quote: Pema Chodron: Seeing Ourselves Clearly

SEEING OURSELVES CLEARLY

by Pema Chodron

When we begin to see clearly what we do, how we get hooked and swept away by old habits, our usual tendency is to use that as a reason to get discouraged, a reason to feel really bad about ourselves. Instead, we could realize how remarkable it is that we actually have the capacity to see ourselves honestly, and that doing this takes courage. It is moving in the direction of seeing our life as a teacher rather than as a burden. This involves, fundamentally, learning to stay present, but learning to stay with a sense of humor, learning to stay with loving-kindness toward ourselves and with the outer situation, learning to take joy in the magic ingredient of honest self-reflection.

excerpted from

Taking the Leap

Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears

By Pema Chodron 

received via email from

Heart Advice, Weekly Quotes from Pema Chodron
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thought: Tricycle's Daily Dharma for 9/21/10

Befriend Who You Are

Lovingkindness—maitri—toward ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy, we can still be angry. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.

 by Pema Chodron, "We Can Still Be Crazy" (Winter 2002)

Thanks to Tricycle for sending this thought out into the universe.