Saturday, December 22, 2007

Khyentse Rinpoche

When sunlight falls on a crystal, lights of all colors of the rainbow
appear; yet they have no substance you can grasp.
Likewise, all thoughts in their infinite variety devotion,
compassion, harmfulness, desire are utterly without substance.
This is the mind of the Buddha. There is no thought that is other
than voidness;
If you recognize the void nature of thoughts at the very moment they
arise, they will dissolve.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Dawn of Enlightenment

DAWN OF ENLIGHTENMENT

A Solstice Quote

Within an enormous vacuum, an enormous space,
enormous outer space, you begin to experience the
dawn of enlightenment -- just the dawn. You get
the message that the sun is going to shine,
purely because there is a little glow in the
east. The dawn of enlightenment in the Buddhist
tradition cannot take place unless first there is
a sense of desolation, meaninglessness, and being
a fool, to begin with. Then the dawn of
enlightenment can actually take place properly.
You begin to experience what we might call, from
a traditional Western reference point, the Star
of Bethlehem. The birth of something is taking
place. Theres a star in the midnight sky. The
sky is black, deep blue, but there is a star
shining in that sky. There is hope in the
positive sense. There is something taking place.
Such a thing cannot happen unless there's
nightfall and darknessWe have already understood
that there's no me, no self, no ground. That
nonexistence begins to make sense. That
non-existence of self, of ego, becomes the Star
of Bethlehem, and the dawn of enlightenment begins to take place.

From "The Dawn of Enlightenment," Talk Five of
MEDITATION: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, July 8, 1974,
Naropa Institute. Edited from the transcript.

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

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Sunday, December 16, 2007

Money As Mother's Milk

December 16, 2007

MONEY AS MOTHER'S MILK

As far as business ethics go, it's a question of friendship. When we have a business deal with somebody, we should not think in terms of cutting his throat, but we should have good faith in that particular person and a sense of tenderness toward him. Whether we are buying land from that person or just a tee shirt, there should be tenderness and faith. That goes a long way. On the whole, we should regard money as mother's milk: it nourishes us and it nourishes others. That should be our attitude to money. It's not just a bank coupon that we have in our wallet. Each dollar contains a lot of the past; many people worked for that particular one dollar, one cent. They worked so hard, with their sweat and tears. So we should respect it, like mother's milk. But at the same time, mother's milk can be given away to others, and we can produce more mother's milk. So we shouldn't hang onto it too tightly.

From "Regarding Money as Mother's Milk," an address at a business conference, June 19, 1981. Unpublished transcript.

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

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Monday, December 10, 2007

THE RICHNESS OF THE BUDDHA

December 10, 2007

When the Buddha attained enlightenment, he went around the cities and collected small pieces of cloth that were thrown away by other people. Apparently, he was a good seamstress, so he sewed all those little squares of cloth together, and he made a monastic garment out of them. And it came out beautifully, wonderfully. People remarked, "Look! Who is that person, that well-dressed, well-clad person?" That's where the tradition of sewing monastic robes out of small pieces of cloth came from. Buddha demonstrated that kind of richness, power, and strength. It was not a question of having expensive cloth sewn together, but it was the way the robe was worn, the way it looked. So richness is not purely a result of dollars and cents, or as they used to say in England, LSD, pounds, shillings, and pence. When a person is worthy of wealth, he has it; he embodies it.

From "Regarding Money as Mother's Milk," an address at a business conference, June 19, 1981. Unpublished transcript.

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

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Friday, December 07, 2007

The First Wakefulness

December 7, 2007

THE FIRST WAKEFULNESS

Lha in Tibetan literally means "divine" or "god," but here lha refers
to the highest points on earth, rather than a celestial realm. The
realm of lha is the peaks of snow mountains, where glaciers and bare
rock are found. Lha is the highest point, the point that catches the
light of the rising sun first of all. It is the places on earth that
reach into the heavens above, into the clouds, so lha is as close to
the heavens as the earth can reach. Psychologically, lha represents
the first wakefulness. It is the experience of tremendous freshness
and freedom from pollution in your state of mind. Lha is what
reflects the Great Eastern Sun [the vision of wakefulness] for the
first time in your being and it is also the sense of shining out,
projecting tremendous goodness. In the body, lha is the head,
especially the eyes and forehead, so it represents physical
upliftedness and projecting out as well.

From "Natural Hierarchy," in Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the
Warrior, pages 108 to 109.
.
All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo and used
by permission.

NOTICE OF INTEREST TO SUBSCRIBERS:

Our friends at Shambhala Sun Foundation (publishers of the Shambhala
Sun and Buddhadharma magazines) are hosting their first-ever online
auction. The auction began November 21 and continues through December
12. They have assembled a wonderful selection of unique auction items
-- including original art, photographs, gift certificates from
contemplative publishers, meditation supplies, and retreat
opportunities. An original calligraphy by Chogyam Trungpa is being
auctioned. Bidding is underway.You can browse and bid
at http://www.shambhalasun.com/auction

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OF THE WEEK to the list moderator, Carolyn Gimian at: carolyn@shambhala.com.

Carolyn Rose Gimian

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week: teachings by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications, the Archive of
his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
TO SUBSCRIBE visit the Chogyam Trungpa website by clicking on the
following link: http://OceanofDharma.com

Monday, December 03, 2007

December 3 1947

60 th birthday today.
The search term _from my site stats today_ shows "rainbow tibetan guru" from an English/Russian/Polish(?) Google query yielding these results with our presence showing up in the top 10 results:
http://www.google.mn/search?q=rainbow+tibetan+guru&hl=mn&start=60&sa=N

Oddly our ancestors are Russian/Polish

Fractal glimpses of rebirth I guess.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

When we closely examine the ordinary habits that underlie whatever we do

When we closely examine the ordinary habits that underlie whatever we do and try to discover where they come from, we find that their very source is our failure to investigate them properly. We operate under the deluded assumption that everything has some sort of true, substantial reality. But when we look more carefully, we find that the phenomenal world is like a rainbowâvivid and colourful, but without any tangible existence. When a rainbow appears in the sky we see many beautiful coloursâ yet a rainbow is not something we can clothe ourselves with, or wear as an ornament. There is nothing we can take hold of; it is simply something that appears to us through the conjunction of various conditions. Thoughts arise in the mind in just the same way. They have no tangible reality or intrinsic existence at all. There is therefore no logical reason why thoughts should have so much power over us, nor any reason why we should be enslaved by them. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche