When we encounter pain in our life we breathe into our heart with the recognition that others also feel this. When life is pleasant, think of others. When life is a burden, think of others. If this is the only training we ever remember to do, it will benefit us tremendously and everyone else as well. It’s a way of bringing whatever we encounter onto the path of awakening bodhichitta.

Pema Chödron

from the book The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times

Read a random quote or see all quotes by Pema Chödron.

Further quotes from the book The Places That Scare You:

• Our true nature and condition
• Nothing and no one is fixed
• Being inspired by everyday good fortune
• The queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere
• The anxiety of opening
• Everyday uncertainty
• Cultivating equanimity
• Happiness
• Life preferences
• The root of happiness
• Awakening our unlimited potential
• Dissolving our self-importance
• Dissolving our fear
• At least until you die
• The first mark of existence
• Being in the middle of nowhere
• A flexible identity
• Our Shared Humanity
• Idiot Compassion