Generally speaking, we regard discomfort in any form as bad news. But for practitioners or spiritual warriors – people who have a certain hunger to know what is true – feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are.
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:
- Becoming unstuck
- Abandoning hope
- Drive all blames into oneself
- What is in front of us right in the moment
- It’s just like that
- How are you
- Just being here again and again and again
- Cultivating Peace
- Disappointment
- Undoing of old ways of seeing
- Moving closer to the truth
- The courage to look at ourselves honestly and gently
- Opening our hearts and minds beyond limit
- Awakening is essential
- Being with us
- The Possibility of Egolessness
- The path of true awakening
- Finding out what is true
- Flooding the world with your kindness