MISUNDERSTANDING AWARENESS

Openness and awareness is a state of not manufacturing anything else; it is just being. And there is a misunderstanding,...which regards awareness as an enormous effort -- as if you were trying to become a certain unusual and special species of animal. You think now you're known as a meditator, sonow you should proceed in a certain special way, and that way you will become a full-fledged meditator. That is the wrong attitude. One doesn't try to hold oneself in the state of meditation, the state of awareness. One doesn't try painfully to stick to it.
Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche

Page 118, in "From Raw Eggs to Stepping-Stones" in THE PATH IS THE GOAL: A BASIC HANDBOOK OF BUDDHIST MEDITATION.

There are different types of boredom

There are different types of boredom that we usually experience. Insecurity, lack of excitement, being idle, nothing happening... In vipashyana, the boredom we are talking about is a sense of being idle, and this is unconditional boredom. The experience of vipashyana awareness has a quality of all-pervasive, thick cream. It has body, at the same time it is fluid, and it is somewhat challenging. - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Awareness is like a wind

In talking about open mind, we are referring to a kind of openness that is related with letting self-existing awareness come to us. And awareness is not something thatneeds to be manufactured: when there is a gap, awareness enters into us. So awareness does not require a certain particular effort. Such an effort is unnecessary inthis case. Awareness is like a wind. If you open your doors and windows, it is bound to come in.

Page 116, in "From Raw Eggs to Stepping-Stones" in THE PATH IS THE GOAL: A BASIC HANDBOOK OF BUDDHIST MEDITATION.

When alone

When alone watch your mind,
when with others; watch your mouth...
Lama Karma Rynchen Rinpoche

COMPASSION WITH A THOUSAND ARMS

One often finds Avalokitesvara [the bodhisattva of compassion] portrayed as having a thousand arms [and a thousand eyes], and these symbolize his innumerableactivities. He took a vow to save all sentient beings in that very lifetime....As long as there are more sentient beings and as long as there is more that needs to bedone, his compassion also increases. And this shows that compassion is something within us. Where there is new suffering or a new outbreak of violence, thatviolence contains another eye, another hand of Avalokitesvara. The two things always go together. There is always a kind of negative, but there is always a positivewhich comes with it. In this particular sense, then, one should not exclude the negative and work only for the positive, but realize that the negative contains thepositive within itself. Therefore the act of compassion, the act of Avalokiteshvara, is never ending.

From "The Mahasattva Avalokiteshvara," pages 450-451 in THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, Volume One.

A Poem to Buddha

You overcome the temptations of the world
You are inspired by the simplicity of life without passion
Your exertion is the only way to conquer the seduction of the world
The victorious one, compassionate,
Propagates profound dharma to all beings.

Bewilderment
Brings passion and aggression
The world of samsara
Is endless suffering.

Realizing deception
I seek the path of non-ego
I find the delighted Buddha.


You understand my hopes and fears
You are both pleasure and pain
You are my friend eternally,
I would like to ask you to be my teacher.


Chogyam Trungpa,Unpublished poem, written at the Vajradhatu Seminary, Pennsylvania, 1982.

Patrul Rinpoche

Once you feel the wish to practice Dharma, do not let laziness or procrastination take over even for a moment. Set to work immediately, spurred on by the thought of impermanence. That is what is called diligence in action. -- Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of my Perfect Teacher

Freedom

FREEDOM
Giving birth to bodhicitta in one's heart, buddha in one's heart, brings freedom. That is the notion of freedom in Buddhism, altogether...We are talking about freedom from the constriction of our own capabilities. It is as if we were extraordinary children, possessing all sorts of genius, and we were being undermined by the society around us, which was dying to make us normal people. Whenever we would show any mark of genius, our parents would get embarrassed. They would try to put the lid on our pot, saying, "Charles, don't say those things. Just be an ordinary person." That is what actually happens to us, with or without our parents. I don't particularly want to blame our parents; we have also been doing this to ourselves. When we see something extraordinary, we are afraid to say so; we are afraid to express ourselves or to relate to such situations. So we put lids on ourselves -- on our potential, our capabilities. But in Buddhism we are liberated from that kind of conventionality....Fundamentally speaking, ladies and gentlemen, here is the really good news, if we may call it that: We are intrinsically buddha and we are intrinsically good. From "What Is the Heart of the Buddha?" in THE HEART OF THE BUDDHA, THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, Volume 3, page 311. (THE HEART OF THE BUDDHA is also available in paperback.)

Fixations

We cannot work with our fixations if we do not acknowledge them and
accept their existence.

The more we accept them, the more we are able to let go of them.

--Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, The Heart of the Buddha

Crash Course

Particularly in the Western hemisphere, when you go to a new country, you take a crash course to learn how to conduct yourself. A lot of business people get into acrash course to learn how to eat with chopsticks, how to move and behave, what to eat or not eat, what to say and whether it is polite to finish the food on yourplate or leave something behind. However, when you come to a spiritual master, you don't come having had a crash course on how to handle a guru. You havealready had a crash course of your own, which is your own neurosis, your confusion. That's fantastic. It's a very vivid crash course, a very good one. It's honest andgenuine experience. You come along as you are, as they say.

From "Tradition and Sanity in Zen and Tibetan Buddhism," Talk Ten of Fourteen, from THE TIBETAN BUDDHIST PATH, Summer, 1974, Naropa University.Forthcoming as a DVD series from shambhalashop.com.

GENUINENESS

Student: The point of genuineness seems to be so simple that it's almost impossible to understand. Could you say something about non-genuineness and theproblems that we get into when we're trying to be confident? From that, maybe we can get a better idea of genuineness.

Chogyam Trungpa: I could give you a lot of examples. Inviting depression is one way of not being genuine, and refusing to be a human being and trying to be asuperman all the time is another way. In either case, we are trying to be somebody or something else and not paying attention to what's happening. You see, whatwe generally do is constantly, constantly substitute for ourselves somebody else who doesn't even exist. Nevertheless, we keep on doing that. When we fail to findour own quality right away, we run into trouble. Being genuine from that point of view is being indestructible in some sense. It depends on how much you can be awarrior.

From "Basic Goodness," a talk to directors of Shambhala Training, January 1978.

UNCONDITIONAL CONFIDENCE

Student: Would you say that unconditional confidence is the same as tenderness?

Chogyam Trungpa: Yes, very much so. The unconditional confidence is the pragmatic aspect of that tenderness. It is the action arising from the softness. It is just
like watching the sun rise. First, it is very feeble and one wonders whether it will make it. And then it shines and shines. Confidence is not arrogance or pride or
anything like that. Confidence is a natural unfolding process. It's not a question of needing confidence or not needing it. It's naturally there.

From "Basic Goodness," a talk to directors of Shambhala Training, January 1978.

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

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Whether one looks at a Sugata's face or any other part of his body, one never feels one has looked enough. It is an example of ultimate beauty. Similarly, those for whom everything is backed by the realization of the unborn nature no longer have ordinary attachment and aversion, and such persons can therefore act like enlightened beings: whatever they do is bliss. Since they have fully realized the absolute nature, there is no question of telling them, "This is the right thing to do; that is something you should not do." They have no concepts or limits, so they can act as they wish. Everything they do will be nothing but bliss. (DK)

--from Zurchungpa's Testament: A Commentary on Zurchung Sherab Trakpa's Eighty Chapters of Personal Advice by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group, published by Snow Lion Publications

Shantideva

Because of its immateriality, the mind can never be harmed by anyone.

Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva

FEARLESSNESS AND SPEED

Fearlessness is the absence of cowardice. That is to say, cowardice, or uncertainty, comes from speed, from not being on the spot, and from not being able to lead life properly and fully. You miss a lot of details, and you also miss the overview. To correct that, you need ROOM for fearlessness, which comes from having faith in your existence. Basically speaking, fearlessness is not particularly a reward or a goal, but fearlessness is part of the journey on the path. Fearlessness alternates with fear, and both of those are kindling for the fire. You are nervous, speedy, fearful. Then that brings another area of steadiness, solidity, and calm. So fear and fearlessness constantly alternate.

From "Sacredness: Natural Law and Order," in GREAT EASTERN SUN: THE WISDOM OF SHAMBHALA, page 90.

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

THE CHALLENGE OF WARRIORSHIP

The challenge of warriorship is to live fully in the world as it is and to find within this world, with all its paradoxes, the essence of nowness. If we open our eyes, if we open our minds, if we open our hearts, we will find that this world is a magical place. It is not magical because it tricks us or changes unexpectedly into something else, but it is magical because it can BE so vividly, so brilliantly. However, the discovery of that magic can happen only when we transcend our embarrassment about being alive, when we have the bravery to proclaim the goodness and dignity of human life, without either hesitation or arrogance.

>From 'Sacred World' in SHAMBHALA THE SACRED PATH PF THE WARRIOR, pages 147 to 148 in the Shambhala Library Edition

THE BODHISATTVA'S FEARLESSNESS

Student: Could you explain more of what you mean by being a warrior or a soldier on the path?

Chogyam Trungpa: Being a warrior is not necessarily being a soldier, but it is being fearless and willing to trod on the path.....It is not that you are unafraid of enemies or fearless towards certain particular things. It's different than saying, "I'm not afraid of rattlesnakes. I'm not afraid of dogs." That's very dualistic, a special kind of adolescent approach, a boyish approach to growing into manhood. When we talk about basic warriorship here, we are talking about being a bodhisattva [someone who has taken a vow to put others before him or herself], someone who's willing to include everything and willing to work with everything without any fear. Even fear itself is frightened by the bodhisattva's fearlessness.

From "Bodhisattva and Paramita," Talk Nine of THE TIBETAN BUDDHIST PATH, the first seminar given by Chogyam Trungpa at the Naropa Institute, Summer, 1974. Unpublished.

Of interest to readers: For continuing reports on the activities of the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project, see the blog at ChogyamTrungpa.com

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo

A TALKING MIRROR

Student: How does the development of a relationship between a man and a woman or a marriage relate to the spiritual path?

Chogyam Trungpa: You relate with a lot of people, including your husband or wife. I don't see any particular problems. At some point, your mate becomes a spokesman of the universe to you, because your mate or your friend has been with you for a long time, so they have knowledge of you from the inside out, roughly, somewhat. I think a marriage situation is extremely creative from that point of view. There is the sense of understanding that somebody is actually a talking mirror who minds your business.

From "Bodhisattva and Paramita," Talk Nine of THE TIBETAN BUDDHIST PATH, a seminar at the Naropa Institute, Summer, 1974. Unpublished.

Great Eastern Sun

GREAT EASTERN SUN

Normally, when you see a brilliant light, that light comes from a finite source of energy. The brightness of a candle depends on how much wax surrounds it, and the thickness of the wick. The brightness of a light bulb depends on the electric current running through it. But the Great Eastern Sun is eternally blazing; it has no need of fuel. There actually is greater luminosity that occurs without fuel, without even a pilot light. Seeing the sacred world is witnessing that greater vision, which is there all the time.

>From SHAMBHALA: THE SACRED PATH OF THE WARRIOR, page 141 of the Shambhala Library Edition.

The practice of compassion begins at home

The practice of compassion begins at home. We have our parents, our children, and our brothers and sisters, who perhaps irritate us the most, and we begin our practice of loving-kindness and compassion with them. Then gradually we extend our compassion out into our greater community, our country, neighbouring countries, the world, and finally to all sentient beings equally without exception.

Extending compassion in this way makes it evident that it is not very easy to instantly have compassion for "all sentient beings." Theoretically it may be comfortable to have compassion for "all sentient beings," but through our practice we realize that "all sentient beings" is a collection of individuals. When we actually try to generate compassion for each and every individual, it becomes much more challenging. But if we cannot work with one individual, then how can we work with all sentient beings? Therefore it is important for us to reflect more practically, to work with compassion for individuals and then extend that compassion further.

--from Trainings in Compassion by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche translated by the Padmakara Translation Group, published by Snow Lion Publications

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

Stamping on Kleshas

We need to correct, or to overcome, all the wrongs or bad circumstances that we experience. Instead of having a negative attitude toward practice and not wanting to practice any longer-- --whenever such perversions and problems occur, they should be overcome... To correct all wrongs means to stamp on the kleshas. Whenever you don't want to practice-- --stamp on that, and then practice. Whenever any bad circumstance comes up that might put you off-- --stamp on it. In this slogan you are deliberately, immediately, and very abruptly suppressing the kleshas. --Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, from: Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness, Pg. 212-213, Slogan # 40

Voice of Clear Light_Excerpts from Current Issue

THE VOICE OF CLEAR LIGHT News and Inspiration from Ligmincha Institute Volume 6, Number 12 Dec. 19, 2006

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For easy reading, we recommend that you print out "The Voice of Clear Light."

A printable PDF version of this month's edition of VOCL, in reader- friendly newsletter format complete with color photographs, will be available online later in the month. Please check the link for VOCL on Ligmincha Institute's home page at www.ligmincha.org. You can also access an archive of previous issues at: http://ligmincha.org/study/vocl.html

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IN THIS ISSUE:

"The confidence of knowing oneself" – an edited excerpt from oral teachings given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, 2006

Excerpts from teachings of Bon and Buddhist masters on the root poisons of desire and aversion

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"THE CONFIDENCE OF KNOWING ONESELF" – an edited excerpt from oral teachings given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, 2006

When we talk about ignorance, especially in tantra or dzogchen, we are referring to a lack of knowing oneself, a lack of realization of oneself, or a lack of knowing the nature of mind. The classic definition of ignorance is "the mind that does not know itself." But it is hard for people to relate to that definition from an ordinary perspective. We ask: What does "not knowing myself" mean? Or for that matter, what does "knowing myself" mean?

What we are more familiar with is the result of not knowing oneself. When you don't know yourself, then as a result there manifests a lack of confidence. "Lack of confidence?" you ask. "Yes, that I know." There are people, though, who only recognize their lack of confidence as it relates to something in particular – like their job, or their ability to do something. They are more aware of their lack of confidence in action than they are of their lack of confidence in the stillness. They are more aware of their lack of confidence in appearance, rather than in its essence. They are more aware of their lack of confidence in objects, rather than in the subject. These are all weaker understandings of lack of confidence. But if you can really sense the more deep-seated lack of confidence that comes from not knowing your true self, then you will come to understand that its source can only be from within oneself, from one's mistaken view.

The teachings talk about "having confidence in the view." They don't talk much about having confidence in the action, or in the appearance. Confidence in the view for a practitioner has nothing to do with trying to change anything or do anything. So, having confidence in the view doesn't make sense to those in the Western mainstream, where the conventional focus is all about action, about the result, about what is produced, about the expected return. You are taught that confidence is found in the doing.

This issue of confidence is similar to the notion of trust. Trust as it relates to the dharma can also be confusing to Westerners. Generally, when we think about trust in the worldly sense, it has to do with getting some sort of return. When you lend money to someone, you say, "I trust you to return my money, or to return the money in this amount of time, or with this amount of interest." Or, "I trust that you will be nice to me because I have been nice to you." "I trust that you will be generous back to me because I have been generous to you." From this perspective a "no-return trust" in the dharma seems almost meaningless.

But then we also on occasion hear people say something like, "I have been sick, and I've been trying to do everything that I can to heal myself. I am going to try this last possible thing, and I trust that if it works, then it was meant to work. And I trust, too, that if it doesn't work, then it wasn't meant to work. I trust completely in the outcome of this last attempt at healing, whatever the outcome is." That is a deeper kind of trust or confidence based not on externals, but instead on oneself. It has more to do with one's view, one's own experiences of mind and of who one is, rather than its being dependent on and conditioned by situations and by actions.

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EXCERPTS FROM TEACHINGS BY BON AND BUDDHIST MASTERS ON THE ROOT POISONS OF AVERSION AND DESIRE

"Seeing One's Anger," an edited excerpt from oral teachings given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, 2006:

When you feel yourself getting really angry at someone, in those moments you feel like there's no way out. You feel like there is no way out because there is no clarity, no space, there's no direction there. In those situations, it's as if you are suddenly trying hard to push something very heavy, and the only tools you have to push it are the wrong tools. And it may dawn on you in that moment of pushing that you are, indeed, using the wrong tools. That leads to even more stress as you begin to see the hopelessness of what you are continuing to do, doesn't it?

As we were saying, our first rule is that we don't have to do anything when we feel anger. Try just saying: "I don't have to do anything, I don't have to discuss, I don't have to argue, I don't have to talk, I can just walk away from this." That doesn't mean you shouldn't come back and reflect on it and talk about it later. It just means that right now is absolutely the wrong time to act. By your simply being conscious of that fact, you release yourself from that moment rather than getting more wrapped up in your trying to do something, your trying to push something even harder in that moment.

***

>From the edited transcript of oral teachings given by Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche during Ligmincha's summer retreat, 2000:

So this famous "I" is the basis of anger, attachment, jealousy – everything. When the "I" is projected out there without realizing the empty nature, then that is eternalism. If you fall into emptiness without any balance of clarity, then that is called nihilism.

The "I" doesn't exist in the way we grasp and feel it. Everything you have is "my" – my head, my nose – but where is this "I"? You might say it depends. You can say, "I am here." You might feel that when you are hungry, the "I" is more in the stomach. You say, "I am hungry." But if you look at the stomach, at the object, you can't find "I" there. You create it by yourself. Sometimes when you have a headache you say, "I have a headache." You make your head as "I." You create the "I" in everything else in the same way.

When you look to the object, you cannot find "I." When you realize nothing exists, and you realize that everything is created by you, then there is no need for emotion. Where is the anger? Everything is created by you; nothing is created from the object side. Normally, we are thinking "I" very strongly exists. That is true of all sentient beings, even birds and insects. You can make them angry. They grasp and have emotions even if they are unable to speak. That is real ignorance. We are following ignorance and that is the source for the emotions. If you pull apart this ignorance, there is no need for anger or emotion. Just like at a cinema: You never think the screen is going to create something real. It is the same for the emotion. So this is the real teaching.

***

>From "A Path With Heart" by Jack Kornfield:

When we look, we see that wanting creates tension, that it is actually painful. We see how it arises out of our sense of longing and incompleteness, a feeling that we are separate and not whole. Observing more closely we notice that it is also fleeting, without essence. This aspect of desire is actually a form of imagination and accompanying feeling that comes and goes in our body and mind. Of course, at other times it seems very real. Oscar Wilde said, "I can resist anything but temptation." When we are caught by wanting it is like an intoxicant and we are unable to see clearly.

*

Like desire, anger is an extremely powerful force. We can easily become caught up in it, or we can be so afraid of it that we act out its destruction in more unconscious ways. Unfortunately, too few of us have learned to work with it directly. Its force can grow from annoyance to something that is present with us now or that is far away in time or place. We sometimes experience great anger over past events that are long over and about which we can do nothing. We can even get furious about something that has not happened but that we only imagine might happen. When it is strong in the mind, anger colors our entire experience of life. When our mood is bad, no matter who walks in the room or where we go that day, something is wrong. Anger can be a source of tremendous suffering in our own minds, in our interactions with others, and in the world at large.

***

>From "Gates to Buddhist Practice" by Chagdud Tulku:

When you give in to aversion and anger, it's as though, having decided to kill someone by throwing him into a river, you wrap your arms around his neck, jump into the water with him, and you both drown. In destroying your enemy, you destroy yourself as well.

*

We often think the only way to create happiness is to try to control the outer circumstances of our lives, to try to fix what seems wrong or to get rid of everything that bothers us. But the real problem lies in our reaction to those circumstances. What we have to change is the mind and the way it experiences reality.

Our emotions propel us through extremes, from elation to depression, from good experiences to bad, from happiness to sadness – a constant swinging back and forth. Emotionality is the by-product of hope and fear, attachment and aversion. We have hope because we are attached to something we want. We have fear because we are averse to something we don't want. As we follow our emotions, reacting to our experiences, we create karma – a perpetual motion that inevitably determines our future. We need to stop the extreme swings of the emotional pendulum so that we can find a place of centeredness.

***

>From "Fearless Simplicity" by Tsoknyi Rinpoche:

Mind is fickle and objects are seductive, it is said. The Buddha told us not to be that way. Don't chase after one object, then another, then a third. That pursuit is not your real home, your real mother. This futile pursuit is steered by, influenced by, and affected by circumstances. Whenever something feels unpleasant, one gets disturbed by it; if it's pleasant, one gets caught up in it. Throughout this course of events, we are so unstable, so unsteady. Sometimes the obsession becomes so intense that one can lose one's own life. This way of being creates incredible anxiety. One experiences fear, worry, feeling lost, feeling uncared for: "Nobody loves me, nobody takes care of me, nobody worries about me." This lonely frame of mind is because of being unstable, being steered by objects, being oversensitive in a wrong way.

Instead of this relentless chasing about, we ought to take a break.

***

>From "The Hundred Verses of Advice" by Dilgo Khyentse and Padampa Sangye:

Generally speaking, we feel attachment to our family, to our belongings, and to our position, and aversion to anyone who hurts or threatens us. Try turning your attention away from such external objects and examine the mind that identifies them as desirable or hateful. Do your desire and anger have any form, color, substance, or location? If not, why is it that you fall so easily under the power of such feelings?

It is because you do not know how to set them free. If you allow your thoughts and feelings to arise and dissolve by themselves, they will pass through your mind in the same way as a bird flies through the sky, without leaving any trace. This applies not only to attachment and anger, but also to the experiences of meditation – bliss, clarity, and the absence of thought. These experiences result from perseverance in practice and are the expression of the inherent creativity of the mind. They appear like a rainbow, formed as the rays of the sun strike a curtain of rain; and to become attached to them is as futile as it would be to run after a rainbow in the hopes of wearing it as a coat. Simply allow your thoughts and experiences to come and go, without ever grasping at them.

***

SOURCES:

Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. An edited excerpt from oral teachings given during Ligmincha's summer retreat, 2006.

Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. An edited excerpt from the transcript of oral teachings given during Ligmincha's summer retreat, 2000.

Jack Kornfield. "A Path With Heart." New York: Bantam Books, 1993.

Chagdud Tulku. "Gates to Buddhist Practice." Junction City, Calif.: Padma Publishing, 1993.

Tsoknyi Rinpoche. "Fearless Simplicity." Compiled and translated by Erik Pema Kunsang and Marcia Binder Schmidt. Edited with Kerry Moran. Boudhanath: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2003.

Dilgo Khyentse and Padampa Sangye. "The Hundred Verses of Advice." Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group. Boston: Shambhala Publishing, 2005.

NONTHEISTIC MAGIC

One's state of mind is very powerful. It can imagine destroying something, and it destroys it. It can imagine creating something, and it creates it. Whatever you intendin the realm of mind, it happens. Imagine your enemy. You want to destroy your enemy, and you have developed all kinds of tactics for doing so, You have infiniteimaginations about how to handle the destruction of that enemy. Imagine your friend. You have infinite inspirations about how to relate with your friend, how to makehim or her feel good or better or richer....Man does exist; his intelligence does exist. This is entirely nontheistic.The approach of Padmasambhava [who broughtBuddhism to Tibet] to magic was on this nontheistic level. Lightning happens because it does happen, rather than because there is any further why or who or whatinvolved. It does happen. Flowers blossom because it happens, it is so. We cannot argue that there are no flowers. We cannot argue that no snow falls. It is so. Ithappens.

From CRAZY WISDOM, pages 55 to 56.

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

Kalu Rinpoche

In the current general cultural milieu of the Western world, expression of desire allows emotions to be actively encouraged, actively stimulated, and over-blown, all within the contextual appreciation of this as something healthy. If one has a desire, one is encouraged to fulfill it. If one has an emotion, one is encouraged to stimulate it, to bring it to development by expressing it. Generally, this is seen as a healthy thing to do, while actually, in terms of karmic development, this approach tends to create a disproportionate exaggeration of desire and attachment.
--Kalu Rinpoche, Gently Whispered

A SPIRITUAL ATOMIC BOMB

Padmasambhava [who brought Buddhism to Tibet] developed an approach for communicating with future generations. In relation to a lot of his writings, he thought,"These words may not be important at this point, but I am going to write them down and bury them in the mountains of Tibet." And he did so. He thought, "Someonewill discover them later and find them extraordinarily mind-blowing. Let them have a good time then." This was a unique approach. Gurus nowadays think purely interms of the effect they might have now. They do not consider trying to have a powerful effect on the future. But Padmasambhava thought, "If I leave an example ofmy teaching behind, even if people of future generations do not experience my example, just hearing my words alone could cause a spiritual atomic bomb to explodein a future time." Such an idea was unheard-of. It is a very powerful thing.

From CRAZY WISDOM, page 57.

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

Life with self-awareness and compassion

We must each lead a way of life with self-awareness and compassion... Then, whatever happens, we will have no regrets. -- The XIV Dalai Lama, The Path to Tranquility

Disown your thoughts

In the practice of meditation, the way to be daring, the way to leap, is to disown your thoughts, to step beyond your hope and fear, the ups and downs of your thinking process. You can just be, just let yourself be, without holding onto the constant reference points your mind manufactures. --Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

When you feel completely desolate

When you feel completely desolate, you begin to help yourself, you make yourself at home.

You begin to realize all kinds of beauties around you.

--Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Illusion's Game

Perceptions are not governed by one statement alone

Perceptions are not governed by one statement alone, but by individuals reacting to the basic elements. When individuals react to air, water, fire, space, or earth, they have different responses. Individually, they have different perspectives on all that. Those differences do not become uniform at all -- they are ongoing. The magic lives in that individuality. We are relating individually to all kinds of basic things in life that we seemingly share. But we have no idea, exactly. None of us has had a chance to tell each other precisely what our perception of water is like. We could use all kinds of words and ideas and concepts and terms, but that still would not make it clear. That would be somebody else's concepts....There is a basic iconographic pattern in the universe, like the existence of the seasons and the elements, but how we react to that is individual. --Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, rom "Choiceless Magic" in DHARMA ART pages 91-92.

Smile at fear

When you are frightened by something, you have to relate with fear, explore why you are frightened, and develop some sense of conviction. You can actually look at fear. Then fear ceases to be the dominant situation that is going to defeat you. Fear can be conquered. You can be free from fear if you realize that fear is not the ogre. You can step on fear, and therefore you can attain what is known as fearlessness. But that requires that, when you see fear, you smile. From "Mirrorlike Wisdom," in GREAT EASTERN SUN: THE WISDOM OF SHAMBHALA, page 75. All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo and used by permission. OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK now has 4,901 subscribers. Please send comments on and contributions to OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK to the list moderator, Carolyn Gimian at: carolyn@shambhala.com.

The general idea

The general idea is that, if you open yourself to what the given situation is, then you see its completely naked quality. You don't have to put up a defensive mechanism anymore, because you see through it and you know exactly what to do. You just deal with things, rather than defending yourself.

Is there a buildup of awarenss that happens by the practice

Question: Is there a buildup of awareness that happens by the practice of recognizing or looking for your own basic nature so that, over time, it dispels the fear of these emotions?

Rinpoche: Yes, awareness is developed through the discipline of meditation. Beginning with shamatha meditation, we develop lots of awareness and mindfulness on the path. Then, in Mahamudra and Dzogchen, we emphasize a different aspect of mindfulness and awareness. Mindfulness and awareness come from the discipline of meditation, which continues in our everyday life. Therefore, formal sitting practice is very important for us. For that reason, many teachers tell us to sit at least 10-15 minutes every day. That helps us to generate this continuity of awareness in our everyday life. There is no easy solution for manifesting awareness or mindfulness in our everyday life without some discipline in practice. The only problem is that when a student hears a teacher say that they must sit every day, that's the time students usually begin to change their guru!

--from Penetrating Wisdom: The Aspiration of Samantabhadra by the Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Publications

Confusion as a stepping stone

CONFUSION AS A STEPPING STONE

Student: How do you deal with confusion? How do you use it?

Chogyam Trungpa: Well, what else do you have? [Laughter.] The point is that we should find some working basis as soon as possible, and what else do we have? Confusion is the first ordinary thing; it's how to begin. It think it's very important and absolutely necessary for everyone to know that we should find a stepping stone rather than looking for an ideal situation. People may say, "When I retire from my job, I'll build my house on a beautiful coast, plant my garden, organize my house, and THEN I'm really going to sit and meditate!" That is not quite the way to go about it. We have to do something right away.

From "Bodhisattva and Paramita," Talk Nine of THE TIBETAN BUDDHIST PATH, a seminar at the Naropa Institute, Summer, 1974. Unpublished.

Of interest to readers: For continuing reports on the activities of the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project, see the blog at ChogyamTrungpa.com

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

OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK now has 4,878 subscribers.Please send comments on and contributions to OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES 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 click on the following link: http://OceanofDharma.com. The Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project is now at ChogyamTrungpa.com.

Rest assured

Rest assured that you [have] entered this life

and have the opportunity to continue in the stream of Buddhist teachings

as a result of the vows and practices you engaged in during previous lives.

-- Chögyam Trungpa, Crazy Wisdom

In the realm of matter

In the realm of matter, one and the same object can serve as a cause of happiness for some living beings, and a cause of suffering for others. Certain plants, for example, function as medicine for some creatures, but for other species they can be poisonous. rom the point of view of the object itself there is no difference, but because of the physical constitution and the material state of the particular living being, that single self-same object can affect them in different ways. Then, in the sphere of our own experiences, the same holds true. A certain individual may appear to some as very friendly, kind and gentle, and so gives them feelings of happiness and pleasure. Yet to others that same person can appear harmful and wicked, and so cause them discomfort and unhappiness. What this kind of example points to is that, although external matter may act as a cause for our experience of pain and pleasure, the principal cause that determines whether we experience happiness or suffering lies within. This is the reason why, when Buddha identified the origin of suffering, he pointed within and not outside, because he knew that the principal causes of our suffering are our own negative emotions and the actions they drive us to do. --from Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great Perfection by the Dalai Lama, translated by Thupten Jinpa and Richard Barron, Foreword by Sogyal Rinpoche, edited by Patrick Gaffney, published by Snow Lion Publications

The Wind of Peace

THE WIND OF PEACE

May the great revolutionary bannerBlow in the wind of peace.
May it blow in the wind of karma.
May it blow in the wind of fearlessness.
One's own mind is revolutionized:
There is no need to conquer others.
Like the warriors of ancient times
Going to war by imperial command,
Like seasoned masters of the martial arts,
We will destroy the fortress of erroneous thinking.
We will no longer tolerate the confused way of life
Controlled by the impersonal forces of materialism,
Since these forces may snatch away
The freedom of human dignity.
One must first give up the ego
And enter the war with one's mind.
That is the first step to freedom.
But we will never be free
By following the voice of desire.
Liberation is only gained
By treading the path of what is.

Written in Bhutan, September 1968. During this visit to Bhutan, Chogyam Trungpa composed (or received) THE SADHANA OF MAHAMUDRA, a major text dedicated to overcoming spiritual materialism. Published in WARRIOR SONGS, Trident Publications, available at shambhalashop.com.

In order to get beyond ignorance

In order to get beyond ignorance, we have to see mind's empty nature without conceptualizing it; then we must accustom the mind to this experience and gradually stabilize it so that it remains free from distraction under all circumstances. -- Kalu Rinpoche, Luminous Mind

Complete Acceptance

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week November 6, 2006 COMPLETE ACCEPTANCE Maitri [or loving kindness] is not only maitri toward others, but it is also maitri toward ourselves. In fact, the first step of awakening buddha nature is friendship with ourselves. This tends to help a great deal. We don't have alternatives or side tracks anymore because we are satisfied with ourselves. We don't try to imitate anyone else because we hate ourselves and we would like to be like somebody else instead. We are on our own ground and we are our own resources. We might be fantasizing that there is a divine force or higher spiritual energy that might save us, but even that depends on our recognition that such a thing exists. Finally we end up just relating with ourselves. So friendship, or maitri, means the complete acceptance of ourselves. From "Awakening Buddha Nature," in GLIMPSES OF MAHAYANA, page 20, published by Vajradhatu Publications. For a copy go to shambhalashop.com.

Of interest to readers: Tonight Diana J. Mukpo reads from DRAGON THUNDER: MY LIFE WITH CHOGYAM TRUNGPA in Halifax, Nova Scotia. For continuing reports on the book tour and the activities of the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project, see the blog at ChogyamTrungpa.com All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo and used by permission. OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK now has 4,830 subscribers. Please send comments on and contributions to OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK to the list moderator, Carolyn Gimian at: carolyn@shambhala.com. Carolyn Rose Gimian

One's Conduct and one's dwelling

One's conduct and one's dwelling are one's own choice. Bound to none, one enjoys that happiness and contentment which even for a king is hard to find. --Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva

Questioning the meaning of life

QUESTIONING THE MEANING OF LIFE Buddha nature is not regarded as a peaceful state of mind or, for that matter, as a disturbed one either. It is a state of intelligence that questions our life and the meaning of life. It is the foundation of a search. A lot of things haven't been answered in our life -- and we are still searching for the questions. That questioning is buddha nature. It is a state of potential. The more dissatisfaction, the more questions, and more doubts there are, the healthier it is, for we are no longer sucked into ego-oriented situations, but we are constantly woken up.
From "Awakening Buddha Nature," in GLIMPSES OF MAHAYANA, page 19, published by Vajradhatu Publications. For a copy go to shambhalashop.com. All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo and used by permission. OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK now has 4,813 subscribers. Please send comments on and contributions to OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK to the list moderator, Carolyn Gimian at: carolyn@shambhala.com.

Gampopa

Great wisdom awareness will not arise where there is little accumulation of merit,
but on the other hand,
great wisdom awareness will arise
where there is great accumulation from generosity, moral ethics, and so forth,
and it will burn all the obscurations.

--Gampopa, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation.

Healthy Openness

HEALTHY OPENNESS

Student: Sometimes you can't be generous without harming either yourself or both yourself and the other person.

Chogyam Trungpa: The general idea is that, if you open yourself to what the given situation is, then you see its completely naked quality. You don't have to put up a defensive mechanism anymore, because you see through it and you know exactly what to do. You just deal with things, rather than defending yourself.

S: But then the feeling might be that you have to refuse somebody.

CT: Sure, yes. Openness doesn't necessarily mean that you have to make yourself available to the other person all the time. Openness is knowing the situation -- if it's healthy and helpful to the other person to involve yourself with them or if it is more healthy not to involve yourself, if showing this kind of commitment is not healthy for the other person. It works both ways. Openness doesn't mean you have to take everything in at all; you have a right to reject or accept -- but when you reject you don't close your self; you reject the situation. Whether you accept or reject it depends on whether it's a healthy situation for the other person or not; it's not purely what they want. Openness doesn't mean that you are doing purely what the other person wants. Their wantingness may not be particularly accurate....So you just work along with what's valuable there.

From TRANSCENDING MADNESS: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE SIX BARDOS edited by Judith Lief, pages 89-90

Be Friendly Towards Problems

BE FRIENDLY TOWARD PROBLEMS

To develop ahimsa, or the nonviolent approach, first of all you have to see that your problems are not really trying to destroy you. Usually, we immediately try to get rid of our problems. We think that there are forces operating against us and that we have to get rid of them. The important thing is to learn to be friendly toward our problems, by developing what is called metta in Pali, maitri in Sanskrit, or loving-kindness in English translation. All of these problems and difficulties are fundamentally generated from the concept of duality, or separateness. On the one hand, you are very aware of other and also very aware of yourself, and you want to do something to work with and make use of others. But you are unable to do this, because there is such a big gap between other and yourself. So a sense of threat or separation develops. That is the root of the problem.

From "The Martial Arts and the Art of War," in Volume Eight of THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, page 414.

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

OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK now has 4,802 subscribers.Please send comments on and contributions to OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK to the list moderator, Carolyn Gimian at: carolyn@shambhala.com.

Teaching Concerns Actual Experience

TEACHING CONCERNS ACTUAL EXPERIENCE

I decided to give up the robe, which I feel stood as a subtle obstacle to the formulation of my teaching in the West. The monk's robe confused many as a glorious image of spirituality. However, my teaching concerns actual experience. I don't feel that I need to hide behind something, though some people are critical of me for coming out and showing myself as a human being....But my role is a far deeper one than a mere cultural mission, a representative of the East to the West. I am not Tibetan but Human and my mission is to teach others as effectively as I can in this world in which I find myself.

>From a letter by Chogyam Trungpa written in 1970. The excerpts appear in DRAGON THUNDER: MY LIFE WITH CHOGYAM TRUNGPA. This excerpt was read by Diana J. Mukpo in her keynote address at the OCEAN OF DHARMA conference at Naropa University, now ongoing. To hear the speech, go to www.chroniclesproject.com. For a blog about the DRAGON THUNDER tour and Naropa conference by Carolyn Gimian, go to ChogyamTrungpa.com

There are many types of meditative stabilization

There are many types of meditative stabilisation, but let us explain calm abiding (samatha) here. The nature of calm abiding is the one-pointed abiding on any object without distraction of a mind conjoined with a bliss of physical and mental pliancy. If it is supplemented with taking refuge, it is a Buddhist practice; and if it is supplemented with an aspiration to highest enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, it is a Mahayana practice. Its merits are that, if one has achieved calm abiding, one's mind and body are pervaded by joy and bliss; one can--through the power of its mental and physical pliancy--set the mind on any virtuous object one chooses; and many special qualities such as clairvoyance and emanations are attained.

--from The Buddhism of Tibet by the Dalai Lama, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications

Perceptions

...perception cannot be packed down to form a solid foundation. Perceptions shift and float very much with the experience of life. -- Chogyam Trungpa. Orderly Chaos

The Mishap Lineage

Why does the contemplative tradition and tradition that I come from, the Practicing Lineage, or the Kagyü, exist? It is not just an accident or a matter of chance. Rather the whole thing is somewhat planned or programmed, to the extent that there is an intelligent awareness or a vision at work, of how a practitioners' lineage can exist and continue. As far as that vision is concerned, it is a prolonged sense of commitment to humanity and to working with the neurosis of humanity. The Practicing Lineage is not based on practitioners locking themselves up in their meditation cells so that they become social nuisances. But practitioners in our lineage also work with their commitment to their teacher and with surrendering, openness and devotion -- as well as with commitment to the rest of the world: all sentient beings.

From "The Mishap Lineage," in THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, Volume Five, page 340.

Thanks to Walter Fordham and the Chronicles of CTR Project for hosting and posting the audio excerpt from THE LINE OF THE TRUNGPAS, Talk Seven.

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo

When your hassled

Question: Do you have any suggestion as to how we can actually transmute when we are caught in the speed of a situation?....How is it possible to work at a rate of speed and still have any sanity about it?

Chogyam Trungpa: Well, it's overall view. When you are being hassled, you are reduced into a pinpoint, traditionally. You begin to become so small, that you are hassled by the giant situations that begin to close in on you. You are afraid about your timetable, scheduling, and everything. Whereas if you take a greater view at that point, then you are no longer that small. You can cover a lot of areas. You can extend your tentacles greater that way, so that you have some sort of stronghold, or at least some kind of clear vision of where you're coming from. You are not just being bounced back and forth like a ping-pong ball by the mercy of the situation on your ping-pong table. When you're hassled, there's a tendency to become small. So the opposite approach, in this case, is like taming and entering: when you're hassled, you have to become bigger, so you can't be bounced around.

From COLLECTED VAJRA ASSEMBLIES: VOLUME ONE, pages 240 to 241.

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo

This is my simple religon

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples, there is no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is the temple; the philosophy is kindness. --HH XIV Dalai Lama

The Main 4 Types of Giving

The 4 Main Kinds Of Giving:
1. Giving material things: giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to those who haven't any, and things to the poor and needy.
2. Giving protection: offering refuge to those who are frightened, medicine to the sick, and so forth.
3. Giving love: comforting the unhappy. With great love we can give away our things and even our body.
4. Giving Dharma: whispering into the ears of sentient beings the names of Buddha, holy syllables, and mantras, or giving Dharma teachings and instructions to those who desire them, and so on.
--H.E. Kalu Rinpoche Dorje Chang, from: Luminous Mind - The Way Of The Buddha, Wisdom Publishing

Dreams, Sleep and the Inner Landscape

An Interview with Dr. Yeshe Dhonden (circa 1985) on Dreams, Sleep, and the Inner Landscape From The Point of View of Tibetan Medicine
http://jcrows.com/drd.html

Saraha

To leave aside your own nature and search elsewhere is extremely deluded. --Saraha, Three Cycles of Dohas

Make Friends with fear

MAKE FRIENDS WITH FEAR

In order to understand the notion of fearlessness, one has to understand fear itself. Fear is a trembling, shaky feeling of being afraid of nonexistence....Such fear is not necessarily regarded as problematic. It is like an attack of sneezing. But you have to study your fear, definitely: how it arises, how it manifests, and how it is actualized. When you begin to understand such fear, then you begin to find that it is almost a big joke. But you shouldn't try to cast fear out. Fear should be regarded as the kindling you use to build a big fire of fearlessness. So you have to understand fear as the starting point of fearlessness. Fear is not regarded as black, and fearlessness is not regarded as white. You have to make friends with fear.

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo

Sacredness and Society

SACREDNESS AND SOCIETY Sacredness is like putting on a fur coat in the biting cold of winter. Sacredness fulfills its purposes, and it also brings cheerfulness and goodness into our system so that we don't pollute the world. Sacredness is what allows us to say that the Shambhala principles can create an enlightened society. For instance, before we came into this room and before the banners were put up, this room was quite different. Now the banners have been put up and we are here, and that changes the atmosphere, the general dignity of the space all together. That is the notion of sacredness, at least in a superficial sense. rom "The Warrior's Way," a sourcebook for Shambhala Training, page 11. [Monday's quote, Making Friends with Fear, was also from this sourcebook.] All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo

SACREDNESS AND SUPERSTITION

SACREDNESS AND SUPERSTITION

There is a great deal of difference between sacredness and superstition. Superstition is believing something that you've been told, such as that, if somebody drops a rotten egg on your head, it is bad luck. Superstition has no foundation in basic practice. Sacredness, however, is like the experience when you look at pure gold: you get some transmission of pure goldness because gold IS pure and good. Similarly, when you converse with a person of great wisdom, the conversation doesn't necessarily have to be profound per se -- it could just be "hello" and "good-bye" -- but you experience the basic nature of goodness coming out of that person.

From "The Warrior's Way," a sourcebook for Shambhala Training, page 11.

All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo

Action Alert!->Proposed DEA Change in the regulation of Lugol's Solution of Iodine

There is a propsed DEA change in the regulation of products containing iodine and the corresponding thresholds that would be exempt and not exempt if the propsed Listing changes are put into effect.
It is neccessary to comment professionally and scientifically to the DEA and have them refrain from implementing the proposal as outlined.
There is a comment window open until Oct 10 2006. This may be done online. dea.diversion.policy@usdoj.gov or http://www.regulations.gov
The DEA's own statistics, in the proposal, show a decrease in seizures of iodine for illegal purposes.
The exisiting law, cited in the proposal, seems responsible and thorough as stated. I would like to see the industry and individuals defend the exisiting thresholds or suggest a slight modification to regulate only those thresholds above the original formulation for Lugol's Solution i.e.5% Iodine and 10% Potassium Iodide. The original Lugol's Solution of Iodine formula should remain available as the law now allows. It has been used for many worthwhile purposes for over 120 years. Please utilize whatever professional and legal channels may be available to you, for those of us interested in keeping the product and its legitimate use in science, education, and industry in continued use.
the proposal:
http://www.jcrows.com/iodinealert.html

Gently Whispered

One does not have to feel totally at the mercy of one's emotion. It is only when acquiescing to the emotion, or investing the emotion with the falsehood of reality, that one is forced to play out the consequences. --Kalu Rinpoche, Gently Whispered

Personally speaking I have never been put off

"Personally speaking I have never been put off. I never give up at all. I am not going to give up the cause of peace that might occur in this world. And I am looking forward to it in some sense. The more chaos happens, I feel more possibility of creating greater peace, and when I see more aggression, more chaos, I feel more encouraged. That is, my smile is never diminished. I always smile." -- Chogyam Trungpa (speaking to a Nova Scotia audience in 1982)

You can appreciate your life, even if it is an imperfect situation.

You can appreciate your life, even if it is an imperfect situation. Perhaps your apartment is run down and your furniture is old and inexpensive. You do not have to live in a palace. You can relax and let go wherever you are. Wherever you are, it is a palace. -- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

War, sadly, has remained a part of human history up to the present,

War, sadly, has remained a part of human history up to the present, but I think the time has come to change the concepts that lead to war. Some people consider war to be something glorious; they think that through war they can become heroes. This attitude toward war is very wrong. Recently an interviewer remarked to me, "Westerners have a great fear of death, but Easterners seem to have very little fear of death." To that I half-jokingly responded, "It seems to me that, to the Western mind, war and the military establishment are extremely important. War means death--by killing, not by natural causes. So it seems that, in fact, you are the ones who do not fear death, because you are so fond of war. We Easterners, particularly Tibetans, cannot even begin to consider war; we cannot conceive of fighting, because the inevitable result of war is disaster: death, injuries, and misery. Therefore, the concept of war, in our minds, is extremely negative. That would seem to mean we actually have more fear of death than you. Don't you think?" --from The Compassionate Life by Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

APPRECIATE THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF YOUR ANCESTORS

APPRECIATE THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF YOUR ANCESTORS

We should not ignore the contributions of the past. The failure to appreciate the resourcefulness of human existence -- which we call basic goodness --has become one of the world's biggest problems. However, we need to find the link between tradition and the present experience of life. NOWNESS, or the magic of the present moment, is what joins the wisdom of the past with the present. When you appreciate a painting, a piece of music, or a work of literature, no matter when it was created, you appreciate it NOW. You experience the same nowness in which is was created. It is always NOW.

Slogan 34, in SHAMBHALA THE SACRED PATH OF THE WARRIOR BOOK AND CARD SET. Available at a 20% discount at Shambhala.com: http://shambhala.com/html/catalog/items/isbn/1-59030-177-3.cfm

Milarepa

Having meditated on love and compassion,
I forgot the difference between myself and others.
Having mediated upon my lama, I forgot those who are influential and powerful
Having meditated on the yidam, I forgot the coarse world of the senses.
Having meditated on the instruction of the secret tradition, I forgot the books of dialectic. Having tasted the joys of solitude, I forgot the need to please my relatives and friends.
Having assimilated the teaching in the stream of my consciousness, I forgot to engage in doctrinal polemics.
Having lived in humility in body and mind, I forgot the disdain and arrogance of the great. Having made a monastery within my body, I forgot the monastery outside.
Having embraced the spirit rather than the letter, I forgot how to play with words. --Jetsun Milarepa

Your Present Naked Awarened

5. Your present naked awareness How amazing! Your present, naked awareness-- Unspoiled by thoughts of past, present, or future, Not fettered by mind grasping to so-called "meditation" Nor falling into a pervasive blankness of so-called "non-meditation"-- The natural state nakedly sustained, Is the practice of Great Perfection. Regardless of what thoughts arise during that practice, To reject negative ones or foster positive ones is unnecessary. Mere recognition liberates them in their own ground. Take this liberation upon arising as the path's key point. Destroy whatever meditative experiences arise, and relax. A tantric practitioner without fixation is deeply content. You've reached your goal of contentment right now. What is the use of numerous enumerations of Buddha's teachings When you discover Buddha Kuntu Zangpo within yourself? Keep the meaning of these words close to your heart. --from Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice by Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, translated by Ron Garry, a Tsadra Foundation Series book published by Snow Lion Publications

George Lucas

Train yourself to let go of what you fear to lose...

--George Lucas, Star Wars III (One of Mingyur Rinpoche's favorite movies.)

Be ever mindful of the shortcomings of desire's rewards

Be ever mindful of the shortcomings of desire's rewards, and know that all the phenomena of the cycle of existence are never still, like the ripples on a pond, and that these manifestations of delusion which are no things in themselves are like magic and dreams. When you have the determination to be free of samsara and are content with your material situation, you will be able to sit quietly with your mind happy and at ease. --Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche, The Writings of Kalu Rinpoche

A Question of Geography

A QUESTION OF GEOGRAPHY

Student: Tonight you mentioned the emphasis hundreds of years ago on students practicing meditation in
their caves. What is the real difference between the experience of a practitioner then and our experience
now?

Chogyam Trungpa: There’s not very much difference. The main difference is that they heard different
noises then. These days we might hear airplanes flying above, and in those days, they might have heard
flies buzzing about….In actual reality, as far as the living situation is concerned, it’s essentially the same,
then and now. In those days, caves were routinely used for sitting practice, not for romantic reasons but
because, in that geographical area, there were lots of caves. You didn't have to spend money to build a
cabin; there were holes in the mountains already. You just went and lived there. Nowadays, we can't find
many holes in the mountains around here, so we have to build retreat cabins. It’s simply a question of
geography.
Actually things haven't changed that much. We might romanticize the "good old days," but if you were
there right now, you wouldn't think that those were the "good old days" at all. You would have the same
experience then as now, anyway. It’s just a gap in time, a time lapse.

From "Trungmase and the Three Idiots," Talk Three in THE LINE OF THE TRUNGPAS, an
unpublished manuscript being edited for publication. Forthcoming in 2007 from Vajradhatu Publications.

Chogyam Trungpa

The real function of a spiritual friend, is to insult you... --Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Patrul Rinpoche

...however fully you have realized in your view the nature of reality, you must pay minute attention to your actions and their effects. -- Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher

Saraha

If the mind twisted into knots is loosened, It is undoubtedly freed.
Saraha, Song for the People

Do not regard the thoughts in your mind as things to be rejected

Do not regard the thoughts in your mind as things to be rejected/ Do not deliberately create nonceptuality. Post the watchman of mindfulness, and rest.

-- Gyalwa Yang Gönpa

The Sevenfold Cause-and-Effect Method

The Sevenfold Cause-and-Effect Method If we have been reborn time after time, it is evident that we have needed many mothers to give birth to us. ...the first cause bringing about bodhicitta is the recognition that all beings have been our mother. The love and kindness shown us by our mother in this life would be difficult to repay. She endured many sleepless nights to care for us when we were helpless infants. She fed us and would have willingly sacrificed everything, including her own life, to spare ours. As we contemplate her example of devoted love, we should consider that each and every being throughout existence has treated us this way. Each dog, cat, fish, fly, and human being has at some point in the beginningless past been our mother and shown us overwhelming love and kindness. Such a thought should bring about our appreciation. This is the second cause of bodhicitta. As we envision the present condition of all these beings, we begin to develop the desire to help them change their lot. This is the third cause, and out of it comes the fourth, a feeling of love cherishing all beings. This is an attraction toward all beings, similar to what a child feels upon seeing his or her mother. This leads us to compassion, which is the fifth cause of bodhicitta. Compassion is a wish to separate these suffering beings, our mothers of the past, from their miserable situation. At this point we also experience loving-kindness, a wish that all beings find happiness. As we progress through these stages of responsibility, we go from wishing that all sentient beings find happiness and freedom from suffering to personally assuming responsibility for helping them enter this state beyond misery. This is the final cause. As we scrutinize how best to help others, we are drawn to achieving the fully enlightened and omniscient state of Buddhahood. --from An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life by The Dalai Lama, edited by Nicholas Vreeland

Just as the pattern of colors in a peacock's feathers

Just as the pattern of colors in a peacock's feathers are due to poison, may the afflictions be transformed into the aids to enlightenment by my taking on the physical, verbal, and mental deeds of other living beings past, present, and future.

--Dharmaraksita

Ultimately, every state of existence

Ultimately, every state of existence that we or any other being in the universe experiences arises from the mind and is experienced by the mind as its own projection.

--Kalu Rinpoche, The Gem Ornament of Manifold Oral Instructions

How then does the mistaken idea, that things exist from their own side, operate?

How then does the mistaken idea, that things exist from their own side, operate? Whatever appears to the mind appears as if it existed truly from its own side. ...Now if the object existed as it appears to you, then, when you searched for it, you could actually find a real [object]. So, we must ask ourselves whether or not this object, when searched for, is to be found or not. If the object is not found when it is searched for, we must conclude that it does not exist from its own side, that when the label is applied to its basis, it is not so labeled because the basis somehow bears within it something which is the object. At this point, one must conclude that the object does not exist as it appears to, but then, one may wonder whether it exists at all.

Things, however, are not utterly non-existent. They do exist nominally. So things do exist, but they do not exist from the side of the basis of the label. And hence, though they do exist, because they do not exist within the object itself, they must exist only as they are labeled by the subject (the conceptual mind, for example). There is no other way for the object to exist apart from the way it is posited by conceptual thought. This is then what we mean when we say that all phenomena are merely labeled by conceptual thought. However, things do not appear to us as if they were mere conceptually labeled entities. Instead, they appear as if they existed from their own side. Therefore, it is a mistake to think that things exist as they appear.

--from Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists by The Dalai Lama, edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications

Samsara is not always pleasant

Samsara is not always pleasant; it is made up of a lot of suffering and problems. When they have problems, some people get upset immediately. Why? Because they do not notice or understand what the condition of samsara is like. If, for example, you are aware that you are in samsara, you know what the situation of samsara is like, when you have a problem there is no reason for you to be too upset. Of course if you have some problems, it isn't very nice. You are not happy but you know what the situation is like so you can accept it the way it is and do your best to overcome and diminish problems. This way you don't get charged up and accumulate tensions. Even when there are problems, they become lighter instead of heavier. This is called: knowing how the situation or the condition is. --Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche

There isn't a single one of us who has never felt hostile and angry

There isn't a single one of us who has never felt hostile and angry, so we know about the effects of anger. Does it make us feel better or worse? It stirs us up, makes us miserable and destroys our tranquillity. It is quite easy to recognize anger as a foe and to see how it harms us because its destructiveness is apparent. But we find it much harder and are also reluctant to acknowledge the harm done by attachment because it is a foe masquerading as a friend. When desire or attachment first arises, it feels quite pleasurable but eventually it lands us in trouble. It wants to possess what it has fabricated and we reach out for something which, in fact, does not exist. Failure to get what we want frustrates us and anger quickly follows. The third of the poisons, confusion or ignorance, simply stimulates desire and anger and lies at the root of all the disturbing emotions. --from Eight Verses for Training the Mind by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications

When the mind is realized

When the mind is realized, that is the buddha. Meditate with the recognition that there is nowhere else to seek the buddha.

--Wisdom of the Passing Moment Sutra

The fruit of the perfect Buddha's teachings

The fruit of the perfect Buddha's teachings,
Will not be accomplished by merely listening to them.

--Anonymous quote in The Ocean of Definitive Meaning

The buddha abides in your own body

The buddha abides in your own body;
There is no buddha anywhere else.
Those who are obscured by ignorance and delusion
Believe that the buddha is somewhere other than the body.

--Samputa Tantra

Nagarjuna

By gazing at the center of space, seeing ceases.
Likewise, when mind looks at mind,
Thoughts cease and unexcelled awakening is attained.

--Nagarjuna, Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way

A past life story of a teacher is an enlightening practice for posterity

Shakyamuni Buddha, even when he was a trainee on the path, was solely concerned in both thought and action with others' welfare. Whenever he found an opportunity to work for others, no matter what difficulties he faced, he was never discouraged. He never hated obstacles and hardships encountered on the way. Instead, the difficult situations facilitated his being more courageous and determined to accomplish others' welfare. Just because he was so determined to work for others in the past, even as a trainee on the path, it is needless to say how much more it is so with him now as a completely enlightened person.

As the saying goes, "A past life story of a teacher is an enlightening practice for posterity."

--from Generous Wisdom: Commentaries of His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV on the Jatakamala Garland of Birth Stories translated by Tenzin Dorjee, edited by Dexter Roberts

In absolute terms, each moment of experience

In absolute terms, each moment of experience is empty of a difference in nature of perceiver and perceived. Rather than regarding consciousness merely as the seeing or observing aspect of a moment of experience, it is also the content of that experience. -- Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness

Arousing One's Spirit

AROUSING ONE'S SPIRIT Spirituality is simply a means of arousing one's spirit, of developing a kind of spiritedness. Through that you begin to have greater contact with reality. You are not afraid of discovering what reality is all about, and you are willing to explore your individual energy. You actually choose to work with the essence of your existence, which could be called genuineness. An interest in spirituality doesn't mean that you lack something, or that you have developed a black hole in your existence which you are trying to compensate for or cover over with some sort of religious patchwork. It simply means that you are capable of dealing with reality. --CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, From: Volume Two of THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA

Intentions, Vows and Practice

An interviewer once asked Maezumi Roshi if Buddhists believed in somethinglike a soul that continued after death. Maezumi Roshi said, "No. It is thevow that continues." A vow is like a seal that imprints itself on the wetclay of another emerging life, but it is more than a passive seal. It has apropelling energy. It propels us into the search for an end to suffering andinto finding ways to help each other. Finally, when all the various schemeswe have developed to do those things fail, it propels us into practice. All Buddhist practices involve vows. At the Zen Center we chant the FourGreat Bodhisattva Vows every day:

Beings are numberless, I vow to free them.Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them.Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them.Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to embody it.

Over the years we have chanted vows like these hundreds, thousands of times.It does not matter if the vows where made when we where half-asleep or if wedidn't quite understand them. We have made these promises and now the jig isup, the promissory note is due. This explains the common feeling peoplehave. " I don't know why I practice, I just have to." "Something iscompelling me to do this practice." The ongoing vow operates below theconscious mind. It is very important to shape and say our vows. MaezumiRoshi recommended starting each day with vows. There are many possiblevows.They can be a simple. "I vow to do what I can to relieve suffering." "Ivow to do what needs to be done to awaken fully, even if I'm afraid attimes." "I vow to open my mind and hands and let go of what needs to bedropped for me and others to be free." Vows can be formal and part of aritual. They can be simple and spontaneous. What is important is to vow. Atthat point the things that are needed for the vow to be fulfilled begin toflow toward us.

http://www.zendust.org/jizo/jizo.html

To Remain Human

TO REMAIN HUMAN

Mindfulness of body has to do with trying to remain human, rather than becoming an animal or fly or etheric being.
It means just trying to remain a human being, an ordinary human being.
The basic starting point for this is solidness, groundedness.
When you sit you actually sit. Even your floating thoughts begin to sit on their own bottoms.

From "The Four Foundations of Mindfulness," in THE SANITY WE ARE BORN WITH, page 27.

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

Having Faith and Compassion

Having faith and compassion, even if one has no great knowledge of the
Dharma and no opportunity to practice much, the day will come when one
ceases to wander in the cycle of existence.

--Kalu Rinpoche, Secret Buddhism

Do not seek a delightfully blissful mind

Do not seek a a quietly resting, vividly clear, and delightfully blissful mind. Practice with whatever arises without accepting or rejecting anything.

-- Orgyenpa

Motivation is a kind of alchemy

"Motivation is a kind of alchemy which transmutes actions into
something positive or negative. Everything we do—having breakfast,
sleeping, whatever—can be transmuted into dharma [pure, religious or
spiritual] action. We may be involved in an activity we do not consider
to be dharma, like cooking for example, but cooking can be transformed
into dharma. How? Through motivation. The right kind of motivation can
transform any action into dharma."

For the full article see:
http://www.snowlionpub.com/pages/N72_12.php

When you are convinced that all exits are blocked

"When you are convinced that all the exits are blocked, either you take tobelieving in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird. The miracleis that the honey is always there, right under your nose, only you were toobusy searching elsewhere to realize it. The worst is not death but beingblind, blind to the fact that everything about life is in the nature of themiraculous."

Henry Miller

if we see others in trouble

...if we see others in trouble, although we cannot immediately take their suffering upon ourselves, we should make the wish to be able to relieve them from their misfortunes. Prayers like this will bear fruit eventually. Again, if others have very strong afflictive emotions, we should think, 'May all their emotions be concentrated in me.' With fervent conviction, we should persist in thinking like this until we have some sign or feeling that we have been able to take upon ourselves the suffering and emotions of others. This might take the form of an increase in our own emotions or of the actual experience of the suffering and pain of others. This is how to bring hardships onto the path in order to free ourselves from hopes and fears--hopes, for instance, that we will not get ill, or fears that we might do so. They will thus be pacified in the equal taste of happiness and suffering. Eventually, through the power of Bodhichitta, we will reach the point where we are free even from the hope of accomplishing Bodhichitta and the fear of not doing so. Therefore we should have love for our enemies and try as much as possible to avoid getting angry with them, or harbouring any negative thoughts towards them. We should also try as much as possible to overcome our biased attachment to family and relatives. If you bind a crooked tree to a large wooden stake, it will eventually grow straight. Up to now, our minds have always been crooked, thinking how we might trick and mislead people, but this [Bodhichitta] practice, as Geshe Langri Tangpa said, will make our minds straight and true. --from Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven Point Mind Training by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group, published by Snow Lion Publications

Dalai Lama Quote of the week

Dalai Lama Quote of the Week Q: ...what is the nature of the mindstream that reincarnates from lifetime to lifetime? A: ...If one understands the term "soul" as a continuum of individuality from moment to moment, from lifetime to lifetime, then one can say that Buddhism also accepts a concept of soul; there is a kind of continuum of consciousness. rom that point of view, the debate on whether or not there is a soul becomes strictly semantic. However, in the Buddhist doctrine of selflessness, or "no soul" theory, the understanding is that there is no eternal, unchanging, abiding, permanent self called "soul." That is what is being denied in Buddhism. Buddhism does not deny the continuum of consciousness. Because of this, we find some Tibetan scholars, such as the Sakya master Rendawa, who accept that there is such a thing as self or soul, the "kangsak ki dak" (Tib. gang zag gi bdag). However, the same word, the "kangsak ki dak," the self, or person, or personal self, or identity, is at the same time denied by many other scholars. We find diverse opinions, even among Buddhist scholars, as to what exactly the nature of self is, what exactly that thing or entity is that continues from one moment to the next moment, from one lifetime to the next lifetime. Some try to locate it within the aggregates, the composite of body and mind. Some explain it in terms of a designation based on the body and mind composite, and so on.... One of the divisions of [the "Mind-Only"] school maintains there is a special continuum of consciousness called alayavijnana which is the fundamental consciousness. --from Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective by the Dalai Lama, translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, published by Snow Lion Publications

Fearlessness and Speed

Fearlessness is the absence of cowardice. That is to say, cowardice, or uncertainty, comes from speed, from not being on the spot, and from not being able to lead life properly and fully. You miss a lot of details, and you also miss the overview. To correct that, you need ROOM for fearlessness, which comes from having faith in your existence. Basically speaking, fearlessness is not particularly a reward or a goal, but fearlessness is part of the journey on the path. Fearlessness alternates with fear, and both of those are kindling for the fire. You are nervous, speedy, fearful. Then that brings another area of steadiness, solidity, and calm. So fear and fearlessness constantly alternate. rom "Sacredness: Natural Law and Order," in GREAT EASTERN SUN: THE WISDOM OF SHAMBHALA, page 90. All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo

reflect upon the horros of the states of sorrow

Reflect upon the horrors of the states of sorrow! Weapons, poisons, fires, and yawning chasms, Hostile foes-these worldly pains are slight Compared with what we get as fruit of our desire! And so, revolted by our lust and wanting, Let us now rejoice in solitude, In places where all strife and conflict cease, The peace and stillness of the greenwood. --Shantideva, The Way Of The Bodhisattva, Pg. 122, Shambhala Publications

If my acts are wholesome

If my acts are wholesome, mirroring my mind, Then no matter where I turn my steps, Respect and honor will be paid to me, The fruit and recompense of merit.

But if, in search of happiness, my works are evil, Then no matter where I turn my steps, The knives of misery will cut me down- The wage and retribution of a sinful life.

--Shantideva, The Way Of The Bodhisattva, Pg. 104, Shambhala Publications

An appearance can only exist if

An appearance can only exist if there is a mind that beholds it. The
'beholding' of that appearance is nothing other than experience; that is
what actually takes place...All the elements are vividly distinguished as
long as the mind fixates on them. Yet they are nothing but a mere presence,
an appearance. When the mind doesn't apprehend, hold, or fixate on what is
experienced...'reality' loses its solid, obstructing quality.


--Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Milarepa

You, young men and women here, Don't think that death will come little by little; It comes fast as lightning.

--From: The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa

Kalu Rinpoche

Bless me that my mind may merge with yours; Inspire me to renounce ego's hold; Bless me that I may experience true contentment; Bless me that I may experience loving-kindness and compassion; Bless me that I may give rise to sincere devotion; Bless me that I may cut off pervasive thoughts; Bless me that I may pacify confusion in it's own ground; Bless me that I may perceive ultimate reality, Mahamudra; Bless me that I may attain Buddhahood in this very life.

--Supplication to the Lama, by Kalu Rinpoche

From: Timeless Rapture, Pg. 196, Published by Snow Lion

The essence of samsara

The essence of samsara is this tendency to seek pleasure and avoid pain, to seek security and avoid groundlessness, to seek comfort and avoid discomfort. The basic teaching is that that is how we keep ourselves miserable, unhappy, and stuck in a very small, limited view of reality.

--Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape, Shambhala Publications

To make things as easy as possible to understand

To make things as easy as possible to understand, we can summarize the four boundless qualities in the single phrase - "a kind heart." Just train yourself to have a kind heart always, and in all situations.

--Patrul Rinpoche