re doing for others, and what you do for others, you’re doing for yourself.”

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

165. “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

166. “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

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

— Pema Chödrön

168. “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

169. “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

170. “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

171. “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

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

— Pema Chödrön

173. “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

174. “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

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

177. “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

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

— Pema Chödrön

179. “Patience is not learned in safety.”

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

185. “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

186. “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

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

— Pema Chödrön

188. “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

189. “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

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

— Pema Chödrön

191. “Use your life to wake you up.”

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

195. “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

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

— Pema Chödrön

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

— Pema Chödrön

198. “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

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

— Pema Chödrön

200. “The still lake without ripples is an image of our minds at ease, so full of unlimited friendliness for all the junk at the bottom of the lake that we don’t feel the need to churn up the waters just to avoid looking at what’s there.”

— Pema Chödrön