When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (Shambhala Classics)

by Pema Chödrön

To stay with that shakiness—to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge—that is the path of true awakening.

to lean toward the discomfort of life and see it clearly rather than to protect ourselves from it.

When we wake up, we can live fully without seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, without re-creating ourselves when we fall apart.

How we regard what arises in meditation is training for how we regard whatever arises in the rest of our lives.

The more we relate with others, the more quickly we discover where we are blocked, where we are unkind, afraid, shut down.

Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves, all those imperfections that we don’t even want to look at.

“When it hurts so bad, it’s because I am hanging on so tight.”

from holding so tightly to having it our own way and that one of the main exits we take when we find ourselves uncomfortable, when we find ourselves in an unwanted situation or an unwanted place, is to blame.