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 ChodronThe more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain.
Pema ChodronAt some point, we realize that what we do for ourselves benefits others, and what we do for others benefits us.
Pema ChodronWe insist on being Someone, with a capital S. We get security from defining ourselves as worthless or worthy, superior or inferior. We waste precious time exaggerating or romanticizing or belittling ourselves with a complacent surety that yes, thatโs who we are. We mistake the openness of our beingโthe inherent wonder and surprise of each momentโfor a solid, irrefutable self. Because of this misunderstanding, we suffer.
Pema Chodron