HOPE FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE

It is fine to look back on the lives of great spiritual teachers, but
equally, it is not particularly romantic. They had the same problems
and difficulties in searching for the teachings that we have in this
century. So there's always hope for all of us; we don't particularly
have to be born perfect. We could just be ordinary people, perfectly
ordinary in the rugged sense; but equally we have a chance to develop
spiritual understanding, as well as to attain enlightenment. So
therefore, the point of looking back to various great teachers is not
that there is something mysterious, something magical about them, but
that they were just ordinary when they began. The point is to see the
way they proceeded through the various necessary situations which
forced them to develop.

From "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation," unpublished seminar, 1970,
Karme-Choling, Vermont.

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo and used
by permission.

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Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week: teachings by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
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