No one ever tells us to stop running away from fear. We are very rarely told to move closer, to just be there, to become familiar with fear. I once asked the Zen master Kobun Chino Roshi how he related with fear, and he said, “I agree. I agree.” But the advice we usually get is to sweeten it up, smooth it over, take a pill, or distract ourselves, but by all means make it go away.
Pema Chödron
from the book When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
Read a random quote or see all quotes by Pema Chödron.
Further quotes from the book When Things Fall Apart:
- Don’t Set Out to Save the World
- Drive all blames into oneself
- The perfect teacher
- What is in front of us right in the moment
- Flooding the world with your kindness
- No fresh air
- Finding out what is true
- Abandoning hope
- Becoming unstuck
- Moving closer to the truth
- Just being here again and again and again
- The courage to look at ourselves honestly and gently
- Opening our hearts and minds beyond limit
- Being with us
- Cultivating Peace
- It’s just like that
- The path of true awakening
- Undoing of old ways of seeing
- Awakening is essential
- Exposing ourselves to annihilation