# Quote — Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart

> From this point of view, the only time we ever know what’s really going on is when the rug’s been pulled out and we can’t find anywhere to land. We use these situations either to wake ourselves up or to put ourselves to sleep.

- Author: [Pema Chödrön](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pema-chodron.md)
- Book: [When Things Fall Apart](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pema-chodron/when-things-fall-apart.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pema_Ch%C3%B6dr%C3%B6n#When_Things_Fall_Apart:_Heart_Advice_for_Difficult_Times_(1997)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/pema-chodron/when-things-fall-apart/from-this-point

## More from this book

> The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought... Nothing is what we thought.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pema-chodron/when-things-fall-apart/the-trick-is-to-keep.md)

> Generally speaking, we regard discomfort in any form as bad news. But for practitioners or spiritual warriors — people who have a certain hunger to know what is true — feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that... teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pema-chodron/when-things-fall-apart/generally-speaking-we-regard.md)

> Life is a good teacher and a good friend. Things are always in transition, if we could only realize it.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pema-chodron/when-things-fall-apart/life-is-a-good.md)