Elie

“this letting things go is sometimes called nonattachment, but not with the cool, remote quality often associated with that word. this nonattachment has more kindness and more intimacy than that. it’s actually a desire to know, like the questions of a three-year-old. we want to know our pain so we can stop endlessly running. we want to know our pleasure so we can stop endlessly grasping.”
― Pema Chodron

“maybe the only enemy is that we don’t like the way reality is *now* and therefore wish it would go away fast. but what we find as practitioners is that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.”
― Pema Chodron

“The teachings say that when we die, we experience it as waking up from a very long dream. When I heard this teaching, I remembered my friend’s nightmares. It struck me right then that if all this is really a dream, I might as well spend it trying to look at what scares me instead of running away.”
― Pema Chodron

“seeking security or perfection, rejoicing in feeling confirmed and whole, self-contained and comfortable, is some kind of death. it doesn’t have any fresh air. there’s no room for something to come in and interrupt all that. we are killing the moment by controlling our experience.”
― Pema Chodron