Pema Chodron Death Quotes & Sayings

We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness. — Thomas Merton

Death in everyday life could also be defined as experiencing all the things that we don't want. Our marriage isn't working; our job isn't coming together. Having a relationship with death in everyday life means that we begin to be able to wait, to relax with insecurity, with panic, with embarrassment, with things not working out. — Pema Chodron

Wisdom is a fluid process, not something concrete that can be added up or measured. The warrior-bodhisattva trains with the attitude that everything is a dream. Life is a dream; death is a dream; waking is a dream; sleeping is a dream. This dream is the direct immediacy of our experience. Trying to hold on to any of it by buying our story line only blocks our wisdom. — Pema Chodron

Anything a guy can do a girl can do better ... except being stupid — Kimora Lee Simmons

It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play. That we take ourselves so seriously, that we are so absurdly important in our own minds, is a problem for us. We feel justified in being annoyed with everything. We feel justified in denigrating ourselves or in feeling that we are more clever than other people. Self-importance hurts us, limiting us to the narrow world of our likes and dislikes. We end up bored to death with ourselves and our world. We end up never satisfied. — Pema Chodron

There is a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs and runs and the tigers are getting closer and closer. When she comes to the edge of a cliff, she sees some vines there, so she climbs down and holds on to the vines. Looking down, she sees that there are tigers below her as well. She then notices that a mouse is gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to her, growing out of a clump of grass. She looks up and she looks down. She looks at the mouse. Then she just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly. Tigers above, tigers below. This is actually the predicament that we are always in, in terms of our birth and death. Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life; it might be the only strawberry we'll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life. — Pema Chodron

Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."
She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.
"Er - all right."
He cleared his throat.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.
"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. I've learned all our course books by heart, of course. — J.K. Rowling

Over time you realize that some people just aren't worth it anymore. — Drake

There is an inner beauty and outer beauty. Both have tremendous influence. — Tanya R. Liverman

The pursuit of pretty formulas and neat theorems can no doubt quickly degenerate into a silly vice, but so can the quest for austere generalities which are so very general indeed that they are incapable of application to any particular. — E. T. Bell

We think that if we just meditated enough or jogged enough or ate perfect food, everything would be perfect. But from the point of view of someone who is awake, that's death. 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

Like when that man was running down Broadway stark naked and we all had to eat in the cafeteria while the police tried to catch him. — Rebecca Stead

Paradise is to love many things with a passion. — Pablo Picasso

Many religions have meditations on death to let it penetrate our thick skulls that life doesn't last forever. — Pema Chodron

Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing? — Pema Chodron

Trying to run away is never the answer to being a fully human. Running away from the immediacy of our experience is like preferring death to life. — Pema Chodron

In that hurry to achieve, I've left little time for self-reflection. And I'm not sure I'm ready for it. — Cindy McCormick Martinusen

To impress people as much as we would wish, we would first need to successfully adopt each of their value systems — Derren Brown

Why should I be perfect.. when I'm already imperfectly perfect. And that's what is unique and perfect about me. — Abhishek Kumar

Making good use of our limited time - the limited time from birth to death, as well as our limited time each day - is the key to developing inner steadiness and calm. — Pema Chodron

Relaxing with the present moment, relaxing with hopelessness, relaxing with death, not resisting the fact that things end, that things pass, that things have no lasting substance, that everything is changing all the time - that is the basic message. — Pema Chodron

To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death. — Pema Chodron

Let's contend no more, Love, Strive nor weep: All be as before Love, - Only sleep. — Robert Browning

Birth is painful and delightful. Death is painful and delightful. Everything that ends is also the beginning of something else. Pain is not a punishment; pleasure is not a reward. Inspiration — Pema Chodron

Improving the human condition takes little effort; destroying it takes maximum force. — T.F. Hodge

The essence of life is that it's challenging. Sometimes it is sweet, and sometimes it is bitter. Sometimes your body tenses, and sometimes it relaxes or opens. Sometimes you have a headache, and sometimes you feel 100 percent healthy. From an awakened perspective, trying to tie up all the loose ends and finally get it together is death, because it involves rejecting a lot of your basic experience. There is something aggressive about that approach to life, trying to flatten out all the rough spots and imperfections into a nice smooth ride. — Pema Chodron