[OceanofDharma] Quotes of the Week: Don't Try to Be Artistic

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

December  30, 2007

DON'T TRY TO BE ARTISTIC

The whole philosophy of art is that you don't try to be artistic but you just approach the objects as they are, and then the message comes automatically. You do the same thing in Japanese flower arrangements. You don't try to be artistic; you just chop off certain twigs and certain branches which seem to be out of line with the flow. You just cut them off and then you put the remaining twigs there in the arrangement, and you put the flowers underneath, and it automatically becomes a whole landscape. Similarly, when you look at a painting by a great artist, it doesn't look like someone actually painted it, but it just seemed to happen by itself. There's no gap, no cracks at all. It's one unit, complete.

From "Visual Dharma: Film Workshop," in the COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, Volume Seven, pages 642-643.

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Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications,  the Archive of his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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The Boy without a Name, Part Two

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

December  26, 2007

[Part One was sent out on Christmas Eve. The story appears to be unfinished. If you find yourself with extra time in the next week and you'd like to finish the story -- or at least a chapter of it -- please send me your work. I'll post all the endings to the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project blog in the new year. Let me know if I can use your name or if you want to remain anonymous. Carolyn Gimian, Moderator]

THE BOY WITHOUT A NAME, Part Two

....I don't really have a home and I never spend more than ten days in one place. Originally I came from East Tibet and I traveled westwards to the lands of Lho and Mon. Grown-ups tend to stay in the same place for a long time and when they do travel they're so busy they never have time to look at the valleys and mountains around them. They don't even notice the interesting stones on the road, or the flowers, but just trample over them.
Of course they never have time to play and all they talk about is how many silver coins they've got and how many yaks their neighbor has. If you ask them to tell you about Lhasa they only know about the big shops in the Barko Market and things like that. They don't seem to know about the birds' nests under the edge of the roofs and the millions of insects that live in the city, beside themselves. So the only way I can see them is by going there myself.
        Tibet is such a beautiful country and each part of it has its own particular quality. There are lots of mountains and lakes and trees and things. There are so many things to see that my journey may take me a hundred years. The grown-ups race and fight against time, but for me time is a friend and I have no need to hurry.
            Today is the first day of my journey, so here I am, playing in the road.  I've only traveled 50 yards or so, but it would take the grown-ups ten years to learn what I've learned in this one day. When I looked up and saw the snow'mountain on the other side of the river, I composed the following song:  

O pillar of the sky, you high-peaked mountain of Tibet,

You're surrounded by hills with flowering shrubs and many kinds

      of herbs,

But your all-aloneness and your stillness still show through

As you wrap your peaceful cloud around your neck.

 

            The peak of this mountain pierces the sky and his snowcap glitters in the sun. The clouds move slowly across his shoulders, and when you see him, it's as though you see the whole of Tibet in one glance. I spent the whole morning looking at the mountain, but it's

impossible to understand it all. Sometimes he seems to be smiling in the brilliant sunlight, and sometimes he stands solemn and aloof while snow storms rage around him. Occasionally he shows himself in all simplicity, without adornments, and at times like those, one sees him directly and feels very close to him. His stillness and dignity are always there and remain untouched by the changing seasons. The days and months of the year don't really affect him. This mountain seems to have a kind and compassionate nature, as he allows all kinds of birds and animals to live on him and to feed off his body. But I felt I should know more about him, so I stopped to ask a magpie who was perching

on a rock.

                 �Tashi delly,� I said. (That�s how we greet people in Tibet.)

                 �Tashi delly,� said the magpie in a rather suspicious tone of voice.

                 "I wonder if you�d be very kind,"� said I, "and answer some questions for me.�

                 "I haven't time to waste on chattering with you," said the magpie, "I'm busy looking for food. And in any case you humans are usually full of trickery and you might be planning to kill me....�

From the archive of the unpublished poetry of Chogyam Trungpa.

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.
TO SUBSCRIBE visit the Chogyam Trungpa website by clicking on the following link: http://OceanofDharma.com

THE BOY WITHOUT A NAME or THE BOY WHO LIVED BY HIMSELF

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

December 24, 2007

[It's Christmas Eve, so I thought a story might be in order as a gift
to Ocean of Dharma readers. This one appears in the archives of
Chogyam Trungpa's unpublished poetry. There is no date given for when
it was composed, and I don't know the circumstances behind the
writing of this story! Because the story is long, I'm sending part
one today and part two on Boxing Day, December 26.
The story appears to be unfinished. If you find yourself
with extra time in the next week and you'd like to finish the story
-- or at least a chapter of it -- please send me your work. I'll post
all the endings to the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project blog in the new
year. Let me know if I can use your name or if you want to remain
anonymous. If you know anything about the history of this little
story, please write and share it with us. Wishing you all a good
holiday and end of the year, however you celebrate it. Carolyn
Gimian, Moderator]


THE BOY WITHOUT A NAME or THE BOY WHO LIVED BY HIMSELF

I am the boy who lives by himself. I don't do anything in
particular, I just live that's the way I am. I spend my life playing
and I make up my own toys. I have no one to play with. The sort of
things that interest me are stones and rivers and trees and clouds.
Since long ago I have had no parents or brothers and sisters, so I
just live alone. Sometimes I want to do like the grown-ups, but then
I realize there's no point in that. I have my own world to live
in, and I'm known as "the boy who lives by himself."
When I was born, no one gave me a name. Perhaps my
parents did give me a name, but somehow it never entered my mind. So
I remain nameless. Grown-ups like giving each other names. And they
like inventing names for objects as well, without stopping to
consider whether the name really fits the thing or not. They learn
these names by heart and write them down.
Once a friend of mine was given a name by his father and
a different name by his mother. His father's friends called him by
one name and his mother's friends called him by the other, and this
rather confused him. As a result he wasn't quite sure which was his
real self. This bothered him for a long time, until one day I
suggested to him that he should be nameless like me. At first he
didn't like the idea. He said, "If I didn't have a name, how would I
know who I am?" I found it difficult to explain to him in words, so
I just said "Well, why don't you give it a try and see what it's
like?" So he did. But this upset his parents
very much because he no longer answered to the names they had given him.
Now he was able to see what his nameless self was really
like and he became like a tiger who has broken his chain....

End of Part One.


From the archive of the unpublished poetry of Chogyam Trungpa.

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

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

Carolyn Rose Gimian

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

DAWN OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

December 20, 2007

DAWN OF ENLIGHTENMENT

A Solstice Quote

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

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

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

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OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK to the list
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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.
TO SUBSCRIBE visit the Chogyam Trungpa website by
clicking on the following link: http://OceanofDharma.com

MONEY AS MOTHER'S MILK

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

December 16, 2007

MONEY AS MOTHER'S MILK

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

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

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

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

Carolyn Rose Gimian

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

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

December 13, 2007

NATURALLY RICH

When I'm dressing, sometimes my friend, Mr. P., says to me, "You
can't wear that shirt for the fourth time," I say, "Of course I can."
I've worn a single shirt many times, and it has looked fine. That's
what we call merit. Merit means that somebody deserves that kind of
manifestation. A person doesn't have to be extravagant in order to
manifest wealth, but he or she does have to have some karmic sense of
basic sanity, worthwhileness...We tend to borrow the concepts of how
people have made money in the past. Obviously, we are born naturally
rich, but at the same time, from a Buddhist point of view, we have
forgotten the merit involved, the fact that we are glowing as we are,
wearing our shirt for the eighth time!

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

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

OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES OF THE WEEK now has 5, 083 subscribers.
Please send comments on and contributions to OCEAN OF DHARMA QUOTES
OF THE WEEK to the list moderator, Carolyn Gimian at: carolyn at shambhala.com.

Carolyn Rose Gimian

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

THE RICHNESS OF THE BUDDHA

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

[Of interest to subscribers: Only two days left in the Shambhala Sun
Foundation's auction. An original calligraphy by Chogyam Trungpa is
one of the items. It's rare that one becomes available. Please see
information below.]

December 10, 2007

THE RICHNESS OF THE BUDDHA

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

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

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

THE FIRST WAKEFULNESS

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

[Of interest to subscribers: Only five days left in the the Shambhala
Sun Foundation's auction. An original calligraphy by Chogyam Trungpa
is one of the items. It's rare that one becomes available. Please see
information below.]

December 7, 2007

THE FIRST WAKEFULNESS

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

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

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