# Quote — Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart

> When anyone asks me how I got involved in Buddhism, I always say it was because I was so angry with my husband... When that marriage fell apart, I tried hard—very, very hard—to go back to some kind of comfort, some kind of security, some kind of familiar resting place... I knew that annihilation of my old dependent, clinging self was the only way to go.

- 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/when-anyone-asks

## 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)