A BUDDHIST SAINT

February 10, 2008

A BUDDHIST SAINT

Padmasambhava was an Indian teacher who brought the complete
teachings of buddhadharma to Tibet. He remains our source of
inspiration even now, here in the West...I suppose the best way to
characterize Padmasambhava for people with a Western or Christian
cultural outlook is to say that he was a saint....The Buddhist
approach to spirituality is nontheistic. It does not have the
principle of an external divinity.The Buddhist approach to
spirituality is connected with awakening within oneself rather than
with relating to something external....A saint in the Buddhist
context -- for example, Padmasambhava or a great being like the
Buddha himself -- is someone who provides an example of the fact that
completely ordinary, confused human beings can wake themselves up.
They can put themselves together and wake themselves up....The pain,
the suffering of all kinds, the misery and the chaos that are part of
life, begins to wake them, shake them.

From "Padmasambhava and Spiritual Materialism," in CRAZY WISDOM, pages 3 to 5.

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

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