# Quote — Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart

> The spiritual journey is not about heaven and finally getting to a place that’s really swell. In fact, that way of looking at things is what keeps us miserable.

- 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/the-spiritual-journey

## 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)