The Secular and the Spiritual

THE SECULAR AND THE SPIRITUAL

We could discuss the question of the amateurish and the genuine
warrior, in connection with the secular and the spiritual. When we
talk about the secular, we're referring to looking directly at
ourselves and discovering our existence and our health and our glory
without being influenced by any religious outlook. We are simply
discovering ourselves. Vajrayana Buddhists might say that's what they
are doing too, and maybe that's true. When we talk about a secular
approach, we're not talking about something desecrated. We are simply
talking about a situation where you have your own resources and your
existence, and you discover whatever is to be discovered from that.
We don't have to debuddhicize our discovery. We might find that what
we are actually looking for and experiencing in a secular way
coincides with Buddhist discoveries, the discoveries described in Buddhism.
Within the secular situation, we still have to use the
discipline presented by the Buddhist path. This is the discipline of
mindfulness and natural exertion, which is there so that we can
actually be open to ourselves, so that we are constantly checking on
ourselves, so to speak. In some subtle way, we might find that the
secular becomes very sacred, and very real, genuine. From that point
of genuineness, where the secular becomes sacred, we begin to
discover the true warrior as opposed to the mimicking warrior.

From Talk Three, Talks to Shambhala Training Directors, January 17,
1978. Unpublished.

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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