The spiritual journey involves going beyond hope and fear, stepping into unknown territory, continually moving forward. The most important aspect of being on the spiritual path may be just to keep moving.
Pema ChodronRead
The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Holding on to your beliefs can prevent you from being open to new ideas.
This quote by Pema Chodron emphasizes the idea that rigid attachment to our personal truths limits our ability to learn and grow. If we are too committed to our existing beliefs, we may miss new perspectives and valuable insights that could enrich our understanding and experience of the world.
Themes
TruthBeliefsOpennessLearningGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on personal development, you might say this quote to encourage participants to challenge their assumptions.
More from Pema Chodron
All quotes →Without giving up hope—that there’s somewhere better to be, that there’s someone better to be—we will never relax with where we are or who we are.
Pema ChodronRead
When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions we do not allow the wound to heal.
Pema ChodronRead
It's said that when we die, the four elements - earth, air, fire and water - dissolve one by one, each into the other, and finally just dissolve into space. But while we're living, we share the energy that makes everything, from a blade of grass to an elephant, grow and live and then inevitably wear out and die. This energy, this life force, creates the whole world.
Pema ChodronRead
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 the ground, that’s what we study, that’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.
Pema ChodronRead
We have two alternatives: either we question our beliefs - or we don't. Either we accept our fixed versions of reality- or we begin to challenge them. In Buddha's opinion, to train in staying open and curious - to train in dissolving our assumptions and beliefs - is the best use of our human lives.
Pema ChodronRead
Similar quotes
Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
Type of the wise who soar but never roam, True to the kindred points of heaven and home.
William WordsworthRead
You’re in charge of your mind. You can help it grow by using it in the right way.
Carol S. DweckRead
The experience of helping a fellow man in danger, or even of training in a realistic manner to be ready to give this help, tends to change the balance of power in a youth's inner life with the result that compassion can become the master motive.
Kurt HahnRead
We cannot have a world where everyone is a victim. "I'm this way because my father made me this way. I'm this way because my husband made me this way." Yes, we are indeed formed by traumas that happen to us. But you must take charge, you must take over, you are responsible.
Camille PagliaRead
Words should be used as tools of communication and not as a substitute for action
Mae WestRead