Sunday, March 30, 2008

Vajra Pride

March 30, 2008

VAJRA PRIDE

Vajra, or indestructible, pride is the sense that basic sanity does
exist in our state of being, so we don't particularly have to try to
work it out logically. We don't have to prove that something is
happening or not happening. The basic dissatisfaction that causes us
to look for some spiritual understanding is an expression of vajra
pride: we are not willing to submit to the suppression of our
confusion. We are willing to stick our necks out. That seems to be a
first expression of the vajra-pride instinct -- and we can go on from there!

From "Let the Phenomena Play," in CRAZY WISDOM, page 60.

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.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications, the Archive of
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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Sane Romanticism

SANE ROMANTICISM

It is time to begin with the romantic approach, the sane romantic approach, not the materialistic romantic approach. Our being here together happened purely by accident. It is a very precious accident that we are able to discuss such a topic as the life of Padmasambhava, the great Tibetan teacher. The opportunity to discuss such a subject is very rare, unique, very precious. But such rare and precious situations go on constantly; our life as part of the teachings is extremely precious. Each person is here purely by accident, and since it was an accident, it cannot be repeated. That is why it is precious. That is why the dharma is precious. Everything becomes precious; human life becomes precious. There is this rare preciousness of our human life: we each have our brain, our sense perceptions, our materials to work on. We each have had our problems in the past: our depressions, our moments of insanity, our struggles -- all those make sense. So the journey goes on, the accident goes on -- which is that we are here. This is the kind of romanticism, the kind of warmth I am talking about. It is worthwhile approaching the teaching in this way.

From "Cynicism & Devotion," in CRAZY WISDOM, page 71.

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.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications, the Archive of his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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Our Mind

Our mind naturally possesses a kind of joy that we are not always in touch with.
In the beginning, we might have to look for it a little bit and inspire ourselves to feel happy.
If you do that every time you sit to meditate,
you will find that over time the joy will just be there and you'll recognize it.


Lama Norlha Rinpoche, Calm Abiding Meditation Seminar, Kittery Point, Maine, August 2005

Sunday, March 16, 2008

THE DIGNITY OF THE TIBETAN PEOPLE

March 16, 2008

The sword of hatred is ornamented with the handle of invasion,
A red star has imprisoned the sun and moon,
The high snow-peaked mountains are cloaked in the darkness of a poisonous wind;
The peaceful valleys have been shattered by the sound of artillery.
But the dignity of the Tibetan people competes with the glory of the sky.

Composed November 10, 1972.

From FIRST THOUGHT BEST THOUGHT, page 39. Also in THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, Volume Seven, page 339.

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

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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.
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Friday, March 14, 2008

It is necessary to cultivate some discipline of mind

It is necessary to cultivate some discipline of mind,
for an undisciplined mind always finds excuses to act selfishly and
thoughtlessly.
When the mind is undisciplined, the body is also undisciplined, and
so is speech and action.
Buddha Shakyamuni, from: The Anguttara Nikaya

Thursday, March 13, 2008

If your mind becomes firm like a rock

If your mind becomes firm like a rock,
And no longer shakes,
In a world where everything is shaking,
Your mind will be your greatest friend
And suffering will not come your way.


Buddha Shakyamuni, from: The Theragata

A SUDDEN FLASH OF ENLIGHTENMENT

A sudden flash of enlightenment does not need training. It does not require an educational system. It is inborn nature, not dependent on any kind of training at all. The whole concept of needing training for things is a very weak approach, because it makes us feel we cannot possess the potential in us, and that therefore we have to make ourselves better than we are; we have to try to compete with heroes or masters. So we try to imitate those heroes and masters, believing that finally, by some process of psychological switch, we might be able to become THEM. Although we are not actually them, we believe we could become them purely by imitating -- by pretending, by deceiving ourselves constantly that we are what we are not. But when this sudden flash of enlightenment occurs, such hypocrisy doesn't exist. You do not have to pretend to be something. You ARE something. You have certain tendencies existing in you in any case. It is just a question of putting them into practice.

From "Eternity and the Charnel Ground," in CRAZY WISDOM, pages 41 to 42.

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.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications, the Archive of his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Mind has no form

Mind has no form, no color, and no substance;
This is it's empty aspect.
Yet mind can know things and perceive an infinite variety of phenomena.
This is it's clear aspect.
The inseparability of these two aspects, emptiness and clarity,
is the primordial, continuous nature of mind.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Meditation is Not Therapeutic Practice At All

We seem to have a problem in this country
with the sense that meditation is included with psychotherapy or
physiotherapy or whatever.
A lot of Buddhists feel proud
because meditation is accepted as part of the therapeutic system, a
landmark or the Western world.
But I think that pride is simpleminded pride. Buddhism should
transcend the therapeutic practice of meditation.
Relating with gurus is quite different from going to your psychiatrist.

Chogyam Trunpga Rinpoche, Glimpses of Shunyata, Shambhala
Publications

Saturday, March 08, 2008

THE CHARNEL GROUND

March 8, 2008

THE CHARNEL GROUND

As a young prince who had been recently turned out of his palace, the great Tibetan teacher Padmasambhava roamed around the charnel ground, the burial ground. The genteel young prince seemed to fit in to that scene quite well, as incongruous as it might seem. He was quite fearless, and his fearlessness became accommodation as he roamed through the jungle charnel ground near Bodhgaya. There were awesome-looking trees and terrifying rock shapes and the ruins of a temple. The whole feeling was one of death and desolation....He regarded this place as another palace in spite of all the terrifying sights. Seeing the impermanence of life, he discovered the eternity of life, the constant changing process of death and birth taking place all the time....
Our civilized world is so orderly that we do not see places like this charnel ground. Nevertheless there are the greater charnel grounds of birth, death, and chaos going on around us all the time. We encounter these charnel-ground situations in our lives constantly. If we identify with Padmasambhava, we could relate with that fearlessly. We could be inspired by this chaos -- so much so that chaos could become order in some sense. It could become orderly chaos rather than just confused chaos, because we would be able to relate with the world as it is.

From "Eternity and the Charnel Ground," in CRAZY WISDOM, pages 39 to 40.

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.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications, the Archive of his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

THE BIRTH OF ENLIGHTENMENT

We have the idea that an enlightened person is supposed to be more or
less an old-wise-man type: not quite like an old professor, but
perhaps an old father who can supply sound advice on how to handle
all of life's problems or an old grandmother who knows all the
recipes and all the cures. That seems to be the current fantasy that
exists in our culture concerning enlightened beings. They are old and
wise, grown-up and solid. Tantra has a different notion of
enlightenment, which is connected with youth and innocence. We can
see this pattern in Padmasambhava's life, the life of the great
teacher who brought the tantric teachings of Buddhism to Tibet. Here
the awakened state of mind is portrayed not as old and adult but as
young and free. Youth and freedom in this case are connected with the
birth of the awakened state of mind. The awakened state of mind has
the quality of morning, of dawn -- fresh and sparkling, completely awake.

From "Primordial Innocence," in CRAZY WISDOM, pages 26 to 27.

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.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications, the Archive of
his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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Milarepa & The Four Preliminaries

Milarepa & The Four Preliminaries

If he froze, he froze. If he starved, he starved. If things were
difficult, they were difficult.
He put up with it all and was able to see through it all and attain
enlightenment.
That kind of commitment came from having understood the Four Basic
Preliminaries.*

â H.E. Kalu Rinpoche Dorje Chang â

From: The Gem Ornament Of Manifold Oral Instructions - Which Benefits
Each and Everyone Appropriately, KDK Publications

* The Four Basic Preliminaries are also known as the Four Thoughts
Which Turn the Mind to Dharma:
1) Precious Human Existence, 2) Impermanence, 3) Karma - AKA - Cause
& Effect, 4) The Defects Of Samsara - Cyclic Existence.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

FEMININE ENERGY

It may be interesting to discuss the basic idea of energy, or the
principle of energy.
Basic energy is called sunyata, the energy of sunyata.
And from this energy of sunyata, or of emptiness or voidness, rises
the active energy,
which is called the dakini, or the feminine, principle of energy.
The dakini energy is all pervading energy within our state of mind.
Often this energy manifests as either destructive or positive.
Thus, the dakini principle of energy also seems to describe the
source of chaos in the world,
whether there may be war, or famine, or the confusion in people's minds.
Everything is caused by this dakini principle of energy, including
positive aspects of situations as well.
That is say, there should be an intuitive understanding of how this
principle, as the symbolic aspect of mind,
can be used in the world so that a person is able to use it and live
with it as a kind of inspiration.

âChogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, rom "Challenge from a Wise Demoness," an
unpublished talk given in 1970 as part of a seminar on the 100,000
Songs of Milarepa, at Karme-Choling, Vermont.

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo.

CONFUSION IS UP-TO-DATE

Question: Padmasambhava brought the Buddhist teachings to Tibet many
centuries ago. Does Padmasambhava's teaching remain up-to-date? Don't
historical and cultural changes require changes in the teaching?

Chogyam Trungpa: His teaching remains up-to-date because it is based
on relating with confusion. Our confusion remains up-to-date;
otherwise it would not confuse us. And the realization of confusion
also remains up-to-date, because confusion causes our questioning and
prompts us to wake up. The realization of the confusion is the
teaching, so it is a constantly living situation, constantly lived-in
and always applicable.

From "Cynicism and Devotion," in CRAZY WISDOM, page 69.

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.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications, the Archive of
his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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